I love my husband, I truly do – but sometimes I just can’t for the life of me understand the man!

For all the fuss I make about unsolicited touches to my belly, the one person I want to touch it, aside from myself, is my husband.

I’ve practically had to beg him to touch (or even look at!) my belly nearly every time little one gets a good stompin’ and punchin’ going, in the hopes that he can feel the baby and make a connection too. All the books say that this is a great way to get your partner involved with your pregnancy, so I’ve been really trying to get him engaged.

Which is why I don’t understand why when I ask him to touch my belly, he moans and groans (just a little bit), and then huffs and puffs that he can’t feel anything anyways – which seems like a load of bull to me, given how intense our little one’s movements have been getting lately. But I have to take his word.

I’ll even try giving him an audible cue when the baby kicks – ‘Did you feel that? That was a big one’ – to which he will  exasperatedly respond that he feels (or sees) nothing. My stomach is moving like a scene straight out of some alien sci-fi movie and he CAN’T SEE ANYTHING?!

Which gets my overly sensitive mommy-to-be brain wondering… does he feel nothing for this baby? Is he not making an effort to feels these no-longer-subtle movements? And even: WHY CAN’T HE SIMPLY LIE TO ME AND SAY YES, HE CAN FEEL THE KICKS, so that I can be happy he’s feeling involved?!

I realize I’m completely overreacting… I know he’s just as excited (OK, maybe a tad less than I am) about becoming a parent, and he’s fully committed– I just wish he could enjoy as much excitement from our baby’s movements as I do. It almost feels selfish in a way that I get to experience them so much and he’s missing out. I’ve been feeling them for so many weeks now, I just wish he could too.

Maybe one of these days little one will finally give him a good kick or punch, and he’ll know for certain that was definitely our baby…

Mamas (and papas): How soon could your partner feel little ones movements?

Photo via: harinaivoteza, Flickr.com