.... Ups!

Ok, so the second trimester seemed like a walk in the park compared to the first, apart from my ever increasing waistband I felt fabulous! No sickness, still having the cravings, but at least they were healthy!

By this time I'd also got to know my community midwife quite well, her name was Gail, and she never failed to make me smile each time I saw her. On one occasion I explained to her that I was concerned about taking time off work to come to my midwife appointments, she said to me that if my employer wouldn't allow me time off, then she would phone them herself... and that they didn't call her the friendly bulldog for no reason! Get on the wrong side of her and.... snap! I never saw her snap, and she never nagged me about eating healthy or keeping mobile, I think the only person she 'nagged' was Andy!

I started to really look forward to my midwife appointments, not only because Gail would regale some stories about other pregnant women and the things she'd dealt with in the past, but it would also be the time I'd get to hear my little baby's heart beat. The first time I heard it, guess what?... I cried! But it was great to hear that little sound (which sounded very much like a train!), It was that little reassurance that everything was OK.

During the second trimester was the time when Andy and I started the nursery, painting and decorating, buying new carpets. At this point we didn't know whether we were having a girl or a boy, but it didn't matter! We painted the room yellow and I found a gorgeous little farm yard border to match. It was perfect! I spent some time painting canvases to go in babies room, and luckily we knew some people who had just had babies and grown out of certain things, so we had a fair few 'hand-me-downs' and we were able to buy our gorgeous cot and mattress fairly cheap.

At this stage we weren't the only ones to start buying, my mum started to go a little bit mad (not that it wasn't a good thing) but she would visit the car boot sale every week and come back with something new for our baby! She found cribs, and clothes, bouncers and toys! By the time I reached the third trimester we had pretty much everything we needed.... including the buggy!

Towards the end of the second trimester (21 weeks) we went for our 2nd scan, we took our mothers with us and we all sat in the little examination room around a couple of little monitors watching our little 'peanut' wriggle around the screen, although this time it wasn't quite so small now and you could make out arms and legs, we could see a head and spine, and most importantly the little heart beat. Our sonographer asked if we wanted to know the gender of our baby, which we did... she then asked 'Any ideas what you might be having?' Andy and I had been convinced that we were having a boy since I found out I was pregnant, our mothers however thought we were going to have a girl.... we were right, a boy it was! They say a mothers intuition is always right!

It was also about this time that I started to feel our baby move, like butterflies in my tummy, an amazing feeling. I would sit on the sofa and call Andy over to try and feel the movement but without any luck, our babies little flutterings at this stage were meant only for me.

At about 24 weeks, we visited our friend Jeni in Cornwall, and decided that we would both go for a 4d scan (she and I were both due around the same time and as it went we were only about a week apart!) I thought that our normal scans were exciting, but when we went for the 4d ones we just couldn't believe it, we could actually have a sneak preview of what our little man would look like, his tiny hands and feet, his little button nose. He was just so perfect in every way.

'Is it odd to love someone so much, when you've never even met them?'

Downs and ups......

Don't get me wrong! Finding out I was pregnant was the best thing in the whole world, but it wasn't without its worries and stresses, ups and downs, illnesses and good times!

During the first trimester I suffered very badly with morning sickness, however the sickness wasn't exclusive to the morning! I found that I would suffer with it... morning... noon and night. The most vivid memory I have was going out to a Christmas party with friends, sat in the Shire Horse pub sipping my orange juice feeling my stomach doing somersaults, this was about 7 'o' clock at night. I was dreading going to the restaurant because I felt so bad, but putting on a brave face, we left the pub and walked across the car park, suddenly my stomach decided it didn't like what I'd had for lunch and without a toilet in sight I lunged for the nearest hedge! Needless to say, I didn't eat a lot in the restaurant, and my £15 all you can eat buffet consisted of glasses of water, cucumber, tomatoes and a bowl of Jelly (Not together)!

Cravings! Following the night at the 'all you can eat' my body then turned to cravings, prior to this night, all I had wanted was Sprite! I'd never been a Sprite drinker before but I couldn't get enough of it. After the Christmas party all I wanted was Cucumber and Tomatoes! I would make Andy take me to Tesco and buy a whole cucumber, by the time we'd left the car park I would have consumed at least half of it! I could sit and eat a whole punnet of Tomatoes! I later found out that tomatoes are a good source of vitamin A which helps bone development and eyesight, so could only put it down to that!


Amazingly when I hit 12 weeks, the sickness stopped... just disappeared and I felt fantastic, my jeans became a little tight, which I would normally have put down to over eating during the Christmas period, but all the other symptoms seemed to disappear... which bought on the worrying... WAS EVERYTHING OK? With no signs I was pregnant, I was grateful for my first scan.

