The hand that rocks the cradle also predicts the weather

I don't care who you are, what you drive, what you have for breakfast, whether you get enough exercise or whether a trip to the BuySumMor for more Ho-Hos leaves you drained and gasping. Whether you're rich as hell or poor as a churchmouse, unless your name is Dolly The Sheep, you had a mother.  You know, a woman who carried you around for nine months of gestation.

In my case, as I am fond of saying, my mother never had morning sickness until after I was born.

But seriously, folks, all of us sitting here doing whatever we're doing were born of women who deserve at least a little thanks for the ride.  It's not easy carrying another person for 3/4 of a year, although I do know a guy who has been carrying his brother-in-law since 1977.

So, since we all took Biology and Family Living classes, why is anyone shocked to see that a pregnant woman looks pregnant? And that a woman about to give birth to twins looks like she has two little babies in her womb until the time is right for them to come out and join us?  And, in case no one has noticed the calendar has flipped over a lot since the 1950s, women don't wear those maternity gowns like Lucy Ricardo did, the tent tops that tried to curtain off the area of interest.

Katie Fehlinger is the meteorologist at Channel 3 in Philadelphia - the City of Brotherly Love, and she has had about a bellyful of snarky remarkys about the fact that she is in the family way.

Viewers have been kindly sending insults her way, now that we live in this era of telling anyone on earth how we feel about them without even needing a stamp.  She gets Facebook feedback and emails saying such sweet things as "you look like a sausage in casing."

How precious!

Someone else stopped watching reality shows long enough to sit down and type out "Sticking your pregnant abdomen out like that is disgusting" to Katie, and she has had enough of this, and spoke her mind.

"All of a sudden, it was a like a flip switched for me," she told the Philadelphia Daily News. "I just felt the need to get it off my chest. I just had to say something."

Ms Fehlinger, pregnant with her first two children, got on Facebook and address the haters directly:

"Frankly, I don't care how 'terrible' or 'inappropriate' anyone thinks I look," Fehlinger wrote. "I will gladly gain 50 pounds & suffer sleepless, uncomfortable nights if it means upping my chances to deliver 2 healthy baby girls.

"Now it's about more than aesthetics. I want these babies to have the best start possible. And that hopefully means my belly that 'looks like it's about to explode!' will continue to grow the next few weeks," she added.

In her remarks, she noted that it's not just Neanderthal men making the hurtful comments, and also said that since she will get 12 weeks of maternity leave, she wants to spend every minute she can with the kids AFTER they're born!

Is that so wrong?  I don't think so.  And reading her page, I haven't seen any of the smart Alexes and Alexas piping up with their "Go away and hide" advice for Katie, who wrote, "I say let's raise a Shirley Temple to swollen feet, stretch marks, nausea, all the extra pounds and the dark circles! They're badges of motherhood. And for those of you who think that's 'disgusting,' remember a woman went through the very same thing to bring YOU into the world."

When it comes to babies, people can be positively infantile.