In the beginning

On living, nursing, kick boxing and pregnancy as an ex-pat!


I have been debating whether or not to start a blog for a while. Myself and Ian ( my husband) have some pretty cool plans for the next few years and I was planning on starting a diary style blog next year.

However after being advised by my wonderful hubby to start jotting down ideas now ready for that future diary, I started to get the bug for writing and one thing led to another and I've decided to start this earlier than originally planned. 

The main reason for starting early is that I want to share some of my experiences on the titled subjects with anyone whose interested in reading about it! And before you all get giddy, NO I'm not pregnant - yet! 

This however is the main reason why I was holding off starting this blog, as I am planning on being pretty open and i don't want people to be asking me every time they see myself or Ian if we are!

So I suppose I should start the story off with why I wanted to start a blog! It all goes right back to 2 years ago when I decided to sell up in the UK and move to Dubai. 

Whilst trying to sell a house, the second car in a year, sort out the contents of a house, what to keep in storage, send to Dubai, throw away, send to charity or try to sell! I went for a routine check up for my contraceptive pill to find my blood pressure was through the roof. So after being monitored for a month, just before getting on a plane to leave the UK for a new life in Dubai. I was advised to change to the mini pill as my blood pressure was still too high for a person of my age.  

After being on the mini pill for a year, my blood pressure was slightly better but as a nurse I still considered it too high. I'd put a load of the weight I'd lost in the last couple of years back on and even though I was incredibly happy with my new life in Dubai,  there was something missing......my libido had almost completely run off into the dessert. Don't get me wrong I love my husband soo much it hurts but I just wasn't that interested in sex, even watching my previous crush, Jason Statham  on TV struggled to get my pulse racing! So after many discussions it was decided that for my health and for our marriage I should come off the pill. 

However the consequences of doing this and accidently getting pregnant In Dubai are a little more serious than back at home. Here there is no morning after pill, or option for abortion, not that if an accident happened I think we would have gone down this route, but myself and Ian were always happy with our decision to not have children.

Our health insurance didn't cover maternity, so it would have been an expensive accident, we' d have had to buy a package for pregnancy here which would cost anywhere between £6000 and £12000, depending on what level of care you want, and of course me being a ICU nurse would want the best....hell  it's my health we're talking about.

The other option would be for me to go back to the Uk to have the baby, I love my parents very much but the thought of being heavily pregnant living away from my home and Ian just filled me with dread!

So just in case an accident happened we took out better health insurance for both of us I now have the dogs bollocks bupa insurance! Once everything was in place I came off the pill, it was like the end of an era, I'd been taking it for over 15 years!  

You have to remember at this point myself and Ian still didn't want children! We just decided to make our own luck and cover our arses.

But OMG,  boy, did my libido come back....poor Ian didn't know what had hit him! The problem is the "switch" as I called it for maternal feelings that I said was obviously off for me also got switched on, for the first time in my life I felt broody....WTF.....how do I tell my hubby this? It was at this point I went home to the UK for a week , and whilst visiting my best friend finally voiced my feelings, she reassured me I was normal and not going insane! 

The only thing is I didn't realise until I got back to Dubai from this trip that Ian had aslo been having the same feelings! Holy crap.....this is the couple who said they never wanted children. So after much discussion, we decided that after our 10 month waiting period for my insurance to cover pregnancy  we would try for a baby.

Boy are those 10 months going slow, as the months go by we are getting more broody, especially as some of our close friends have recently had babies or are about to. We have also gone from thinking it'll be ok if we can't get pregnant to oh shit what if we've left it too late. 

So that's where we are now, I'm not going to let on how far into our 10 month waiting period we are, so that we don't get badgered with the question! Some of our nearest and dearest know and I'd appreciate it if they kept that to themselves!

However in the meantime, until I announce on Facebook that myself and Ian are having a new addition to the family that doesn't have feathers or fur....I hope! I plan to blog about my experiences of living and working as a nurse in Dubai....so far it's been an eye opener.....so until next time.

Keep well

Katie x