I think that I have always been very maternal. As a child I loved dolls and had so much fun babysitting.  I sat for my 2 younger brothers and also close friends of the family or neighbours. I think the urge to be a wife and a mummy has always been very strong in me… I’ve never been the academic type… I have usually excelled in creative subjects while maths, science and history etc took a back seat…so it has made sense for me to follow the family route instead of taking on a professional career.  Working in an office has always bored me senseless.

When my husband proposed to me 2 years ago, I was 21. I remember coming back from our weekend trip to London and telling my colleagues of my engagement, most of who were super pleased, but some of who looked at me like I had horns growing out the top of my head! They didn’t need to say what they were thinking because it was obvious from the look on their face! They thought I was too young to be settling down.

Statistically I am young. Over here in Ireland the average age for a woman to be married for the first time is now close to 30. I seriously can not imagine waiting that long to have married to my husband. I’m glad that I married him while we are young because it means we have more of our lives to live together happily married and for me that’s so exciting.

I remember receiving negativity and being asked was I sure I wanted to marry him and how I’m so young to be sacrificing all the other things I wanted to do in my life. I made the point that I wasn’t sacrificing ANYTHING. In fact by getting married I was making the things I wanted to do in my life all the more exciting because I had this wonderful man beside me doing those things with!

James and I started trying for a baby just a couple of months after the wedding and we fell pregnant in September. Again I recieved mixed reactions from my work colleagues and some friends.  The reactions weren’t necessarily negative, but were definitely that of surprise.  Here in Dublin, as I mentioned above, women are getting married later. This in turn affects the age of a first time mum… again about 30.

I find that when I am at the clinic waiting for an appointment, I am the youngest person there. This attracts a lot of stares which isn’t helped by the fact that I don’t even look 23.

I notice down here is that the majority of pregnant women I see, are already pushing a pram. I hardly ever see a pregnant woman without one. I’m not sure why this is… but I think it may be because the women are older they are then spacing their children closer together

The other thing that is currently in my mind is the fact that Dublin is so career driven. Women here are desperate to get back to work. Being a stay at home mum is uncommon and day care is thriving. I feel lucky that I have the oppurtunity to stay at home and raise my little man myself and I don’t think I could have it any other way.

I’m glad that my husband and I decided to get married and have a baby now. I feel that we are at a time in our lives where we are much more full of fun and fitter than we might be at 30 and I look forward to being a young parent.  When my little baby boy is my age (23) I will be roughly the same age my mother is now (47).  I think this is great because I know how fun my mum is and always has been and I hope in 23 years time my little man will ook at me and think the same.  I think being pregnant has brought my husband and I much closer together and has made our first year of marriage so exciting.