Happily Ever After_ - Benison Anne O'Reilly [25]
I had a bad feeling that I would not be so blessed. Pregnancy is not generally kind to the Parkes women. I could remember what Mum looked like when she was pregnant with Emma and I can tell you it wasn’t pretty. Let’s just say that if there had been a competition to see which was larger at the end - her belly or her butt - they would have had to call for the video referee. I was determined not to suffer the same fate and despite the early fatigue kept up my usual exercise routine with only minor adjustments, with my obstetrician’s consent of course. This seemed to be paying off.
Tony attended one of my early obstetrician’s appointments with me. At the end of the consultation the doctor asked if we had any further questions.
That’s when my husband piped up, ‘Err, yes I have one…is it okay to continue having sex whilst Ellie is pregnant?’
‘All the husbands ask that one. Yes, it’s absolutely fine, just as long as there is no bleeding. In the unlikely event you do notice some spotting call me straight away and we’ll arrange a check up.’
Greg, the obstetrician, was an old medical school buddy of David’s. I suspected we might have been getting favoured treatment as a consequence, but I wasn’t complaining. So being given the green light we resumed love making, but tentatively, as Tony was convinced he would hurt the baby if he thrust too hard. To be honest I could have happily done without it, my libido seeming to disappear down the toilet once the pregnancy was confirmed, but I wanted to appear obliging to the father-to-be.
At eleven weeks Tony and I fronted up for an ultrasound to screen for Down syndrome. It was our first sighting of him or her and Tony shared a wide-eyed smile with me as the realisation he was going to be a daddy hit home. That was enough to set off my tears. All my earlier ambivalence went up in a puff of smoke when I saw that funny looking, big-headed, alien being on screen - so ugly, yet so adorable at the same time.
At the twelve weeks’ mark we broke the news to our families and work. Mimi was ecstatic and Mum was delirious but probably no-one was quite so happy as Edward. Christina, a girl I had worked with in my former department, announced she was expecting at the same time so we began to compare notes and baby bumps. Even Pamela seemed genuinely pleased, although she quickly regained her composure and told me off for working and exercising too hard. ‘You need to rest more or you might hurt the baby. It should be your first priority now.’
We decided we were not going to find out the sex of our baby - we wanted a surprise - but had already determined names: William for a boy, Isabel for a girl. Not only was I keeping fit, but I was feeling and looking brilliant. I had hardly any morning sickness and my skin and hair glowed. I loved feeling the tautness of my belly and Tony was delighting in that other consequence of pregnancy: bigger breasts.
Baby Cooper was due in early February. I planned to finish work at Christmas time and have a good few weeks’ rest over the hottest summer months. I thought it fitting that the arrival of our first child would coincide almost exactly with our wedding anniversary. One lunch hour I even indulged myself by buying some size 000 singlets and tiny white socks, so heartbreakingly small that I thought I might just burst. Finally we were having a baby.
September rolled around. It was the year 2000 - the year of the Sydney Olympics - and the big carnival was just around the corner. We’d splurged on tickets for an evening in the main stadium and Tony’s roster had been kind to us; he was going to be free to attend. The sun shone and the sky became bluer, hinting at a warm summer ahead. I started waking early to the squawk of parrots, as the rainbow lorikeets breakfasted on the newly-bloomed grevilleas on the nature strip at the front of our house.