The 12 week scan was one of the most amazing experiences Andy and I had ever experienced... to most people, it was just a peanut on a TV screen, to us it was much much more. It was the first look at our little baby, not knowing at this stage whether its a boy or a girl, seeing there little heart been on the screen. Made all the worries disappear.... at least for a short time. I promised myself I wouldn't cry... but the moment I saw our little 'peanut' I couldn't help it.

"No one will ever understand the strength of my love for you. After all, you are the only one who knows what my heart sounds like from the inside."

So I'm pregnant!

Diane, looked at me with surprise. 'Excellent! That means we don't need to go through all those tests then.'

That was a huge relief.... just knowing that there was nothing wrong with either of us, and it had just taken time, Diane had explained to me that it could have been one of many reasons, but the most likely explanation was stress, and that the holiday had just made me relax! That's all I needed? To relax? For those of you that know me, you'll know I can be a bit of a stress head. A few of my friends had said 'Relax, it will happen' I didn't really believe them but... I should have!


The relaxing thoughts didn't last for long and I was soon back to being a stress head. Worrying took over once more... I was pregnant, we had wanting this for such a long time and now it was happening! Panic then took over, I was carrying a baby, a new life, would everything be OK?

I explained to Diane that I had been on a very 'busy' holiday, told her about the roller coasters and alcohol, she smiled at me calmly and said 'Your pregnant still, stop worrying' and she arranged for me to see my Midwife.

I walked out of the surgery feeling on top of the world, with a touch of anxiety... an odd feeling to experience.

I found out that I was about 8 weeks pregnant at the beginning of December, and decided to keep quiet about it until I was 12 weeks, we told our parents straight away, popping round to see my mum and dad one night they were instantly suspicious, we hadn't phoned in advance to say we were going over and it wasn't the usual Tuesday night dinner we have with them.... so why had we turned up unexpectedly.

'We've got something to tell you...' at this phrase my mums face instantly lit up!

'Your going to be Grandparents!'

They were over the moon, and Andy's Mum and Dad were equally excited!

But keeping it from everyone else for another 4 weeks was not going to be as easy as I thought... Christmas was coming and so were all the Christmas parties.

I tried telling friends and family that I was 'on medication' which meant I couldn't drink over the Christmas period and that's why I was being so sick, but people were instantly suspicious, so by Christmas day, I spilled the beans.... not that anyone was surprised, the tell tale signs were there for all to see!


Me at 12 weeks

Its not always easy....

My hubby (Andy) and I got married in July 2003, from the moment we got married we knew that we wanted children... so we started trying. I was 23, so thought.... This'll be easy!

So many of my friends talked about how easy it is to fall pregnant and so many people become pregnant without wanting to. It was not that easy for me. Many of my friends fell pregnant, and some were by accident. I watched as there little bundles of joy grew up to be toddlers racing around there feet. My friends and family often asked me and my hubby 'Awww are you not thinking of having children?' or 'Why dont you have kids yet? You've been married for 5 years'. Which both me and my hubby would find upsetting, as its not as tho we weren't trying!

In October 2008, I decided enough was enough and I would visit my GP for advice, having sat and chatted to Diane, for about 15 minutes, she advised me to send my hubby off to his GP first as he was easier to test, and then come back to her for my tests, it all seemed quite daunting and scary, but I was mentally prepared for the worst. We were due to go to Florida the following week, so my hubby agreed to go to his doctors when we got back.

That week in florida I decided to have one last real blow out before we set about all the tests that might be in store for us when we got back to the UK, drinking Mageritas in Downtown Disney, on every rollercoaster in Disney and Universal, Swimming with Dolphins, we did it all! Having Thanks Giving dinner with Family on the most beautiful beach in the world! We had an absoloute blast! I was exhausted the whole time we were there, which I put down to such a busy schedule and jet lag!..... How wrong was I!!

We returned to the UK, with still no sign of the usual 'monthly', so I shot down to the local shop and bought 2 tests.

While my hubby checked his vast amount of e-mails from our two weeks away, I disapeared off to do my test.

'OOOOhhhhhhh MY GOD' was what Andy heard from the bathroom, thinking I'd fallen and hurt myself, he shot to the bathroom door. Only to find me stood at the door beaming like a cheshire cat holding the test in my hand! 'Your gonna be a Daddy!

He looked at me.... then the test... then back at me.... we could hardly believe it! 5 years of trying..... and it happened, no tests needed!

I booked an appointment with Diane, and she asked if I was back following my hubbys test results.... I replied 'I dont think we need to.... I think I might be pregnant!'