The Basics

Okay, first of all the facts. I can attempt to put my feelings into words later but, for now, I'll limit myself to how, when etc. Though I doubt any of you really need me to explain the 'how' bit, do you? ;-)

L and I have been thinking of starting a family for some time. If I'm honest, it's always been what we wanted to do and it was only ever a matter of time before we got around to it.

We agreed that before we could start trying we wanted to have bought a house, own a car and be fairly financially stable. When we bought the car in June we worked out that we weren't spending anywhere near what we were earning and that there was no imminent prospect of that changing. With very little credit card debt and a couple of loans that will be paid off by early next year, it was obvious that we were as financially stable as we were likely to get. At that point the decision boiled down to a simple yes/no question: did we want children or not? The answer was a resounding yes.

Of course, we were prepared for the disappointment of it taking months, maybe even years - assuming we could have kids at all. What we weren't ready for was for it to take weeks. Two or three to be precise. All of a sudden, there was a positive test in the bin (Clear Blue, naturally) and we were faced with the realisation that we had changed our lives irrevocably. For the better, of course.

That was just over two months ago. By the way they work these things out, L is now almost 14 weeks gone, giving us a due date around the end of March / beginning of April. We always said we'd wait to tell anyone until after the first trimester and the only people to know earlier than that was the immediate family (and only then because our hand was pretty much forced by other circumstances).

And now, here we are. L had the first appointment with the midwife this morning and everything seems fine. We're into the second trimester and looking forward to the scan at 20 weeks (they don't do one at 12 in our health authority) and antenatal classes etc.

And, of course, looking forward to the day I can hold my own child in my arms. That will be a wonderful day.