My dear friends I want to share a story with you, my journey to motherhood.
I never thought that nine months of my life could go so fast and yet so slow at the same time. Being a first time mum I had no real concept of how being pregnant would feel, to me it was nauseous, tired, irritable and really hot! Through out my pregnancy I worked a lot and at 7 months I was working a 42 hours week starting at 6am in a busy cafe. All the stress and swollen feet were worth it when at the end of the day I sat down at home and my little bubby would have a huge party in my tummy until the wee hours of the morning. My pregnancy went really well other than a few late night trips to the hospital with bad muscle cramping and ligament stretching, and a little bleeding (which are never fun!).

On March 21st 2006 at 4.00pm I had my waters broken exactly one week after my due date, and trust me by then I wanted it all to just be over. I went into labour fairly quickly with pre-labour pains starting half an hour later. I had contractions lasting 60 seconds and only 3 minutes apart from very early on but didn't start to dilate until 4 hours later. To cut a long story short 5 hours after that with great support from my hubby, pethidine, and the midwives I gave birth to our beautiful daughter Ebony Rose at 1.04am Wed March 22nd. No one can prepare you for that feeling! The feeling you get when you can see the head crowning, or when you see that tiny face for the first time (I can still remember it), and especially for the love that instantaneously fills your heart when you hold that little bundle of joy. The memories of pain and discomfort seem to just fade away. Even I can't even start to describe the overwhelming emotions that flooded over me at that moment. It was amazing! The saying is true you never know how much love your heart can hold until you become a mother.

Nine months have past since that day and every minute I am blessed by my little angel, every smile every kiss every hug is a reward for the best nine months of my life. Yeah it really hurt and yes I have the stretch marks to remind me how fat I was, but putting all that aside, they REALLY were the best 9 months of my life, and I can't wait to do it all again.