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Early Days of Pregnancy


Perhaps like any other, the early weeks of Amanda’s pregnancy were a mixture of excitement and nervousness.  I remember being so apprehensive about telling the children, I needn’t have worried! That evening they held a sort of boardroom meeting at home and decided they wanted a baby sister, she had to be called Chloe!, to this day we do not know why they selected that name, but a little brother would have been just as loved by them I’m sure!  The routine visits to the health centre came and went, everything was just as it should be, the baby was where it should be, the medical people were happy with the babies progress.  We felt we were being looked after really well considering the traumatic experiences from the previous pregnancy.  We had a lovely Christmastime with the growing realisation that everything was about to change…. It‘s amazing what you can forget about caring for a new born and through their toddler years.  At a scan in late December, it was confirmed that we were having a little girl.  Although I would not have been even the slightest bit disappointed if we were having a boy, I was already the father of 2 amazing boys, who are my world, but at this point I realised that I secretly longed for a little girl… Amanda had made that dream come true. 

Amanda with her her Dad, David - Xmas 2013

Life continued as usual for us both, working lots of hours, me for an IT company and Amanda in a shop, doing our best to provide everything we needed for our arrival and giving the children any assurance that they needed.  Family were also starting to assist with things like car seats, general things really like bibs, baby grows, and I have 2 sisters who had recently given birth so we were happy to be given things that we needed.  In this age of social media, I remember using Facebook to say Happy New Year to everyone and that after so much heartache surrounding our marriage breakdowns and the ectopic pregnancy, 2014 was going to be the year when our dreams were realised.   Amanda and I decided on the name Mia Jean, the Jean part coming from the name of my beloved Nan and on the morning of New Year’s Day I felt Mia kick my hand for the first time – I can remember my heart melting…

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