Read Online Babies in Waiting by Rosie fiore - Free Book Online Page A

would ever get pregnant. It was supposed to take years, if we ever managed it at all. It must be the cheap pregnancy test. It had to be faulty.
    Halfway down the cup of tea, I needed to pee again. This time, I used one of the digital tests, and it took anexcruciating three minutes before it popped up a result. ‘Pregnant’, it announced emphatically, then helpfully added ‘Two-three weeks’.
    As I sat on the loo, speechless with disbelief, I heard the alarm go off in the bedroom and James groan and roll over to my side of the bed to switch it off. He got up and shuffled into the kitchen. There was no point in speaking to him before he’d had his first cup of coffee. He wouldn’t be able to tell me his own name before that, let alone deal with my startling bombshell. I decided to have a shower. I wasn’t avoiding the issue, just giving James a bit of time to wake up.
    I showered, washed my hair, shaved my legs, moisturised all over and plucked a few stray hairs out of my eyebrows. I wanted to be ready. Then I made a dash into the bedroom to get dressed. Well, I didn’t want to tell James wearing just a dressing gown. But what do you wear to tell your husband you’re pregnant? I was standing in front of the wardrobe in my underwear, trying to choose a dress, when I heard James go into the bathroom. The bathroom, where two positive pregnancy tests were lined up on the countertop next to the sink.
    ‘James!’ I yelled, and ran through to the bathroom. I pounded on the door. ‘Come out! I need to . . .’ I hadn’t thought this through. What could I possibly need to do so urgently? I’d just come out of there. ‘Come out!’ I yelled again in desperation.
    James opened the door slowly. He had the digital test in his hand. He didn’t say anything. I stood looking athim, dressed only in pants and a bra, my wet hair dripping down my back.
    ‘I was going to tell you . . .’ I stuttered.
    Eventually he spoke. ‘But we only just . . .’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘And I thought you couldn’t . . .’
    ‘Me too.’
    ‘But I don’t understand how . . .’
    ‘Me neither.’
    He looked at the test again.
    ‘Fuck me.’
    And, predictably, I burst into tears.
    We didn’t really have time to talk about it. We both had to get to work. I calmed down and dried my hair and managed to get dressed and organised and ready to leave. James kissed me and hugged me hard before he dashed off to the bus stop. He hesitated in the doorway and then said, ‘I love you, okay? This is huge, but we’ll work it out.’
    That made me feel a bit better, but in another way, it made me feel worse. It was huge, but what was there to work out? We’d set out to get me pregnant, and I was. Granted, we’d banked on two years and it had taken two weeks, but this was the desired outcome, wasn’t it?
    I went to work, but it would be a lie to say I worked. My boss was out at a meeting all day, and I didn’t have anything too urgent to do, so I spent most of the morning on the baby website, reading stories of women trying to do what I’d done, against all the odds, more or less by mistake. I’d never posted, in fact I’d never signed up or given myselfan online alias. At about midday on a whim I registered on the forum, giving myself the username PR_Girl. Hesitantly, I started a thread headed ‘Unexpected BFP’.
    Hi,
I’ve been a lurker here for a while, never posted before. I’m twenty-six and I was diagnosed with POI a few weeks ago.
    (I didn’t need to spell out what that was . . . there were loads of other women who had it and the women who spent their time in that group were versed in every pregnancy-related acronym under the sun).
    This morning, I did a test, and it seems I have a BFP. This is the last thing we expected . . . we thought it would take years, if ever. I’m excited, but so, so scared.
    I didn’t know what else to say. In fact, I wasn’t sure why I had posted at all. I pushed my chair back and sighed loudly. When I looked up,