In The Playroom | My Mills Baby

I’m beyond excited to have Anna from In the Playroom guest post for you today. We’ve been virtual buddies for such a long time now! I’m addicted to reading tales from the playroom and all about her truly adorable boys Mr Z, Mr T, and Mr R. These boys (aged 2-5) have the brightest smiles, and trust me they have plenty to smile about! Their mummy is amazing and a real inspiration. She’s always crafting with them, cooking with them, and blogs extensively about the educational needs of her family. It’s not a normal day if I’m not popping over to hear her recommendations and advice for all manner of parenting bits and bobs. I hope you enjoy her post about her pregnancies (so far!) and will continue to read all about her gorgeous family.

I love pregnancy! Despite feeling rough, being sick all the time and ending up the size of a large whale waddling down the street, it’s a really special time and there is just something magical about it. My youngest has just turned two years, and this is the biggest gap I’ve ever had between children. (I do want more, but not expecting at the moment!)

Looking back on my pregnancies, they have all been quite different - especially my 3rd one which is why until my 20 week scan I had felt he was going to be a girl!

With my 1st two pregnancies I was sick for over 20 weeks. The smell of food used to make me so sick. We visited LA and the taste of their water (which seems quite different to London water) seemed so horrible to me that I had to brush my teeth with bottled water. Back home, I used to have to get up in the mornings and go and to make egg coffee for my husband. It’s a Sri Lankan thing made from coffee and raw eggs, and it used to make me feel so ill!

The good thing about 1st pregnancies though, is how you can just relax and take a nap whenever you like if you have a day off work. I did this quite a bit!

One of the boys in mums tummy! Who’d have believed something so little & beautiful could cause so many symptoms!

With my 2nd pregnancy, I didn’t have that option. As anyone with two children close together will know, you may be feeling so tired, sick and exhausted but the option to go to bed and relax just isn’t there! My 2nd pregnancy was unexpected and my first baby was just 8 months at the time, so it was a bit of a surprise but it worked out very well. Again, I was sick for a good 20 weeks+ and it was quite hard to manage that alongside an increasingly active little one. To help me out, I did slowly start to introduce him to a bit of CBeebies during that pregnancy, so that I could lie on the sofa a bit while he watched! I also started to rely a lot on my local children’s centres and groups so that I could take him out and keep him busy. That worked so well, and I really valued that resource so it is sad to see now some of the funding being reduced.

Towards the end of that pregnancy, I was so tired and I could hardly walk! My 2nd baby was a pretty big baby at 9.5lb and like my 1st - he was overdue. First time round, I remember being quite annoyed and perplexed as to why my due date had come and gone and there was no sign of my baby! I had him fairly young and was one of the first of my friends to have children, and I just didn’t really realise how common it is to go overdue. With my second I expected it, and in fact when I went into labour I didn’t believe it because I had been told I was really likely to go overdue again - so I kept saying no no, I can’t be in labour it must just be some random pains!

With my 3rd baby, I had a similar age gap again of 19 months between the babies so this time I was pregnant when my youngest was 10 months. I got really lucky that with this pregnancy, I didn’t really get sick at all. I’m very grateful for that, as I’m not sure how I would have managed really with a toddler, a baby, and bad sickness. I was convinced that the lack of sickness indicated he was a girl - but it was totally wrong. It was not a different gender, just a different pregnancy and all babies and every pregnancy is different.

With this baby, I ended up being diagnosed with gestational diabetes so it was quite a different pregnancy than the others having to track my blood sugar twice daily and inject insulin. It also meant that for once I wouldn’t be allowed to go overdue. My induction was scheduled for 37 and a half weeks and as I’m used to going to about 41-42 weeks, I never felt that I got to the massive and uncomfortable stage with this pregnancy. I was out and at playgroups with the children right up til the day before I went into hospital as I wanted to keep their routine the same as usual.

My favourite thing about pregnancy is the bit when you are no longer getting sick, and have a bigger bump where you can see the shape shift as the baby moves around! I find that so cool to watch, it is pretty amazing. My worst thing about pregnancy is an obvious choice - being sick!

If or when I hopefully do have another baby in future, it will be quite a different experience again with a much bigger gap. I had less than a year between each of my previous pregnancies, and with having late walkers this resulted in me having a crawling baby right up to the end of each pregnancy and having a new walker at the same time as a newborn. I have twice had double buggies and 2 under 2 so having a little one on their own with all the others off at school may feel almost like having a first baby again!

As my next one would probably have to be my last, I don’t mind waiting a little longer because I don’t want it all over and done with so soon! Pregnancy and the newborn days are some of the most special times in life and I wish Gemma all the best for the rest of her pregnancy, birth, and lovely new baby