Clearly we all knew I was pregnant in 2011. But I never wrote about the pregnancy itself. It has been a pregnancy with up and downs.

It was wished from the start and therefore I picked it straight away. But after the great news it made a wobbly start as I started bleeding in the early days – with the understanding I gained later, I would now call this only “spotting”. Even if for a moment maybe it was at risk, the embryo was stronger that what it looked like at first, as thanks goodness it stayed inside. When I turned 13 weeks I was incredibly relived as finally I was able to think that this baby really was on its way. And at the end of the first trimester finally the morning sickness and the amazing tiredness started to fade and I could come back to life.

The second trimester was excellent. I was able to go back to some degree of physical activity. During this time we resumed some hiking (the intensity of the walks were reversed to the size of my growing belly!), my appetite became again normal but somehow I kept gaining a hell of a lot of weight. I couldn’t wait to start showing and when at around week 26 people started asking “when is the baby due?” I was very proud and happy.

However, again I had some moments of big worry as at the 20 week scan the modern technology picked a few odd things that were going on in my belly. The first was an amniotic band, the second was a very low lying placenta. But soon I realized that it was no point worrying (what for? Nothing I could have done anyway), so I just tried my very best to enjoy the pregnancy and so I did. I started reading a lot about parenting and babies, both online and on paper - actually I didn’t touch a single “normal” book for the whole time.

At the beginning of the third trimester we did the baby shopping, which I thought would have took ages but unfortunately actually was very quick. For my disappointment, as it was great fun! I washed and ironed all baby clothes.

Now we are talking, I was getting really big! At around 32 weeks I slowed down heaps, only doing a run of stairs to get to my office was big work! Meanwhile the hospital kept an eye on me, the check-up scan for the amniotic band thanks God didn’t give any bad results but the follow-up for the placenta in the opposite wasn’t great news for me. Nothing bad for the bay, simply they started talking me into the necessity of having the baby born by C-section. I was really disappointed, as I was very curious about labour ad wanted to try the sort of pain (and the wonderful experience, too) that most women try. In the last few weeks of my pregnancy I was at the hospital so many times and had so many scans that my midwife was getting confused keeping track on them and that we run out of room in my pregnancy book.

However, the story of the birth is another story, for now you can see how big I was – few days before the birth.

About a month ago we went for my last walk of the year (well I didn’t know that for sure at that point, but I do now!). I was 29 weeks pregnant.

We went to Hawdon hut, which is only 8Km of flat-easy ground up the valley. In the past, this would have been jus the warming up of much longer trips, but this time I could not have walked a further 5 meters. It was even raining! We had a lovely afternoon in the hut with Darrin and Gill, we celebrated their engagement with Cheesecake and alcohol-free bubbles.

Then I had a horrible night: my back was very sore and I hardly slept. Downsides of pregnancies, not even the nice hut mattresses are comfy anymore! Surely I won’t be able to spend a night in a tent...

It was ages ago that we went for our last holiday before the baby, six weeks ago? Maybe was only four? Gosh, I am losing the feeling of time...!

We stayed in New Zealand. After all, we moved to this beautiful country so what is the point of leaving it for holiday? So we could explore some bits and pieces that we never explored before.

We went to Farewell Split, the very top-left corner of the South Island. It was so windy on the beach we could hardly walk!

Then we went to Wharariki Beach, very famous for its rocks.

Then to Farewell Point

... and to a lot of other places, including the golden beach of Totaranui