Firstly I would like to point out that I am not a Doctor, or of the medical profession.  This is not a medical journal and in this diary I am in no way recommending that other women (whether they do or do not pole) continue their activities in the way that I have.

I simply want to share my pregnancy experiences in an honest blog/diary as reference for other possible pregnant women – who pole dance.

I found a lot of the advice from books and various people very confusing, and very little information about my particular situation, which as the popularity of pole dancing grows will become a greater concern over time I have no doubt.

A little bit about me and my fitness background….

I have been pole dancing for about 4 years now, in the beginning it was barely even once a week, then I started regular lessons, and once I started teaching it went up to three times a week, every week, for about two or three years.  So by the time I found out I was pregnant, my body was already quite conditioned to pole dance fitness, the ONLY reason I decided it would be even remotely sane to continue throughout pregnancy.

I never planned for a baby; I’m not the most maternal type.  Whenever people have handed me a child I’d hold it at arms length and stare at it, not really knowing what to do!   I love puppies, hand me a puppy and I’ll go all mushy and try to squish it into my face and play with it but babies….I just don’t get them.  So this has been a very emotional journey for me, and a huge learning curve.

I had been off the pill for a year an a half for medical reasons, so my fiancée and I had tried to be extra careful…..but one slipped through the net! So you can imagine how ‘surprised’ I was to find out I was pregnant!

This is my first time, and I have probably done all sorts wrong, but it’s the truth none the less and I hope it provides some use to someone.

I have divided it into 3 sections (The Three Trimesters) and then three sections again – 4 weeks at a time.  I have also included some information about what happens to your body each week, taken from www.babycentre.co.uk which I found to be a VERY useful site, particularly the foetal development section.



First Trimester

Weeks 1-4 – How Can you tell? 

It took over 4 weeks before I knew really so I don’t have much to report for this section, but I’ll tell you how it all started.

I had really STINGY boobs straight away, now they get sensitive normally every month anyway so I just passed this off for weeks….until they got bigger too.  I was very pleased with myself! I also needed to wee – A LOT.  So I thought maybe I should do a test, just in case.

I want to clear up for the record, pregnancy tests kits are not as straight forward to read as you might think!  I did one, it showed a strong vertical line and a very faint horizontal line….now a strong HORIZONTAL line means ‘not pregnant’ and a clear cross means ‘pregnant’….well what the hell was I?  The horizontal line was so faint it looked like it could just be a seeping stain, not an obvious mark.  I did another test, sure that it would show a negative result…….SAME THING!

So I did the only thing I could think of…..phoned a friend.  My best friend couldn’t tell, my sister came round; my Mum….we all stood around it scratching our heads – no idea what it meant.  We collectively decided that I should get a digital one that actually says in writing ‘Pregnant’ AND how many weeks gone.

Hmmmm….. Well it was definitely a positive result, and 3+ weeks gone indicator – which means it could be anything between 3 and 5 weeks already!

I instantly crapped myself and tried to come to terms with the idea.   ‘I’m – not – ready’ was my first thought.  Quickly followed by ‘Oh-My-God-what-about-pole?!’. Pole to me, is not just my fitness regime, but it is also my hobby and my job too!  So in case you were thinking I am being a bit dramatic, this is why!

So I sat down and had a cry.  And a cigarette…then I cried that I had had a cigarette whilst pregnant!  I started thinking about all the things I had done in the last few weeks, smoked, ate junk, ate shellfish and peanuts, flung myself upside down for hours, trained until I felt like collapsing, smoked some more!

But then I thought about it…..I’m nearly 30, that’s a good age to have a child, I was in a stable 5 year relationship, we lived together in a stable home, had bedrooms to spare, the business was just starting to take off, I work from home and manage my own time during the day, have lots of family and friends support……..Actually, everything was perfect.  But I worried about pole.

------------end of testimonials------------

Weeks 5-8 – What about pole?!

So – I asked my GP (who was my first point of contact), she told me that as I am an exercise professional and do pole dance on a regular basis, there’s no reason why I should stop unless my body tells me to.  In fact, it is generally encouraged that women who exercise continue to exercise as it promotes an easier birth, but it is not recommended to START a new exercise regime if you don’t already, or increase the intensity/difficulty of what you currently do.

My midwife pretty much said the same thing, although they BOTH advised me to take it easy if possible in the first 12 weeks so the baby can become well embedded in the womb.

