I explained in a recent post how my journey to motherhood was not an easy experience due to infertility resulting from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. (PCOS)
I thought it would be nice to tell of my boys start to life.
This is the story of my pregnancy with J Boy.
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| 9 months pregnant |
When we first discovered I was pregnant The Accountant and I were living in London. Here is a letter that I sent an American friend updating her of our pregnancy. This friend and I used to communicate regularly, most days in fact, and then she hit ‘one of those patches in life’ which made her head underground for awhile, and in the meantime she had changed her email address and hadn’t let me know, so even though she had been praying for me for years, and had even sent me baby gifts for years before the baby was conceived, I didn’t get the chance to tell her I was pregnant until after the fact!
I thought it would be one of the best ways to share the joyous occassion of discovering I was pregnant after 5 years of trying.
Dear US Friend,
Right, so it all began in France! Alex and I had got away for the weekend, which was just beautiful. We explored Normandy and Brittany. High on the list to visit by the way was Mont St. Michel, I had always wanted to visit it after I saw you standing out the front of it in a photo you sent me!
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| The Accountant and I in the North of France at Mont St. Michel. Conception has occurred, but we don’t know yet! |
I thought I may have ovulated, I had picked the times I was ovulating two times before, but nothing had happened and that was over the course of about 6 months because my cycles as you know are so irregular. I think I had started being able to pick them from watching my bodies signs and linking what my body did when I had ultrasounds that showed I was ovulating. Anyway, I didn’t think too much of it, just hoped that I would get my periods two weeks later.
Two weeks later, I started a little spotting, and thought that I had done well picking when I had ovulated again and got ready for my periods. All week there was a bit of spotting coming and going, I wasn’t sure whether they were still coming or it was an extremely light period. I thought I’d do a pregnancy test just in case. Alex told me not to bother it would be a waste of money again! I decided to do it anyway, just in case, but even I didn’t have too much hope, I did the test and waited for the result, I actually had my foot on the lever for the bin so I could through it straight out! When the test came through, I realized that I didn’t know what the test results meant because it was different to the Australian tests I used, so I went and read the instructions, re-read them, read them over again, and again, and again! Then I concluded that I was PREGNANT! I went running into the husband showing him it, he then took the instructions, read them, re-read them, read them over again, and again, and again! Then he agreed with my conclusion that I was in fact pregnant! It was so exciting and totally mind boggling! We rang my parents straight away and tried to ring my sister, didn’t get her, but spoke to her a few hours later. They were both estatic! Also rang my brother. Alex didn’t want to tell his family until a bit later, but I didn’t want to wait. My sister was living in London, so I was seeing her that night at a blind wine tasting night we were having, but it wasn’t easy to tell her with lots of people around so I arranged to see her on Monday. (No need to say, I only tasted a few wines, and spat!)
On Sunday, I started bleeding more heavily, it was a good thing I had done the test, because if I hadn’t done it the day before I would have presumed it was my period. I went to the doctor first thing Monday morning, where she spent a great time telling me that I could very well be miscarrying which was devastating. I rang my little sister crying asking her to come sooner. She came with me to the hospital where I had to have an ultrasound. The scan showed there was a pregnancy, but because it had been three months since I’d had a period, they still couldn’t conclusively say if it was the end or beginning of a pregnancy. I had to go back two weeks later which was a very long time to wait, but when I did, the baby had grown and I could see this little blob on the screen with a beating heart.
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| “Our blob” |
It was one of the most awesome things I’d ever seen. I didn’t think that I would see anything interesting, it just blew me away that there was a 6 week old baby inside me with a heart beat! I rang the husband up afterwards and cried with excitement while telling him. I had a ¾ hour bus ride back to work and spent the whole time on the phone to Australia with my family who were anxiously awaiting the result. We had a few more scares early in the pregnancy, but hey presto! That is all a distant memory and now we have our gorgeous boy safe in our arms!
So once we had got over all the excitement of becoming pregnant, we had to do some serious decision making as to whether we’d stay in the UK or not. In the end after lots of serious consideration we realized that we didn’t want to remain in England long term so we thought it wo
uld be better to only set up nursery once and also better for A’s career to get more Australian experience if that’s where we were wanting to be in the long term. So, we decided to return home to have the baby. We arrived home in May, but before we did so, Executive sister and her children arrived and had a 6 week holiday with us.
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| Visiting Legoland with my sister, neice, nephew and brother-in-law |
It was so lovely and quite emotional returning home with a lovely big belly! Of course people at church were so excited after praying for us for so many years. My family, needless to say, was estatic! When we first arrived, we weren’t entirely sure if we would live in Toowoomba, we also considered moving to Brisbane. However, we stayed in Toowoomba after all. A had some very tempting job offers in both Toowoomba and Brisbane, but in the meantime while looking for work he had been helping out with my brother’s computer business and decided that he really liked management accounting, so has decided to work in the family business. He has been working with the computers so far, but this year will start getting more involved in other endeavours.
I did some supply teaching at my old workplace when I returned and was still pregnant, but I haven’t worked since having J Boy. I don’t intend to return to full time work for quite some time, although I will do some infrequent supply days to bring in some money throughout the year. I didn’t have an entirely favourable teaching experience in London, so I haven’t missed it that much. Besides which I absolutely LOVE being at home with J Boy. I’m also involved with a mothers group which I really enjoy.
When we first arrived we were staying in a rental property that Executive Sister had just bought. However in November we moved into a new house that we bought. It’s a lovely home, A and I have decided it’s our ‘grown up house’. It’s not an old house that people buy as a first home, but a brand new four bedroom place. I’ll have to send some photos through of the interior.
(Letter continues with boring bits that wouldn’t interest you!)
Love,
Caitlin
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| The first minutes of my firstborn’s life. |
3 Comments
What a journey, and how much more does it make us appreciate the preciousness of life! Thanks for sharing
That 9 months along photo is of one hot mama!
What an emotional ride.
Our miracle baby!