The... Pause

Nikki's announcement to the family (put far more eloquently than I could ever do)...

Yup, that's the one. The pregnant pause. That's the excuse I"m using anyhow as to why I haven't done anything productive since quitting my job at the end of April. Because I'm pregnant. I have basically spent the last two months looking at my belly and shaking my head in disbelief. 'No way, un unh'. And I was completely expecting the lady doing the scan today to suppress a laugh and squeeze my shoulder, saying 'you're not pregnant, honey - you just got a lot of gas'. But no, the first thing she said was, 'there's just one baby', expecting us to be relieved we weren't having twins and I was more like 'omg, there's a baby in there??!!!'

So, yes, indeed, there is a little critter inside me - 12 weeks and 5 days old apparently, which puts the due date around the end of December. Everything looks okay - there was a beating heart, 2 little arms and legs, 2 eyes, etc, but we didn't manage to get the nuchal translucency scan done - Jiggy (the baby's nickname) was moving around far too much for an accurate measurement to be taken. So I'll be going back in about a week for another scan.

Mamashaz has been itching at the bit to tell everyone (and I know she's Chinese whispered to a few of you already) so I thought, as an early bday present to her, I'd finally announce the news to my near&dear. I'm not quite ready to broadcast to the world yet (aka facebook) hence the group email instead.

Jbeau and I were a little surprised, initially, but delighted all the same. And I've had a pretty cruisy pregnancy so far - no real morning sickness or worries. Hilariously, we found out about Jiggy the day after I finished work! There I was, laughing and smiling, teasing my work mates who were still chained to their desks, 'I'm free, to do what I want, any old time.' And then I'm pretty sure the results of my pregnancy test wasn't a little bar across a window but the words 'serves you right' in giant neon flashing lights across the pee stick.

And I'd even take the test as a semi-joke. We were on our way to Prague, a city famous for imbibing large quantities of alcohol, and I teased Jbeau about the possibility as, 2 weeks prior, we'd woken up one morning and I turned to Jbeau and said, 'I had a dream I was pregnant'. Jbeau looked at me, all serious, and replied, 'I had a dream you were pregnant'. So, concerned about my ability to consume alcohol, Jbeau bought me the test at the airport.

So I took the test. First I yelled out, 'I think I've broken it!' Then 'oh wait, oh -hah! HA!' And I came out and threw the stick at Jbeau. 'See, I told you I'm not pregnant.' He looks at it, squints his eyes and says 'No, this says you are pregnant. Oh my god, you're pregnant!!' And I'm like 'no way. It's broken, I probably broke it,' so I took test no.2 in the kit straightaway. Same result. I was gobsmacked, completely in shock and just didn't really believe it until the docs confirmed it back home in Edinburgh a week later.

When I started to tell my immediate family they didn't believe me either. They were like 'you're taking the piss' and I was like 'I'm not...well, I mean I did -- I took my piss and got it tested -- and I'm pregnant!!' Oriana said 'you're joking Niknik' and then, when I finally convinced her, wasn't very impressed. She has since told Gooma that she won't be excited until she meets Jiggy in the flesh. I quite like that she's reserving judgment until she meets the baby - after all, Jiggy could be an a-hole. (And I mean, strictly speaking, s/he will be a bast@rd).

Anyway, it's great news and we're very excited, and hope you all are, too. I've attached pics of the scans for you all to see.

Feel free to email me back if you want to know any more details - happy to oblige.

Lots of love
Nikki x