Nine Months of Preparation and a fair bit of Panic – Our Birth Story Part 1
Pregnancy is magical….Our birth story part 1
You watch the adverts and films where someone discovers that their wife is pregnant and it is magical. Well, that’s what I expected too. It turns out being woken at 6am as Natalie does an unplanned ‘just checking’ test isn’t so sensational. It was hard to comprehend what she was actually telling me in that 6AM slumber, let alone feel a tiny bit of the extreme excitement that I would when even when just a little more alive.
Luckily, as a scientist, I convinced us that it was likely a false positive and that one test was not a significant result. We purchased another few tests to increase the sample size, or ‘n‘ (science joke there!), and consequently increase the statistical significance of the positive result.
In doing so, we also got to have our magical moment back when it was confirmed with three more ‘is it? Or isn’t it?’ blue lines and one more certain, digital display. The digital display also gave us a good indication of when the nine month countdown began, instantly deducting two weeks, and so the eight a half month timer started ticking…
Eight and a half months.
That’s a long time isn’t it? Surely….?
Nope. Welcome to what could only be described as time travel. With Natalie being a teacher, she works by terms too. By teacher maths, eight and a half months can simply be divided down to just two terms and summer. And that just seems to make the time fly faster.
Natalie wasn’t ever a big drinker so we thought we could keep the surprise until after the first scan, tell the family and then the rest. Oh, but then there’s that wedding!, oh and that cider and sausage party, and that BBQ…! With my Mum being a nurse it also limited the excuses somewhat. If we said antibiotics she would enquire what was wrong, and if she was driving she could just have one glass…?
So while the eight and a half months flew, those first 12 weeks were the slowest of the lot. Finally the day came, the surprise was revealed in an explosion of confetti and we could relax. Relax as much as we could knowing we needed to acquire all the baby clothes, nappies, a cot, a pushchair, a travel system and all the rest…
‘Relax’ also knowing that while the week 12 scan confirms you are to become a parent, it also signifies the start of the next eight weeks of worry while you wait for the week 20, more detailed, head to toe, inside and out scan to know you’re having a healthy baby.
It wasn’t long, like every year, before it was Christmas 🎅 and then it was just two months till we met our Munchkin.
Natalie planned to work up to half term, which was a week before her due date, have a week of relaxation, packing and planning and then expected deliver late.
On the Friday she came home put her feet up and relaxed.
Relaxed, knowing she had a week to pack and get prepared.
Relaxed, knowing she had a week to herself.
Relaxed, blissfully unaware that at 1.40pm the very next day there would be an early arrival….
Thanks for reading.
Daddy and Munchkin
