A worrier

Having spent six months working in an obs and gynae department and seeing things going wrong on a daily basis it's hard to approach my pregnancy with complete optimism and assurance. As such I opted to pay privately for a scan when I was about 7 weeks along. I knew that at that stage a heartbeat should be visible of the pregnancy was viable. 

We went to MUMS in Solihull on a Saturday morning and everything was very straightforward. Within a few minutes of arrival we had seen a heartbeat and a slightly phallic shaped foetus. Importantly we also found out that baby was a singleton as I'm not sure how I would have coped with the idea of twins. 

Exhaustion

Straight after my first virus I was exhausted. More tired than I have every been. It was only a few days later that we went off for a long weekend in Vienna and I found it a chore even putting one foot in front of the other. Despite this we managed to make the most of our time and will have very fond memories of baby's first trip abroad. 

Unfortunately the tiredness is ongoing. While I am now not quite as hopeless I'm still finding that I need early nights and that our full diary of social engagements is starting to take it's toll. In particular i'm generally so tired by the time I go to bed (a few minutes earlier than I used to) that I don't even manage to read. Here's hoping for the sudden energy that everyone promises me is to come! 

Immunocompromise

The very evening I found out I was pregnant I started to come down with my first viral illness. That particular bout last 5 days and saw me retiring to bed with high fevers and only paracetamol in my arsenal for treatment. 

No sooner had I recovered from that episode - exactly four weeks after it started to be precise - I came down with my second virus. This time it was a higher temperature and I ended up going to the GP as a precaution. 

In total I needed five days off work in March, which is five more than I'd had off in my previous six month placement. 

Not and idyllic start to my first pregnancy! 

29th February 2016

Excuse the language but... 'Holy Crap! What have I done?' was my reaction to seeing the second pink line appear on the pregnancy test I'd done at the end of a day at work.

It shouldn't have been a surprise - we'd started 'trying' at the beginning of the year but life had been stressful in the first few months of the year, in large due to the expected death of my Granny earlier in the month. Somehow though I felt very ill-prepared for the forthcoming 9 month journey and beyond.

My immediate reaction was to ring James. I felt it only fair that he be the first to know given that it's his baby too. His response... 'How likely is it that the test is wrong?'. After assuring him that the accuracy is about 99% we completed our working days in shell-shock before meeting at home later in the evening.

 I was desperate to tell my mum so we agreed that the future grandparents would be informed the following day. And thus our journey began...