3 Generations Of Christmas Eve Babies

Tommy at 3 weeks old 

I'm not writing this post because I feel in any way ungrateful for what I have. I know just how extremely lucky I am!! I'm writing it because I feel the need to share the irony and shear "how is that even possible" situation with you all.

For anyone who knows me well, it's been a bit of a joke with me that I didn't want a baby born in December. My main reasons were, it's always a busy month with Christmas celebrations and all that's involved with that. I also have 2 sisters with December birthdays and when I married, I found myself with a husband and father-in-law who both shared a birthday on the 24th December.

Since being with Keith I've tried to keep Christmas Eve dedicated to his birthday, not easy though when you take everything else into considerations. Anyway, I had no plans of adding a third generation to this list of Christmas Eve birthdays. So much so that I was planning in my head when we would start trying for a family. After we married I wasn't in a rush to start a family as I really wanted time with my new husband, just being the 2 of us.  A risky business when you're already 37. And, I definitely didn't want that December baby and especially not a Christmas Eve baby.



Well our pregnancy with our little boy did come a little earlier than planned. It was OK, as he was due in November, so I had definitely avoided having a baby born on Christmas Eve. I hadn't avoided having a December baby, but it would be early enough in the month that I'd be OK with it. Considering he was due on the 23rd of November and I started labour on the 28th, you'd think he'd have been born in November. But some how that cheeky little monkey of ours managed to squeeze into December and be born at 5 minutes past mid-night on the 1st December!! I couldn't believe it when they announced the date and time of his birth. I jokingly said "can we pretend he was born on the 30th November".

Roll on just under a year and I felt ready to start trying for our second baby. I always wanted a sibling for our little boy, I just needed to feel ready to put my body through pregnancy again and everything else that's involved with having a baby. Plus I thought a 2 year gap was a nice age gap for them. Without going into too many details we were trying to get pregnant for a few months. I wasn't too worried about how long it was taking us, but I knew we were getting close to the time when if I got pregnant soon this baby would be due in December. Part of me wanted to put trying to get pregnant on hold, just while we passed that time. But the other part of me was saying, don't be silly, if you're meant to get pregnant, it will happen, don't mess with things. I hear of so many women having trouble falling pregnant second time round and at 39 I didn't want to leave it too long.

You know what's coming!!!! Even though we had been trying to get pregnant for a few months, the time it happened meant I'd be due in December. It was a bit of a bitter sweet feeling when it was confirmed that I was indeed expecting our second baby. Of course I was happy, I just couldn't believe my luck. Especially as I was convinced I was pregnant around Christmas time, which would have meant I'd have been due around August. Of all the times I was to fall pregnant, it had to happen right when I'd be due in December. Something I'd tried to avoid on both occasions.

So I punched my details into my baby app and I couldn't believe my eyes when the due date appeared. Yes you've guessed it, 24th December! Of all days it had to be that day, it was just too funny to be true. I knew the date would change once I'd had my scan, but the fact that my due date ever fell on that one date was crazy. How is that even possible? 3 generations of Christmas Eve Babies!

I've already told Keith that he's not getting a birthday present from me this year, at least not another one on top of the baby I'm helping to grow for our family. I think that's a pretty good present for him. Well I guess now's the time to embrace the fact that apart from me, we are going to be a household of December babies.