This is not fun...

It was great fun sharing the news with all our friends and seeing how happy everyone was for us. But once the fuss died down... the symptoms kicked in. I was nauseous all day long and if I  was not vomiting, I was dry retching. I was so tired and I don't just mean any kind of tired... I was bone tired. I read in a pregnancy book that it is called bionic fatigue and to tell the truth I felt like the six million dollar man after the bionic woman beat him up for staying out all night drinking.

My blood pressure dropped to the level of a starving person and if I stood for too long I would get dizzy and feel faint. I was on the phone to transport for London asap to get one of those baby on board badges. By the way, any woman who is or has been pregnant will tell you that pregnancy does not necessarily get you a seat on the tube... no you have to faint first before anyone will look up from their Metro to offer you some relief. I think their trick is if they don't make eye contact you can't ask for the seat and they certainly don't have to offer. I took to wearing my badge on my handbag i.e. their eye level!

I wanna tell!

I called my husband, Steve, immediately. I knew Steve would make a wonderful dad and he has wanted us to have a baby for so long. He was so excited! I made him promise that he would contain himself and not tell everyone.

By the time I got from Baker street to the Strand to meet my sister for lunch almost all our friends knew. Steve told them to pretend they didn't know and to act surprised when I shared the news. In the end the only people heard the news from me was my sister, my folks and my work colleagues. Steve told everyone else!

It is so exciting to tell your friends and family that there is a baby on the way. Some of them are very excited and others I think probably feel that they have lost you to 'the dark side'. That somehow you will be a different person and that somehow your friendship will wane. When Steve and I got married there was a time when we were planning the wedding that I felt I had nothing to contribute to any conversation unless it was wedding related. Will I morph into a baby crazed mommy who only talks about poo nappies and sleepless nights?

Plus one?

I turned 27 in May 2009 and after not having had a party for a few years running decided to throw a marvellous french themed soiree at our flat. It was a clear and balmy night and everyone came dressed to the nines. French painters, Louis XVI and french maids abundant. I made wonderful canapes with pate's, cheeses, escargot, smoked salmon blinis and the champagne flowed!

The next week it occurred to me that I could not really remember when I had my last period. I hadn't been on the pill since we got married in April 2006 and my periods are usually pretty regular so I though that I should probably get a pregnancy test. It clearly wasn't top of mind because I only bought a couple of tests from Boots a week after that. The first one I did at work after lunch. It came up positive. Probably broken, I thought.

The second I took at home that evening. Positive again. Is this for real, I thought. I took my two positive tests to the lounge where my husband was watching Home and Away and said... guess what? I showed him to two tests and he nearly died of excitement. I told him don't tell anyone until we are sure... I am going to try and make an appointment with the doctor tomorrow.

I phoned up my surgery the following morning (it was a Friday) and the doctor couldn't see me until the following week so I phoned up an ultrasound clinic to check the availability of an early pregnancy scan. They had a cancellation for that day so I quickly made my way into central London. A hundred and something pounds later it was confirmed... I was four weeks and a few days pregnant. The pea sized white spot on the scan picture the proof that there will not longer just be the two of us.