No.

This is not a blog about me falling pregnant.

Or being broody.

This is a blog about how scary it is realising that the we have got the first pregnancy in our tiny group of friends.

We saw said friends this weekend and the young wife is pregnant, due in May of this year. She is tiny and the bump isn’t all that big either but she was complaining how difficult she was finding it, even tying her shoelaces was a mission. She regaled us with stories of how, apparently, you can see little hands and feet kick out against the tummy as the pregnancy progresses.

Now, as much as I realise that this is a female’s role in life, if she chooses it, it really freaks me out, beyond measure. I am petrified of things growing in me – be it baby, spider in my ear or disease in my brain. The mere thought of anything foreign growing inside a person really makes me freak out. Much to our friends’ amusement.

I had this rictus of fear (which I thought passed for a smile) on my face as they chatted away about the birth (an acquaintance of theirs had been in labour for 24 hours!) and these days you could have up to three people with you in the theatre. We chatted – knowledgeably – about the pros and cons of natural birth and Caesarean and breastfeeding and antenatal classes and all the palaver.

And then, my favourite subject they brought up was the money it is going to cost them to bring up the youngling. And what struck me is that these are people who are not financially insecure at all – they have got good jobs, good incomes, yet the reality of bringing a child into this world has opened their eyes to the costs of it all. The young wife indicated that she would probably have to stop working as her entire salary would go towards the paying of childcare. So, in all fairness, it would be easier for her to stay home and do it herself. Which is a valid point. Become a full time house-mom.

And I thought to myself about how many young women just fall pregnant as it is the “easy” way out – getting a house from the council, being paid to have kids and I could only shake my head as two very successful young people, our friends, will no doubt get nothing from a government who is happy to pay for useless people who have never worked a day in their lives and who live purely on hand-outs, as they know how to work the "system".

As per always it made me want to get on a soapbox and proclaim how unfair it is to people who work hard, pay their taxes and who strive to make their lives better, and who get no give-back at the end of it all.

However, I was tempered in my annoyance. Listening to their excitement and seeing their worries and fears made my heart ache for them. They will both make such fantastic parents and I can’t wait to see their youngling and to spoil it rotten. We are already planning an outing for after it is born – can you imagine the chaos – four grown adults, one excitable Jack Russell and one new baby … an none of us will know what to do with it!

Oh, the happy chaos!