Welcome to the third instalment of my blog

Hello and welcome to the third instalment of my blog. Thanks to the sparkling juice drink Shloer, I have been given my very own place to share with you my thoughts, feelings and experiences during my second pregnancy and this is my latest update.

As you may have heard by now, my beautiful baby boy Kit was born nine weeks early on Saturday 7th February. Even though I had suffered from pre-eclampsia during my first pregnancy with Sonny, it was still a surprise when I started developing the symptoms again as I had been enjoying this pregnancy so much more. I was lucky to have the same consultant as I had had the first time around so she was aware of my history and did a great job of keeping a close eye on me. Needless to say the last eight weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind but Kit is now home and we are all doing really well.

We almost discovered I was ill again by accident. I was supposed to travel to Moscow to play a gig and my consultant was due to give me a letter permitting me to fly as I was over 28 weeks pregnant, after which most airlines won’t take you without a doctor’s note. But when I went to see her to collect the letter on Monday 2nd February, she was concerned as I was displaying some classic signs of pre-eclampsia; mainly very high blood pressure and swollen ankles - very glamorous! She told me I wasn’t going anywhere, not even out of my house, and was sent home to rest. I was going to be admitted to hospital should my symptoms worsen and I was advised that we’d be lucky if I managed to stay pregnant for another week. As it happened, I was admitted to Westminster and Chelsea hospital on the Thursday of that week and Kit was born on Saturday 7th February.

Kit spent the first week in an incubator, which was hard for me and Richard as we weren’t able to cuddle and hold him but the staff at the Westminster and Chelsea hospital were great and really supportive. They are really keen for parents to have as much contact with the baby as possible so whenever we had a chance, they’d get him out so we could have a cuddle and once he was off the ventilators we could cuddle Kit every time we visited.

I wouldn’t say it was easy having a premature baby again, it’s a traumatic experience, but Richard and I got through it by telling ourselves that if Kit wasn’t in hospital then I’d still be pregnant with him. knowing there wasn’t any way that he’d be home with us no matter how things had gone made it easier so we just tried to go with the slight feeling of limbo and tried to be patient as he started to get well enough to come home.

Kit looks so like Sonny when he was a baby it’s uncanny! Like Sonny, Kit looks nothing like me and both boys take after their Daddy. Saying that, it’s amazing how babies have the ability to morph depending on who they are with; if Richard’s family are around I can see them in Kit and if my family are around I can see he looks a little more like my side of the family tree. Kit has red hair like sonny too which I am so happy about. They are going to look so sweet running around together!

Given that Kit was born prematurely we didn’t have anything ready, everything had been packed away in the attic and I was looking forward to leisurely sorting through everything and reminiscing about the birth of Sonny. But as Kit was in hospital for five weeks we had a chance to get things sorted and managed to have the nursery ready by the time he came home.

Since he has been home we have had a gradual celebration with friends and family coming round. Although it’s still very new, we just love him being around and he is really enjoying finding out what it is to be part of our family and the world that he is now a part of.

I will be penning my final blog at the end of this month, to let you know how our little family is getting on. In the meantime, I need to get my head back into the world of work – I’m releasing a single in June with Freemasons which is very exciting. Luckily, my work is all very relaxed and I can be in control of my workload which is great and allows me to spend time with both my boys.

I have also included a link to the Tommys website (www.tommys.org), a great charity who do some amazing work – funding research into premature birth and providing information on the causes and prevention of miscarriage, premature birth and still birth. There website is mine of information and is a great support for all sorts during pregnancy and beyond.