Today we visited Tim’s best man and his wife and their two adorable little girls. They have just moved to a village near us. The eldest was just a month old when we got married and their youngest is almost one now. The girls are so sweet, with gorgeous big brown eyes and so well-behaved. The eldest will be three in summer and goes to ballet and gymnastics! She was twirling around in her pink dressing-up clothes with a blonde wig on! The little sisters reminded me of the old nursery rhyme – “What are little girls made of? Sugar and spice and all things nice”. I keep thinking that I may be expecting a girl. I really don’t mind as long as it’s healthy (yes, I know a lot of people say that!) but I definitely won’t be disappointed if it is a little girl and it is made of all things nice!

As soon as I found out I was pregnant, I thought about NCT classes. I went to www.nctpregnancyandbabycare.com to find a suitable antenatal course. The NCT is the UK’s biggest parenting charity and offers excellent value antenatal and postnatal courses (there are discounts and different payment options available to make these viable for as many parents as possible) as well as providing support and a wealth of information. One of my friends is an NCT teacher (also a primary school teacher in her day job) and I’ve seen her shelves bulging with books on pregnancy and parenting. I know that I can trust the NCT!

I also have a friend in London who had a baby a year ago and couldn’t recommend their classes highly enough (and she had a very straight-forward, natural birth!). Given that September/October is a busy time of year (all these Christmas/New Year babies!) I wanted to book in early. I soon found what I wanted – a comprehensive antenatal course in my local area, covering preparation for labour and birth, feeding, and early parenthood. So Tim and I will be going to these evening classes in July.

I guess it really depends on which area of the country you’re in – I’m sure there are other good alternatives in some regions – but from what I can see, this is the best there is in my local area. From what I hear from friends and family the information given by our NHS hospital is fairly basic. So I’m more than happy to help support the NCT and I’m really looking forward to meeting other mums to be!

When I suspected I might be pregnant I went to Boots and bought two home pregnancy tests (their own brand). I took them home and did the tests. They both came back positive, but it really didn’t sink in and I wanted to be totally sure I was pregnant before I told Tim. So I drove to Tesco and bought two of the most advanced HPTs that they had. The Clearblue Digital Pregnancy Test with conception indicator was the most expensive but I wanted a confirmation. It was lunchtime so I knew that my HCG hormone levels wouldn’t be at their highest (test first thing in the morning if you really want the conception indicator to accurately tell you how far along you are). With the first Clearblue test I peed into a jug and then stuck the stick in (as per the instructions). With the other one I tried to pee on it for the correct amount of time but seeing as it was the fourth test I ran out of wee too early! No worries, both tests soon displayed as PREGNANT 1 – 2 weeks. I knew that I was really 2 – 3 weeks but I was testing at lunchtime so I didn’t expect it to be accurate, I just wanted to see the words PREGNANT and have it confirmed! I recommend the Clearblue tests. I think it also helped Tim to take it in given the word PREGNANT on the screen. You pay for the simplicity!

Hello everyone! Tim and I found out this week that we are expecting our first baby! We are thrilled and have started this site so that we can blog about our pregnancy experience. We are so excited about our baby!

We’re hoping that by recording our experiences here, we might build a useful resource for others. We hope you enjoy it and we invite you to comment!