As I talked to more people about it I started to learn just how thickly shrouded in superstition being pregnant was. People told me…

* DON’T exercise AT ALL, take it easy.

* Exercise away – just be normal.

* Never go upside down.

* Go upside down – it doesn’t make a difference – just don’t fall!

* If you fall, it will die!

* If you get kicked, it will die!

* If you fall – it will be fine as it is so protected, but go get checked out anyway.

* Won’t you be too big anyway?

* Won’t you be too heavy?

                                                     * DON’T do high impact.

                                                     * Carry on as you are.

Pfft….so much conflicting stuff, my head was spinning!  Also, I had planned and paid for a pole photo shoot to be done in week 8 which COULD NOT be cancelled, apart from the sickness I looked and felt totally normal to do it, but I was so scared that it might be so dangerous…things were looking really ropey!  So I took the reigns and decided to speak to another professional in the field of a different kind.  (The above picture is from the photo shoot, you can still see my abs at 8 weeks pregnent!).

Katie Coates was the only woman in pole at the time who had had a very ‘public’ pole-baby (so to speak).  She ‘broke’ all the ‘rules’ and did as she saw fit….and gave birth to a VERY healthy little girl after teaching pole, becoming a body builder AND doing various performances.

Katie was very honest with me and she also told me that she had had several women with the same concerns as me call her in the last few months…….that’s what helped me decide to do this diary.

As a pole dancer and fitness professional, it’s VERY hard to accept that your body will be going through so much drastic changes, the thought of putting weight on was upsetting, the thought of getting too heavy to pole, loosing my flexibility, my training going backwards, loosing my strength and ability, not being able to take all the polling opportunities that I really wanted to……it was soul destroying.

But Katie put me at ease and gave me her opinion and told me of her experience, after which I decided on a plan!

I decided that during the first 12 weeks, apart from the photo shoot,  I would take it easy as suggested by health professionals – luckily that first 12 weeks fell on the Christmas close down period anyway so I had the whole of the next 8 weeks to do nothing and stuff myself with food anyway!

When classes start back again in the new year I would be only just entering the second Trimester and be ‘medically allowed’ to exercise as I normally would – so I decided to go back to teaching 3 times a week, doing all levels of difficulty as normal – until I started to get bigger and feel off balance or unsafe.

As soon as that happens, I would continue to only teach beginner level myself and employ experienced help for the more difficult lessons.

Around the time of birth, I would slow lessons to a stop, take a short amount of time off for recovery, and then ease back into things as I felt safe to.  That was my plan.

This trimester I also got about a million colds – colds when you’re pregnant are the WORST, if someone close to you has a sniffle, you catch it immediately – only it morphs into a mega cold, and what’s even more sad is, you can’t even take anything to speed up your recovery!

Body & Baby Info:

5 Weeks Pregnant

6 Weeks Pregnant

7 Weeks Pregnant

8 Weeks Pregnant

Weeks 9-12 – Pole Withdrawal Misery

What I didn’t budget for was the sickness……OH MY GOOOOOD! The sickness!

I’m lucky that I’m not much of a puker, but oh my word the ‘Morning sickness’ feeling I had lasted ALL DAY, and ALL NIGHT!  I felt constantly sea sick and couldn’t eat a thing without my tummy turning.  It feels like that stage of a hangover where it’s 4pm in the afternoon and you think to yourself…’I should eat something but I have no idea what I can hold down’…..I felt like this until week 10, then it was reduced to every OTHER day.

I was so tired too – I felt utterly wiped out all of the time and slept for on average 14 hours a day, and it still didn’t feel like enough.

So I spent most of the first 4 weeks indoors, too sick and tired to do anything, go anywhere, or eat well…. I CERTAINLY didn’t want to exercise and I was MISERABLE!

About that time Deb Riley opened up her studio with a huge show – including trollyfulls of performances and masterclasses from famous pole dancers like Jenyne Butterfly, Elena Gibson , Sally Ann Giles , Alesia Vazmitzel, Miss Glory Pearl , Tracey Simmonds, Chantelle Pritchard , Jannine Wilkering , Sasha Kavaleva, Bridgette Sachil and Sabrina Pankow.

I cried that I couldn’t go.

I wanted to work on my stretching so badly but it’s dangerous to stretch without first warming up the joints with some cardio – and the thought of moving that much made me green.

