Unknown Beginnings

“I am getting fat!” These words springing from my mouth were the first sign of what was to come. We were vacationing in Italy when I noticed my clothes fitting just too snugly. My husband blamed the delicious Italian food and lack of exercise for the weight gain and suggested less food and longer walks in the cities.

The obsession with specific foods – also triggered whilst in Italy with multiple daily doses of grilled vegetables, calamata olives and parma ham and not wanting to eat anything else…. Along with frequent rest stops in out site seeing and late afternoon naps should have had me realizing there were changes afoot.

We had been discussing starting a family and visiting the baby shops – in Florence and Rome was disappointing in that the clothes were beautiful but I felt it would be bad luck to buy baby clothes before being pregnant, so the best I could do was stare…little did I know.

Discovery

“I am late this month, do you think….?” I asked my husband shortly after our return. “Let’s buy a pregnancy test kit and see… maybe we get lucky.” The two bright blue lines told us all we needed to know. Between the tears and laughter I tried to describe my feelings – a man will never know and can never know that indescribable knowledge which floods your being when you realize you are not alone and there is a new life growing inside of you.

We knew that our next step was to find a doctor. Which doctor? Which hospital? How do you know you have the right one? I knew I wanted a woman as my doctor – hoping for more empathy I guess… and well it just made me more comfortable. A few phone calls later and we had our appointment.

The doctor informed us that I was already 8 weeks pregnant – 2 months and I never realized. Even more of a shock was that I had no idea of what to expect, what was coming….we quickly built up a library of books and started learning.

First Sighting

A week after confirmation from our doctor morning sickness struck. Morning sickness is not fun at all, every day was a battle and some days I could not eat a thing. All my favorite foods, Thai and Chinese were inedible. I lived on a diet of plain rice, white bread and milk. I was not enjoying my pregnancy very much during this time and prayed for it to pass.

By the third month, our doctor gave me my first ultrasound examination. I was so thrilled to see what was on the flickering monitor. What I saw was a little creature that looked like a shrimp in my belly. My baby was so small it was hard to believe that soon this will be a living human. But that first sight gave me a real sense of the life growing within me.

Even though I was still battling with morning sickness I was so happy inside my heart. I had never thought I will have a family and will never feel like a mother. I started to seriously read more and more books and magazines on pregnancy and prepared my self for a healthy pregnancy and baby. I could not stop counting the days to delivery.