We got home from Norfolk late last Sunday and I’ve been off from work until yesterday on leave. The break has done me a world of good.
On the whole I managed to keep up with the rest of our crew with partying at the festival. I danced to the early hours and when I felt tired sat down and absorbed the vibe.
I was surprised by the amount of attention the bump attracted though. At times it seemed like every parent in the place was making a beeline for me. People loved telling me about their children. One father coyly told me that despite having a brilliant time he was really missing his two little ‘uns and another dad banged on for an age about how amazing parenthood is.
I was also asked repeatedly if we knew the gender of the baby. For your information readers, we don’t. Before our last scan Nick and I decided we’d keep this as a surprise for ourselves when the baby’s born.
After a few conversations, I did begin to find the small talk about pregnancy and children quite tiresome. After all I’m not a mum yet and I had come to the festival to bug out to some good music and to enjoy what’ll be some of my last carefree time.
Despite my reluctance to talk about being a mum, something a chirpy mother-of-two said has stuck with me.
She told me: “When you have kids, you’ll realise your children will never love you as much as you love them.”
This is no doubt, to parents, an obvious point but until I was told this I’d never really considered how selfless you have to be when you have child. Just thinking about the fact that I will never get back what I’m going to invest emotionally leaves me feeling quite overwhelmed.
I’m becoming very aware of the long and challenging journey I have ahead of me.
As for my bragging about my excellent health in my last blog - I may have been a tad premature. On Monday my back really ached and on Tuesday a day walking around London left me with more niggling pains around my right hip.
It looks like these aches and pains are normal though. I checked out the pregnancy calendar at babycentre.co.uk and it says that at 26 weeks pregnancy hormones are starting to loosen joints and ligaments and a mother’s centre of gravity is shifting. Apparently, walking, standing and sitting for long periods of time can put strain on the back.
I fully recovered after spending the last two days of my leave relaxing at home. Though I do think more breaks from sitting at my computer might now be necessary.
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