We’re now well into the second trimester so I thought it was time I answered some of your questions about our pregnancy and those initial thoughts on getting pregnant. I hope these are useful! I am now doing fortnightly pregnancy updates on Youtube and I have also created a video answering these questions if you fancy watching that instead/too! I’m really enjoying being pregnant now and the bump makes for a really nice connection.
How did we find out I was pregnant?
To cut a long story short, it was early January when we found out, I had the worst cold that made me work from home for a couple of days. I already had bad cold in December so it seemed odd to have another so quickly. I didn’t think I was pregnant at all but I did avoid taking any cold and flu tablets which I religiously take when I am ill normally. I just felt in the back of my mind I should avoid them (it’s weird I know). It got to the Sunday and I was a week late and I mentioned it to Dan who said it was just my cold, which us gals know, colds do not affect things! So on the Monday I took a test and low and behold! Ta-da! There’s no fancy story of how I told Dan, I just told him as soon as he got in from work. I still felt rubbish and tired but at least it all made sense!
How long did it take us?
We didn’t especially ‘try’ – I feel like it was the first question everyone asked me which was ‘was it planned!’ FYI, don’t ask that! We were very much, whatever will be will be. We knew we wanted a baby soon but we were just seeing what happened. We thought it may have happened sooner only because you spend most of your teenage years being told as soon as you do ‘it you will be pregnant so when you don’t, it’s a bit weird. However, when we relaxed and stopped stressing, it happened! So whilst I can’t remember exactly how long, it was probably a few months to get in sync. Unless you’re desperately trying, I would suggest just letting life be life and see what can happen.
How did we decide it was the right time to start trying?
For us, it just was the natural time to discuss it. We have been married three years, I was very keen to be married before having a baby as I’m a bit traditional but life had just started to feel happy. We were both comfortable in our jobs and as Dan is a bit older than me, it felt like the right time to fit it into our lives. As I say, we didn’t ‘try’ so it just happened when it did! I’m quite excited to have a 2020 baby as the date is so easy to remember. I definitely think there’s no right or wrong time to try, it’s when it suits you and your partners lifestyle! Money wasn’t our big concern or factor because I think you can figure all those things out later and you’ll never have ‘enough’ money to plan for a baby anyway.
How will I balance work/mum life?
My initial plan was to work as normal until September (not officially revealing my due date as such) and then decide around late August/Early Sept when I was going to stop going into the office/doing my normal duties. However, now coronavirus has hit, I’m reconsidering how I take my maternity leave. Obviously I want to be off when the baby is here but it’s also something I want to be in decide of and not have to spend the next 5 months at home forever. I want to be able to sign off properly.
My editor and marketing assistant role will remain open and I have a fab team ready to take over my main duties. I don’t think I can officially ‘switch off’ from my job, even if it means at 2am on a night feed I’m checking social media, I’ll never stop. However, I will be stepping back initially until I’ve got a routine that works for us all as a family. I hope I can still be a big part of the team.
I also want to step up my blogging game and whilst I didn’t really want to move to a baby focus, with coronavirus changing any plans of days out/restaurant reviews etc – I think I may just write about parenting until I can redshift. It’s all about taking the next few months as they come for now and hopefully by September I’ll have a clearer plan.
Have we got any names chosen? If so, what influences your choices?
We have a very small shortlist of names we have said are ‘good’ but none are definite yet. I have one girl name I’ve loved for years but I’m unsure if it’s right yet either. Boy names are soo tricky I think. We want to think of a long name because our names are quite short and with a name like Lisa and Dan there’s not much you can do with them.
We are mainly being influenced by British, classic names but we have seen some ‘different’ ones we have enjoyed too. I think the trouble these days is everyone wants to be unique with their name but it’s not entirely possible without going really extreme now. We’ve got plenty of time and we’re working on it. We also have a cute nickname for bump which could be a name but also is a bit unique!!
Hope you enjoyed the post and if you have anymore questions for next time or further along, do drop them below! I’ll be sharing when I do my next one through Instagram.