Where It All Began

The birth of my daughter, my first child, is due within the next six weeks and I have spent the last six months incredibly excited to meet her.  However, I have also been worried about almost everything.  Which of the hundreds of buggies available really is the best? How many baby-grows does a new born need?  Is it really necessary to have a baby monitor with video capabilities?  The number of questions I ask myself on a daily basis is ridiculous.  What is even more ridiculous, though, is the number of questions that I have no idea how to answer!  I am 33 years old and come from a big family.  I have spent most of my life surrounded by babies and young children; cousins and nieces and nephews.  Yet, here I am, about to become a father and I am fretting! 

Let's go back to the beginning.  I met my wife just over four years ago.  I knew within a matter of a few weeks that this was the woman I wanted to marry and also the woman who would make the most incredible mother.  We married in August last year and immediately set about trying for a family.  We were living in a rented flat in the beautiful Cotswolds and knew that it wouldn't be a practical place to bring up a young family.  There were over 50 external steps to get to our front door and no lift.  Imagine that with a buggy or a car seat with the little one in or if you are 9 months pregnant in the height of the summer!  (Of course there are those of us who will not be able to imagine the latter, but I'm positive that it wouldn't be much fun!)

In November we had some wonderful news.  My wife had sold her flat in Exeter, after more than two years of desperately trying to get rid of it.  It meant we were finally in a position to buy a property ourselves.  Even better was the fact that a bungalow in a great little village three miles down the road was back on the market.  We had viewed it three times already and loved it!  So we put in a few offers and finally had one accepted.  This all happened within 24 hours.  24 hours during which my wife also took a pregnancy test and discovered she wasn't pregnant.  We weren't expecting anything as we hadn't been trying for long.  Anyway, it seemed like we'd have enough on our hands over the next few months.

A couple of days later, we were booked in to speak with a mortgage adviser.  I met my wife in a local shopping center.  It was here that my wife decided to tell me that she had done another pregnancy test during the day (in fact, she'd done several) and she was convinced that she was pregnant.  She was concerned that we were about to commit our financial future to a home which would now be more difficult to afford if she was to have a significant break from work in the not too distant future.  I understood this and appreciated her letting me know before our meeting.  However, I always imagined the conversation we had just had would have taken place somewhere a little more intimate and salubrious than outside of the Stroud branch of Wilkinsons!

And so it began.  The worrying.  The fretting.  Was she right?  Should we really be buying the house?  We picked it because it would be the ideal place to bring up a family.  It has a big garden to play in, the village is quiet and safe, the local primary school looks fantastic and is a two minute stroll through the village and it is in the middle of some of the most amazing countryside either of us have ever visited.  But could we afford it with a baby on the way?  As with most of the concerns I have had since that cold day in November, I needn't have worried.  We are here now and, with some careful budgeting, we will be more than financially stable.  Most importantly, we love it here and it is, in our minds, the perfect place to bring up our daughter.