Back where it all began.

*Stretches fingers, strokes chin, thinks* Casting my mind back I can't believe it's only been 4 years since I left my busy, stressful, often brilliant, job in the city. But leave I did. And for a very good reason.

After 7 years of kinda trying I at last fell pregnant. You see the idea was that having been married relatively early (it was 11.15am but I meant I was 24) I made the decision to pursue my burgeoning career until at the age of 30 I would fall pregnant at the first attempt and myself and husband would be youngish parents with a mortgage and a good job each. Fast forward the seven years and it wasn't looking too good. I had quite a few of what I like to call 'investigations', then my skin (psoriasis, but I'll talk about that separately) became a potential factor plus my age blah de blinking blah. But hang on, during this time my lovely husband Andrew decided to take the overdrawn bull by the horns and sorted out our money problems (well, until baby came along of course) and hey presto that little red line appeared on that white stick and we, the royal we, were at long last pregnant. So taking away the pressure and worries of our debts our little miracle-in-waiting appeared.

The pregnancy wasn't without its issues though. Being 37 meant I was on the 'high-risk' list, having a chronic skin condition also meant that I was at 'risk' of organ failure due to labour (really). Once pregnant, suddenly steroid creams are not the be-all and end-all in skin management so being lucky enough to have private health I was assigned an amazing dermatologist who eventually signed me off for the majority of my pregnancy due to the 'high-risk' factor. I was on low-dose steroid creams and UVB sun treatment (all safe for pregnancy). No alcohol except the odd glass of Guinness or red wine (if you can steer clear totally you should) and best of all, no housework including ironing. My husband was an absolute saint and treated me like a princess. (If only that were true of all prospective dads, hey?).

Anyway, during that time I was the healthiest, brownest and slimmest I'd been in a long time. Sounds odd doesn't it? Once our beautiful Autumn was born, by c-section - not because I'm too posh to push, somewhat of a snob but no where near as posh as I think I am, but because it was dangerous for both of us - our lives changed forever. Having a child changes everything. And I mean everything. Not least the fear of going back to work when the child reaches 3 months. That's what we were faced with due to me being the breadwinner. I'd recently worked on a high-profile project and was on a great salary plus all the benefits which come with working in a City financial house. BUT the stress of working there, the prospect of handing our beautiful Autumn over to a stranger (no parents on hand to help us out, don't go there) and the imminent recession meant I made a huge decision helped by the fact that the company were actively seeking volunteers and I asked for redundancy. So for Autumn's first year on planet Earth we lived like we'd won the lottery. I received a year's salary tax free. Looking back it was a sickeningly large amount of money to what we have now and how we live now. That's set to change though. Watch. This. Space.