I never know how to start my story.  You see, I’m not your typical Mummy.  I didn’t grow up playing with baby dolls dreaming of the day when I would have my own.  In fact, for a long time, I didn’t think I even wanted children.  I thought the maternal gene had skipped me, and to be honest I was OK with it. I had a good career and the idea of changing dirty nappies and being vomited on every two seconds just didn’t appeal to me.

When you become a mother your heart bursts with love and pride. There is an innate feeling to protect your baby. It is emotional, beautiful and overwhelming. It is the feeling of true love.

You are in awe of this tiny person you have created.  From the tiny toes and the long eyelashes to the little dimple in their cheek, every single part of your baby is just perfect. Absorbed in that moment you can almost ignore that things aren’t quite right. For a moment you can almost forget that your baby’s eyes haven’t yet opened, a cry not made and the chest not rising and falling.

It was September 2013, just 4 months after our wedding and I couldn’t believe my eyes when those two pink lines appeared on my pregnancy test! I excitedly waited for Andy to come home from work to tell him the most amazing news. We were having a baby! This was the moment I became a mother.

Our world has always been filled with stories and adventures. When we decided we wanted to extend our family beyond each other and the cats, we knew we were setting out on our greatest adventure to date. Our decision to become parents was made when we were hiking in the Black Forest in Germany, and we realised together that we couldn’t avoid the longing to share our adventures with our hypothetical children any longer. Our hike that day started out as a stroll, yet we ended up walking for hours and coming back with the grandest of plans. Our lack of preparation and casual approach to life didn’t worry us at all, we would figure out parenting just as we did with the rest of our lives, off the cuff and with a big step in to the unknown. We knew we would find our feet eventually, just as we always have.