I was sitting yesterday rubbing my painful lower abdomen after the hundredth trip to the loo when the thought crossed my mind that if it wasn’t for my being pregnant, I’d have thought I had a bladder infection. I started musing about the fact that something the size of a small olive could be causing so much discomfort, when I had a strong desire for cranberry juice and suddenly the three strands of thought came together. Perhaps I wasn’t feeling the side effects of pregnancy at all, but might in fact have a bladder infection!
I bought a litre of cranberry juice and spent the afternoon sipping the bitter juice, just in case. Now, I am not a medical professional, and I am not even sure if it is physically possible for the two to be related, but in the past 28 hours since I started drinking natures tonic for UTI, my bleeding has pretty much stopped!
Today I woke up nauseous as usual, but I have discovered that three or four sips of flat coke takes the nausea away long enough for me to have a bit of breakfast. (I’ve done some research and the amount of caffeine you shouldn’t exceed per day during pregnancy is equivalent to 8 cans of coke, or 3 cups of coffee! Another problem with coke is that the CO2 causes gas in the stomach which is bad for the baby too, but flat coke has no gas so can’t be bad for the stomach or baby, right?) Today was also the first time in a week that I wasn’t nauseous all day, but only for a few hours this morning, and then from about four this afternoon again. I do, however, get SO tired around three in the afternoon that the thought of curling up under my desk for a few minutes has occurred to me more than once!
With the bleeding stopped, and a few nausea free hours, I had a moment of giddy excitement driving home from a meeting this afternoon. I’m going to be a mommy. What an amazing thought. I keep seeing in my mind’s eye a little white circle with a beating heart, blip blip blip at a 100 beats per minute. That makes everything else worth it.
I do feel a little sorry for our baby though. I was reading an article that stated that the average amount that first time parents spend on the nursery and setting up for their first child is £4000.00. I’m afraid that our child won’t be 
getting anything near that from us. Poor little Button is going to have to share a room with the study for a while, at least till we move again, which we have no intention of doing anytime soon! The other thing to start considering is childcare (around here you need to put your baby on a waiting list from 6 months before the birth).
The nursery nearest to us is one for NHS staff members specifically, and their monthly rate for one child is £875. I honestly do not know how people afford that! I suppose if you’re a doctor or a specialist earning £60 – £120 000 per year, it makes sense to spend £11 000 thereof on childcare. If you’re a single parent earning less than £20 000 per year, you get working tax credits, family tax credits, childcare vouchers and others, which can really add up! Someone I spoke to today was telling me that she received £600 per month towards childcare. Well, that would make it easier, wouldn’t it. As we’re a couple and earn above the minimum amount, we don’t qualify for most of those tax credits etc. so we’re on our own. Ironically, we’d be in a better position if I quit my job and Martin only worked part time! It really makes no sense.
But – these are things we can worry about later, for now I’m counting the days to my next scan, and looking forward to the nausea free moments where I can imagine my little lizzard looking (for the moment!) baby swimming around in my belly.
