I want to start by not apologising. I needed this time off from sharing my life to process what has already been and will become a big change to our lives as we know it.
I shared the news of my pregnancy online when I was 22 weeks because that’s when I was ready. In reality, I’d known about it as soon as we were really able to, but waited until our 12 week scan to tell family and close friends and 20 weeks to tell others close to us that we were having a little girl.
We are having a baby girl. Writing that now feels so incredibly special I still can’t quite believe it. I’m now 25 weeks and due late December, a Christmas baby and what a gift she will be.
The first few weeks felt completely normal, apart from that we knew they weren’t because of our little secret. It was around week nine that I really started feeling the effects of pregnancy on my body and it felt all the more real. The nausea, the sickness, the tiredness, it marched in and took over. I lost my routine, my healthy appetite, my loves of running, cooking and living every day to its fullest. At the end of every day I was just grateful I’d made it through, nervous about the next but just hopeful that at some point it would end and I’d find myself again.
Our scan at week 12, when we saw her wriggle and turn for the first time, made everything I’d been feeling worth it. I didn’t expect the relief that I felt telling my parents, Nige’s parents, my sister and closest girl friends, but it was freeing. I didn’t return to what I felt as being normal until about week 15 and there was no big turning point, I just slowly felt myself becoming me again, able to do the things I loved with the same energy and positive outlook I remembered.
We decided to find out if we were having a boy or girl at our 20 week scan, just because we could and we wanted to. Again, it made it feel all the more real. Our little girl.
I wanted to write this to fill in some gaps, give me the confidence to start writing and sharing again and maybe help others who are also starting this incredible journey. Things will be a little different but I hope that comes as no surprise and you’ll still want to read about our adventures. So here’s to fresh content (with a little backlog) and a new chapter for The Scientist Runs. Join us.