FINALLY, by the end of the first trimester, I started to feel a bit better – and began to eat more.  I felt so happy that I could do things again and eat normally that I went overboard!  And got BIG within a week!

So in the last week – I went for my first scan to find out EXACTLY how far gone I was and see if the baby was alive and kicking still – that’s all I was arsed about.  Read on to the ‘Second Trimester’ to see the result…

Body & Baby Info:

9 Weeks Pregnant

10 Weeks Pregnant

11 Weeks Pregnant

12 Weeks Pregnant

Recommendations Bit:

* Orange Juice – At this stage, orange juice was the only thing I could face and to be honest it tasted like the most beautiful thing in the world.  I drank buckets of it, and when I was feeling a bit like I had drank it too much, I switched to Del Monte pure orange ice lollies!

* Travel Sickness Bands – Being as you can’t take the tablets, most people swear by these.

Weeks 13-16 – The weeks ‘Peanut’ became REAL

So after quite a miserable start to being newly pregnant, this trimester was the bit I was looking forward to the most….it’s known as ‘The Honeymoon Period’ because you are still you, not too visibly heavy yet, you can still do all the things you normally would without the sickness or aching, and you get to see your baby for the first time with your 12 week scan, or ‘The Dating Scan’.
I was told to drink loads of fluids ready for the scan – this pushes the baby higher up so they can get a good shot.  I was expecting to see a chicken nugget shaped object with not much character or detail……. MAN was I pleased with this …….



So here is Peanut at 12 weeks.  Isn’t she marvellous?!  I was so surprised at this little baby shaped looking thing.  And when we listened to the heart it was a good solid, strong beat and showed every sign of being very healthy.  I was relieved!

I was now feeling my baby’s movements too, at first it was almost un distinguishable from a bowel movement – but after a week or two it felt more like someone drawing circles on my tummy with the tip of the finger (from the inside though!), then they felt like taps, then the taps became more obvious and she started wriggling too.
Pretty soon, I was able to tell a range of movement – little tap = a punch, big fat tap = a kick, wriggles = general squirming, and lengthened tap = a push!
I was also experiencing some ‘Braxton Hicks Contractions’ which at first just felt like someone had trodden on my whole womb area!  I looked this up and apparently it’s totally normal, like practise contractions to prepare you for the real thing, but for Peanut, it was also a sign that she was about to let out an almighty hoof!

Random side effects that don’t normally get talked about are bleeding gums – at first I thought I might have a problem with my teeth but I later learned that this is actually very common in pregnancy and I guess this is why pregnant birds get free dental care!  So if this is happening to you also, take advantage of that!  I also had bleedy nose – not a full on nose bleed as such, I just found that I need to blow my nose more than usual and noticed upon inspection (oh come on…we all do it!) that it would often come out red (nice).  This too is also very normal and quite common, as well as being able to taste a metallic flavour in your mouth a lot.

Food wise – Peanut craved nothing but BIG MAC’S!  I’m a quarter pounder with cheese girl myself, but Peanut had to have the Big Mac’s!  Highly nutritious stuff….again, don’t take this as a recommendation!

Body & Baby Info

13 Weeks Pregnant

14 Weeks Pregnant

15 Weeks Pregnant

16 Weeks Pregnant









Weeks 17-20 – Stress at work

I felt slightly at ease about going back to pole lessons for the new year, knowing she was alive and well, and even looked forward to getting back into my stride.
Classes continued as normal for me, however I did start getting in some help to limit my activity a bit, just in case.  But at this point I could still go upside down and do all my usual pole stuff.  The only thing I stayed away from was the ‘Death Lay’ and trying out anything new.



The ‘Death Lay’…well, as best as I could do it on the day…again I would definately NOT recommend this move when pregnant! 

Although my energy levels were on the up and the sickness had totally gone, other areas of my health were not so great, particularly stress at work.
This trimester, I pretty much fell out with people a lot.  NOT because of the hormones (or hormines I called them!), but more because there were some issues in the ‘Pole World’ and I seemed to be getting it from all angles, facing a lot of flack from peers and fellow pollers in the industry.
I guess my mistake was that I took the attitude that ‘Even a dog has courage to bite back when it’s being attacked’.  Pole world is pretty demanding sometimes, and I found that I was constantly having to defend myself and worrying about what other people think of me – I suddenly realised that you JUST CANNOT please all of the people all of the time, and NOW was a very important time in my life to feel happy – so you gotta DO WHAT MAKES YOU HAPPY.

