I had a pretty good pregnancy to be honest, only a little sickness. The only thing was I couldn’t control my bladder and I became a whale at the end. I consider that pretty normal. It’s amazing what a women’s body can do and adapt to having another life growing inside of you, I mean us women are incredible!

My journey began when… on the 20th April 2018 (my 22nd birthday) I went to the doctors to confirm I was pregnant. Like peeing on a stick 4 times at home wasn’t enough. To get “yes you are pregnant we’ll book you in to see the midwife”. We left knowing I was 6 weeks gone but needed to be confirmed at the first scan. First scan came up on the 28th May thinking the little squirt was 11 weeks, NO! He was 17 weeks. WTF. Not only had I been on two big nights out but also been on holiday to Mykonos not knowing I was four months pregnant. So pregnancy for me went pretty quick, not a bad thing I suppose. I didn’t get any weird cravings, yes very disappointed, and yes I did want one but I didn’t want to be eating loo roll or licking orange peels. HA!

Every mother will experience their little ones kicks and hiccups. Your first ones you don’t really know if it was one, or just a little gas that needs to pass through. But until you have that very first one it’s so special knowing they are growing so strong. Until you get the ones in the ribs, you soon realise you’ve now became a punch bag for the next 4 months. I even found myself poking him back or trying to push whatever it was out of my organs. And no midwife will tell you your olympic athlete will be doing somersaults and high jumps in your stomach.

Until there’s no more room for them and the time comes to sit back and wait till they make an appearance. You’ve packed your hospital bag, finished work, cleaned the rest of the house and just hoping your baby will come on time. You’ve also been eating pineapple, hot curry and let’s not forget the big bouncy ball in your living room to push this baby down, to be honest I personally don’t think any of these worked for me because my baby boy was 9 days late.

Within 2 long days of labour, gas and air, diamorphine and an epidural, on the 17th of November at 4.12am my chunky monkey was born weighing 8lb 1oz. We named him Zachary David. What could be more perfect? … At that time not having a man at the end of the bed sewing me a new designer vagina. But how did I cope? and what was our next step? as the two of us became three.

What happened next, you’ll never guess.