BELIEVE IT!
Yo u ’ ll n e ve r
Rebeccaand
Matthewwaited
solongtobeparentsait
sperm, before being implanted. I was told
to do a pregnancy test two weeks later.
When that day came, as we sat
nervously together on the edge of the
bath, looking at the test in my hand, we
both felt full of hope.
‘I’m pregnant!’ I gasped,
staring at the two blue lines
in complete disbelief. After
all these years of longing, it
had finally happened.
Over the next few weeks, we
announced the news to family
and shopped for baby things.
At my 12-week-scan, I lay on
the bed and excitedly watched
the sonographer put the cold
jelly on my little bump. Our babysoon
appeared on the monitor – wecouldjust
make out the head, body and tinyoutline
of a nose. But then the sonographer
turned to me and Matthew. ‘I’msorry,’
she said. ‘There’s no heartbeat.’I felt Matthew put his arm around me.
But I was silent, unable to take it in. Just
seconds ago, I’d been the happiest I’d
ever been – then, just like that, it had
been taken away from me.
Intheweeksthatfollowed,I was
inconsolable,andit was
onlythehopeoftrying
againthatkeptmegoing.
InOctober2014,wehad
oursecondroundofIVF
andanotherpositive
pregnancytestfollowed.
Butjusteightweeks
later,a scan
revealedthe
embryohad
failedtodevelopproperly.
It washeartbreaking.
InMay2015,wehad
ourthirdroundofIVF– but
thistimewhenwefound
outI waspregnant,Matthew and I knew better
than to get our hopes up.
Yet, at an eight week
scan, the sonographer
said they could see two
heartbeats. ‘It’s twins,’
she told us.
I couldn’t believe that
we might get not just one
baby but two babies – it
was more than we could
have hoped for. But just a
week later, I started to bleed
and a scan confirmed that
one of the twins had died.
‘Please don’t let me lose
the other one,’ I wept to
Matthew. I just couldn’t bear
any more heartache.Mum at last
The next few weeks passed
in an anxious blur – but after
18 weeks, I finally allowed
myself to relax a little bit.
Feeling healthy and
happy, I loved every minute
of being pregnant, watching
as my bump grew. And in
March 2016, I gave birth to
our beautiful daughter,
Bobbi-Grace, at Rotherham
General Hospital.
Holding my gorgeous
baby girl in my arms, I felt as
though my life was complete- just months before my 40th
birthday, I finally had what I’d
been longing for ever since
I was a teenager.
Now, Bobbi-Grace is three,
and is the cheekiest little thing, always
singing and dancing at home. We bake
shortbread together and go swimming,
and I cherish every moment with her.
Whenevershecallsouttome,that
word‘Mum’alwaysgivesmea
rushofhappiness.It
mayhavetaken
me 20 years
togetthat
title,butit’s
beenworth
thewait.
‘I gasped,
staring at
the two
lines in
disbelief’