Why am I mentioning this on here?  Well, because it got to a point where running my own business and trying to constantly appease people – instead of doing what I really wanted, was starting to become a mental burden, stress levels went up, sleep became difficult and I had some really high blood pressure readings at the maternity appointments – I fell straight into the ‘high risk’ pregnancy category.

LIMITING YOUR STRESS LEVELS IN PREGNANCY IS VERY IMPORTANT.

Becoming too stressed and raised blood pressure can cause problems in pregnancy, such as restricted growth, or pre-eclampsia.  All in all, it’s not good for you or baby, and now that I was in the ‘High Risk’ category, the medical officials doubled my appointments to keep an eye on us both.

I decided in the end I had to distance myself from all things ‘local pole community’ as it was ruining my business, and at my health’s expense!  I needed to stay calm and focused, for peanut.
Since limiting my stress levels, my pregnancy got a lot easier and my blood pressure lowered and I was able to move forward with my business, which really paid off as my mind was cleared of the junk and Peanut and I came up with some of our best ideas ever!

Other than that – I was in good shape, I could still handspring and shoulder mount, invert – the only things I stayed away from was any holds that I felt I had a slightly unsafe grip like scorpio’s, gemini’s, hip holds etc…. for fear of falling randomly!

Body & Baby Info

17 Weeks Pregnant

18 Weeks Pregnant

19 Weeks Pregnant

20 Weeks Pregnant









Weeks 21-24 – Baby Genius!

Turns out I am having a baby genius as well! – during this time was one of the best times I have had for new and exciting business and pole ideas!  I felt super creative and super productive and made some very drastic changes to my classes, my pricing structure, my website, my products AND services….all for the better.
My business has always been very important to me, IT’S MY ONLY JOB!  and now it was even more important that it is to be providing for my little one.  So preparing for my maternity leave and making lots of fabulous plans for my return was top of the agenda and I really enjoyed it!

On the other hand, I started getting what is commonly known as ‘preggo brain’!  it’s basically memory loss, general confusion and loss of ability to co-ordinate oneself properly!  People would ask me in class what time their next class would start the following week and I would stare at them blankly  going ‘errrrrr…..’ – and then one of the other girls would answer for me!  Another preggo brain classic was whenever I was demonstrating ‘Ankle circles’ in the warm up I would twirl my wrists etc….

Peanut developed a perchante for Bonkers by Dizzee Rascal by the way – booted every time it was on in class.

So – it was about time we had another scan – ‘The Anomaly Scan’!  This was the one we had been waiting for, the midwives are able to see a lot more on this one – like checking on the baby’s growth, measuring the bones, checking for health risks, functioning organs and of course….determining the baby’s sex!

This is Peanut at 21 weeks…

Ok, this picture is slightly less impressive, but she is brilliant all the same, and at this point, in perfect health!  Due to the nature of the last few weeks I was very eager to hear this news, I just wanted to KNOW that Peanut was ok and that my work and pole and stress levels hadn’t had any detrimental effects, but she was GREAT!  And I say SHE, because at this scan, we found out I was having a baby girl!

From the picture, it would seem that she has my chubby cheeks already, and Daddy’s cute button nose.  I am hoping the giant cranium is a storehouse for some serious brain power…. I reckon I might be on to something here as she has come up with all my best ideas so far!  Maybe she could work for Tefal one day?

Body & Baby Info

21 Weeks Pregnant

22 Weeks Pregnant

23 Weeks Pregnant

24 Weeks Pregnant





Weeks 25-27 – The Weeks Pole Got Tough

Being as this is a slightly longer trimester, I have split it as there just seemed to be so much happening!  About how the Trimsters are split:  The truth is…..  ‘THEY’ just don’t know where the division is!  Some say 26 weeks is the start of the third trimester, some say 28 weeks, some 29…..NO ONE really knows for sure!

Pole started to get tougher in these weeks – I remember loosing my shoulder mount at this point, and although dancing in class was still great, after class I ached like someone who had never polled before!  maybe even worse than that, it was pretty rubbish.  Mostly I felt aching in the lower back and hips, so I knew it was preggo related, not random pole injuries, so I invested in a bump strap and employed help to demonstrate the moves in class at this point – and generally tried to do less, but allow my verbal teaching points to take over.

This worked well and to be honest HAVING to rely on the strength of my verbal instruction made me even more experienced as a teacher, and better at my job ultimately!

