Oh my God, I'm going to have a baby. These were the words that greeted the sight of the thin blue of my pregnancy test. I even did it twice as I could not quite believe it. I found out about 5 weeks ago and am now in week 10 of the pregnancy. The baby is due July 9 2008. Without doubt this is the most massive and life-changing experience of my life so far.
My partner and I have been together almost 15 years. Our 15 year anniversary is early January next year and I did not expect to be spending it about 3 and a half months pregnant. My 40th birthday? Next March and nearly 6 months pregnant. So much for my ideas of horse riding bonanzas somewhere hot and mountainous.
We had talked about having children and decided that we lacked the courage to actually choose to and the future we had planned out did not include children. So think again and start thinking about an entirely different future.
So what happened? I really had swallowed the idea that women over 35 will have endless problems conceiving and so felt there was little risk in not bothering with contraception on day 16 of my cycle. I know it's close to ovulation but I thought there was still little chance it would happen. We were on a short holiday and had been upgraded to the Honeymoon room, complete with 4 poster bed. Oh all the ingredients were there for misplaced confidence and recklessness and then facing a big shock in about 3 weeks. Once is all it takes. We are normally much more careful.
We found out on November 3rd, a night where the skies were lit up in celebration of Bonfire Night and it seeemd a fitting backdrop to our news. For about a week, I was on a real high. So excited. My parents and friends are overjoyed and I loved being able to make them so happy by sharing my news. All was fine until I had to face up to being totally unprepared for what early pregnancy would be and feel like.
I'll blog more soon about facing up to the shock of pregnancy. What this has taught me most of all is the rubbish that gets spouted about conceiving past the age of 35. I've since read up on this and found that it is not so difficult or unusual to conceive naturally and fairly quickly. Why are we being fed a load of propaganda about the dangers of leaving it too late? My lovely midwife, Diana, is not at all phased about my being 40 when I have my first baby. She says if you are fit in your late 30s and 40s, you can easily be healthier than a 20 year old. So for anyone who is thinking they may have left it too late- you may well not have done! Back soon.
Congratulations!
Posted by: Moobs | January 14, 2008 at 12:31 AM