#3 Growing pains, scares and the announcement
For the first few months only I noticed the bump coming in and I certainly felt it too. Around week 10, maybe a little later, I had some horrendous growing pains. Very low, mostly isolated to one side and felt very much like sharp cramps. One Friday afternoon the pain got so bad I ended up going to A&E but not before talking to some amazing people first.
That afternoon I was in so much pain I took to the internet to find answers, as we all do. Partial mistake, partial blessing. While scanning through some petrifying info I stumbled across the Tommy website and their pregnancy helpline (https://www.tommys.org/pregnancy-information/about-us/tommys-midwifery-team). It’s a free number from 9-5, Monday to Friday, where you can speak to their in-house midwives. Bearing in mind this was all before my first midwife appointment and scan I had no idea where to go or what to do. I rang the number and spoke to an incredibly lovely midwife, who took some basic information. She could tell I was worried and addressed that straight away. After a few minutes she advised me to call my GP. Upon doing so, I spoke to the receptionist who again was lovely, I then explained what was going on and asked if I could speak with a Doctor. She also sensed my panic and advised I could get a call back from the doctor but this would be at least an hour, if not longer. She then pointed me in the direction of A&E. Lee and I arrived at the hospital around 4.30pm, we waited only an hour or so before being seen. A kind Doctor checked me over, I peed in a cup (something you get really good at while pregnant) and we talked through the next steps. Because of the time of day everyone had gone home for the weekend so I was unable to be scanned that day however he booked me in for a scan at the Early Pregnancy Unit the following Monday.
That weekend was hell! I tried to stop my mind from worrying and decided the best thing to do was not talk about the pregnancy or the baby. Lee’s Mum and Aunt were in town which was a distraction at times but everyone wants to talk about the baby. I’m such an introvert when upset that I kept hiding away. But the weekend passed and before I knew it it was Monday. Lee and I drove up to the hospital, found the EPU (Brighton hospital is a maze, you have to go down a floor to go up a floor, confusing!) and sat in the waiting room. As I scanned the walls I could see pamphlets about all sorts of things, including miscarriage, the panic set in. We waited for what felt like hours but realistically it was about 20 minutes, we were then called for the scan. There were two lovely ladies in the room, I jumped on the table and away we went. Boom, on the screen our baby and a heartbeat! They did a quick measurement of the baby, gave us an estimated due date and even printed a picture. They asked that we filed it away before leaving the room as other couples in the waiting room hadn’t had such good news. We left the ward and I felt the weight lifted! Our first scare was over.
Rolling forward a week or two, it’s halloween (my favourite holiday) and time for our official first scan. Although the baby had just had a check over I was still incredibly scared. A feeling that has accompanied every scan since. With anxiety high and a full bladder we finally got to see our baby dancing around in my belly... eventually. It seems our child is stubborn, a trait I’m sure is from Lee and not me! At every single scan the baby has been facing away or covering its face. So after numerous wiggles, jiggles and jumps the sonographer was able to check everything over in detail. All fine!
Lots of people have asked if we cried or how we felt when we saw our baby for the first time, Lee got a little emotional but to be honest I was concentrating on not wetting myself to get emotional. That pee afterwards was heavenly.
Now we knew we had made it through the first trimester we wanted to make a formal announcement. Something a little different and funny rather than a picture of the scan on social media. Of course no offence to anyone that has or will do that, it’s just not very ‘us’. I took to Pintrest for inspiration but nothing jumped out. After a few days it was Lee who came up with the post. Being a drummer it had to include his first babies, his drum kit. We played around with a few ideas but finally decided on the below picture which went down well and something we will treasure and certainly laugh at for years to come.