But again, the pole withdrawal got to me, and guess who’s UK tours I was missing this time?  Only Pantera, Miss Suzie Q and Alethea Austin!  An all too familiar feeling of physical dread came back.  BUT I pushed it to the back of my mind, not much point whining about something I can’t change right now, and this just made me more determined to plan ahead a bit better with lessons – I realised my original goal were a bit too optimistic, and decided to shave one course off before my maternity leave – originally I had planned to teach until I dropped.

What did cheer me up though is now we had the all important info we needed to get on with preparing for our baby – we’re having a girl!  So we decided on a name – she was to be called Millie Mackintosh.  I organised a ‘Bump Shoot’ with my photographer buddy Andrew, and we started work on a room for Millie.  Things got really exciting, and I started to look forward to spending the next few weeks focusing on HER rather than pole.

Body & Baby Info

25 Weeks Pregnant

26 Weeks Pregnant

27 Weeks Pregnant

Recommendations Bit

* Limit your physical activity a bit – if it’s proving too much

* Limit your stress levels – if there’s things/people/events bothering you and causing you un-necessary stress, CUT THEM OUT OF YOUR LIFE

* Do what makes YOU happy – a happy you makes a happy baby

* Get a bump strap

* Do a maternity photo shoot – How many times in your life will your body look like this?  Capture it, even if you feel like a hideous moose.

Weeks 28-31 – Prepare for Battle!

These weeks felt like a constant battle plan, prepare, prepare, prepare!  Now that I knew I had been a bit ambitious to think that I would be able to teach for another 10 weeks (yeah right!), I decided to chop it down to just the 6 weeks.   That in mind, I finally had a maternity leave date – or as near as, so I spent most of my life in these weeks applying for various benefits and chasing the applications through.   Also, I had to make sure all the current students had a plan for their lesson structure too – make sure I helped them perfect what they were currently working on, and give them a load more stuff to work on whilst I would be away.  I spent a lot of time sat on my arse, writing articles for the site for my girls to use whilst I was off.  They turned out really nice, you can see them HERE.

The home was another battleground – I was full-on into the ‘Nesting Phase’ now and went round each room in the house getting rid of any junk that we don’t use and cleaning every square inch of it.

Millie’s room was stripped, painted, newly carpeted, kitted out with everything a baby could possibly need and was looking plush!







I also had to come up with a battle plan for MYSELF too, so taking meds and vits became a daily regime, as did moisturising the bump to avoid stretch marks (I used Dermalogica Body Hydrating Cream - cheapest place to buy that is HERE, also Bio Oil which you can buy pretty much anywhere), I started using Mothercare’s Perfect Delivery Perineal Gel to ‘help improve elasticity and soften the skin in preparation for labour’ – that’s as descriptive as I am prepared to go on that subject!

Because I was still considered a ‘high risk’ pregnancy, I was able to have another scan at 28 weeks pregnant.  So here she is again, 28 weeks old.

I have tilted this picture so you can clearly see a side profile of her little face.  You can clearly see her forehead, a pretty little eye, button nose, rounded cheek, tiny mouth and chin.  The ‘item’ by her chin is a tiny fist – she was just sucking her thumb as the picture was taken!

I was still suffering from aches at this point, but it had shifted from my lower back to my whole pelvic area.  Sometimes I literally had to climb the stairs on all fours to get up them!  The rest of the time I hobbled around like a little old lady!  Not a cool look.  SO the fella took some initiative (rare but welcome occurrence) and booked me in for some ‘Floatation Therapy’ at Cherry Floatation in Hawarden (a village just down the road from where I live).  MY GOD IT WAS BRILLIANT!  I felt so well rested after it, aches had completely dissapated, I didn’t feel limited anymore, and I even felt like my usual bodyweight was back (at this point I had put on 2 stone!) and I was feeling ready to cope with anything!

BUT… in all sensibility, it was time to start admitting defeat and so I pretty much HAD TO stop inverting now, I was finding it very difficult and the lump just got in the way – it seemed to be going through a growth spurt and got bigger every other day!

Body & Baby info

28 Weeks Pregnant

29 Weeks Pregnant

30 Weeks Pregnant

31 Weeks Pregnant











Weeks 32-35 – OMG is it over yet?!

