Will my dogs always be my babies?

On Election Day, I turn 29. And everywhere I turn, people are asking me when I'm going to have a baby. Even in my mailbox; I've started receiving a mysterious subscription to "Parents" magazine. So my question is: When or if I decide to have kids, how will that change my relationship with my dogs?

Yesterday I left work early with a terrible migraine. Nothing new to me, I've been plagued with them for years. But I went straight home and crawled in bed. I didn't feed the dogs and didn't even think about dinner. When my husband got home, he fed the dogs and brought me dinner in bed. Very sweet.

When he came to bed around 10:15, he said that Greta was looking for me in the house. She had apparently run around the sofa a few times, and come to the bedroom door. But he didn't want to let her in and disturb me. Greta's my girl, and she's very sensitive. She knows I'm the one who feeds them and puts them to bed at night.

This morning, feeling much better, I woke the dogs up and fed them outside. After they ate, I filled their water bowls. And then Greta gave me a good shove with her front paws. She never does this in the morning. She generally wanders around the yard or just sits and waits for a good eye rub from me. I took this shove as if she was saying "Hey Mom, where were you last night?" Greta gets very used to her routines and is very sensitive when they are disturbed.

So when or if we decide to have kids, how will the dogs be affected? I'm a huge advocate for walking your dogs every day. Will I be able to do that if I have a baby? I notice in my neighborhood that the only dogs that get a walk are by owners who don't have kids or the kids are older or out of the house.

We were with a group of friends one time and one of the couples had a young child, and the other couples there only had dogs. So we were talking about our dogs. The couple with a child said "Our dog is lucky to be fed every day." I don't want that to happen to Cassie and Greta, they deserve better than that from us.

How does everyone else deal with this?