I had grown HUGE practically overnight, apparently us preggo’s gain about a pound a week round about now!  the extra weight meant that I had now developed serious SPD as well, which was KILLING me!  Now I HAVE actually cracked a rib doing pole before (stupidly repeating the same move over and over until I hurt!) and it never felt as painful as this.

What is SPD?  Hmmm…. well, it’s a lovely pregnancy sympton that only 1 in 5 women get.    Here’s a brief description of what it is:

The two halves of your pelvis are connected at the front by a stiff joint called the symphysis pubis. This joint is strengthened by a network of tough, flexible ligaments. To help your baby pass through your pelvis as easily as possible, your body produces relaxin, which softens the ligaments.  As a result, these joints move more during and just after pregnancy, causing inflammation and pain.

 A related condition is DSP, in which the gap in the pubic joint widens too far. The average gap between the bones in a non-pregnant woman is between 4 and 5mm, during pregnancy it’s normal for this gap to widen by 2 or 3mm. If the gap is 10mm or more, DSP is diagnosed. It’s rare, and can only be identified by X-ray.

All this meant that my pole ability was reduced to strictly beginner level now, so spins were ok, but I simply couldn’t do much running around or anything that required a lot of legwork.  Thank god my I was on my last 2 weeks of teaching my last course at this stage – my body was giving me all the signals I needed….it was time to QUIT! 

Now lessons had finished, I got those old guilty prangs and feelings of withdrawal, so I decided to do some very simple, very safe freeweight exercises whilst sat on a gym ball to support the bump.  The last thing I wanted was to come out of this with all of my pole strength completely diminished, but it was the only exercise I felt safe to do now.  As it turned out, I found the exercises very effective and useful for ANYONE wanting to use freeweights in the gym to strengthen up for pole, so I have posted them HERE.

But soon after, things started to get real uncomfortable, my boobs leaked ever so slightly (about a drip’s worth every few hours), I had a bizarre skin breakout on my face from all the hormonal changes, I had to roll over onto my side, then on my hands and knees to get up off my back, the dreaded nausia came back again (oh joy) but this time it teamed up with some lovely acid reflux too (double joy), for this – I recommend the assorted fruit flavoured TUMS!  sleeping became impossible, and not being able to pole anymore meant that I was feeling very fat, sluggish and useless. 

I really felt by now that I had been pregnant forever and started to wish it over.  BUT at 34 weeks I was allowed yet another scan which was the only thing cheering me up!  that and being waited on hand and foot by my wonderful fiancee.  So here is Millie at 34 weeks old.

Like all the other new Mum’s I had met recently, I was getting increasingly worried about the birth, but very excited about meeting her.

I even made a little video to vent my excitement…

Millie’s movements had become VERY forceful now, and even painful.  I could feel the moment when her head engaged – it was like a weird ‘monthly pain’ sensation which lasted a few hours….not painful enough or regular enough to be labour but certainly noticeable!

Since then, her head and all the extra weight right on the pelvis made my SPD go CRAZY!  I became a bit of an emotional rollercoaster to be with in these weeks and I felt like my independance and health deteriorated overnight!  I now relied on my fiancee to do pretty much EVERYTHING for me.  I ended up having a hissy fit one night because I couldn’t even put my own knickers on without something hurting or feeling crushed.



Body & Baby Info

32 Weeks Pregnant

33 Weeks Pregnant

34 Weeks Pregnant

35 Weeks Pregnant









Weeks 36 – Birth

Again, due to being in the ‘High Risk’ category, the professionals decided that before they would make any rash decisions to induce me early (to avoid further complications for her and minimise my discomfort), they would monitor us both VERY closely over week 35 & 36.  So I spent every OTHER day at hospital.

In this time I was able to get to know the labour ward pretty well.  When I first heard of people having ‘tours’ of the labour ward at the beginning of my pregnancy I thought this was a bit of a stupid process to be honest but now I realise it isn’t as each time I was admitted for monitoring I noticed just how weird life is in there without all the home comforts I am used to!

It wasn’t an unpleasent place, but you definately need your own distractions to keep your mind occupied, so I was able to pack my hospital bag really well whenever I WAS home!  This would include anything I had thought about with regards to prepping for labour.

My best tip is…. ‘If it makes you feel better, then it helps!’

To explain what I mean, I’ll tell you about some eccentric, over the top stuff I included in my packing, none of which are necessary really but everytime I went into hospital – I just felt like – ok, no problem, I have everything I need.  SO, things that I took that probably most sane folk wouldn’t is…. my laptop!  and a selection of DVD’s to watch.  Movies really take me away with the fairies so I figured I would be most likely be able to pipe down and forget about stuff if I had a film to watch!

I bought a TENS machine, a head massager, anyone who knows me should also know how important it is to me to have an abundance of ‘special snacks’ around me if I am to sit anywhere for a length of time….so I collected a bag full of my favorite foods, loads of eccentric stuff again like Thorntons choccies and strawberries!  I felt ready to cope with ANYTHING…..even if I did look like a complete fruit cake!

But this was all ON TOP of the normal stuff AND the stuff you must’nt forget – phone chager & phone, little bit of money for the shop, a bag for new baby, clothes & pants etc, lots of pads…for all purposes!  Baby wipes for everything else! etc…

Another benefit of this stage of the pregnancy is that people could see that things were becoming a total struggle for me and started to chip in!  Mum and my fiancee helped drive me to the appointments left right and centre, and kept me fed and watered, helped with housework and washing etc… my fiancee’s folks bought me presents or were bringing me things… my friends were buying little presents for Millie and my students were either doing the same or just showing me their un faltering support, my sister splurged on some beauty treatments for me ready for the ‘Bump Shoot’, which was especially brilliant considering how freakish I was feeling!  It was a really nice time.

We had also had this Bump Shoot planned for sometime and the dates kept changing as first I was too small for it (I wanted to be at my hugest in the pics!) and then we moved it forward in case I was going to be induced!  But the day finally came and Andrew did a fantastic job!  I have used his images throughout this blog and for various other projects, and despite the fact that I could NOT POSSIBLY have felt LESS attractive at the time, I am super glad I had it done anyway as we now have our very first family portrait shots on the walls at home and a very first photo album. 

So that was it.  I felt ready to pretty much get Millie out, show her the world, and start our new lives all together.





Return of the Blood Pressure & OMG BIRTH!

No sooner had I had the bump shoot, that on that very night I went for my usual check up and guess what….. the blood pressure was sky high!  So high that apparently I could have had a stroke from it at any given moment. 

Pregnancy does normally push your blood pressure up a bit but honestly, mine was scarey.  No one knows WHY it was so bad, I had cut out the stresses, it has nothing to do with pole dance, my liver, lungs and kidneys were all tested and were fine, bloods and sugars were fine, I was not diabetic, overweight, old, or intolerent to anything and my cholesterol levels were spot on.  There was literally no explanation for it.  So they tried to control it with drugs for 2 days and gave up – they made the decision to induce me!  Just 2 days after the photo shoot.

AAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

To cut a long story short, there were some complications – things like my veins not being big enough, blood pressure mis-behaving, the epidural didn’t work, my back was too arched, I had to stay in bed for the whole process coz I was attached to TWO drips at once etc…..  The labour bit was fine, painful – but I was feeling very motivated and was eager to push her out when the moment came.

And then, Millie was here!

My hard work had paid off – not a single stretch mark, and no stitches!  Brilliant! 

So, because she was obviously premature, she weighed only 4lbs2 – which is good for a prem baby.  She (like most prem babies) had trouble breathing on her own at first, but was able to do it after a day.  She also had feeding issues at the beginning and was sent to SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit).  Those guys did a FANTASTIC job.  They cared for her so well and got her strong and healthy as quickly as possible.

And here she is a few days later with some of our Candy & Chrome  pole birds…







Because she was in special care, I decided the best thing I could do for her now was to breast feed, so I gave up the fags, ate fruit & veg a lot more, kept my fluids up and gave it a shot.  Since she has been on the feeds, she has been able to keep it all down herself and increase the amount gradually.  This is what she looked like just a few days later…

Recommendations Bit:



*Prepare, Prepare, Prepare – and prepare early!

*Know your rights & what you are entitled to

*Moisturise lots – including down there!

*Relax – try a alternative therapy, like the Cherry float

*KNOW YOUR LIMITS, and when to quit

*Fruit flavoured TUMS

*Pack your bags early and remember – ‘If it makes you feel better, then it HELPS!’

*Be brave, get a bump shoot done, even if you think you look like crap, you won’t regret it!  Hire a professional like Andrew Dobell for this.

*If you look like crap, get clip in hair extensions, beauty treatments, good make-up, good lighting etc….it’ll be fine.

*Breastfeed if you can – it’s super juice for babies!  And good for you too.