#dosomethingyummy for CLIC Sargent's Yummy Mummy Week

CLIC Sargent are raising awareness for their Yummy Mummy Week which is being held from 10th-18th March 2012. Visit http://www.iamtypecast.com/2012/01/clic-sargents-yummy-mummy-week.html for information on how to get involved and 'do something yummy'.

The writing prompt for week one was "What your children mean to you" and I chose option one, a personal post that asked why did I have children, and how did they change my life?

Quite honestly, having children was as far down on my list of priorities as it could get. I had big dreams of a career in the media, working in a big city and living the high life. I fell pregnant with my eldest when I was in year 11 at school. It was that pivotal moment that sent my life off down a path I had never even considered, decisions I made as a typical teenager that believed myself invincible have brought me to where I am today.

Why did I have her? Because when I was just a few weeks pregnant, still reeling from the consequences of my actions and riding a rollercoaster of emotions, I had what they called a threatened miscarriage and was admitted to hospital overnight for observation. The next morning during the ultrasound, I looked over and saw that little bean on the monitor, with her little heart fluttering away, and knew at that instant that life as I knew it was going to change forever. I was terrified, and had no idea what I was letting myself in for, but I started to come to terms with it nonetheless... I was going to be a mum.

Alicia was born in July 1998, a mewling bundle of pink who was unceremoniously thrust in to my arms at 3.34am on a Monday morning. Exhausted, terrified and overwhelmed, I just sat and looked at her. This was mine! I had a baby!

Since that moment, I honestly cannot think of a single thing I have enjoyed more than being a mum. Which I imagine is quite obvious in that we have added another four to our family after Alicia! There is truthfully, hand on my heart, nothing else in this world that has made me as happy as my five babies. Even on the nights where they did nothing but scream with colic, hours spent sitting in hospitals for appointments, surgeries, or a patch up after an accident, days spent cleaning up vomit and lord knows what else when they are poorly. They are my life, my pride and joy, my WORLD revolves around these children. The sun rises and sets on them and they are truly my greatest achievement.

So while I don't have the life I had envisioned, the amazing job, the city home, the gleaming career prospects... I have something better, something I never dreamed of, something I never even knew I wanted - bear hunts and dragon chasing, walks in the woods, baking biscuits & cakes, and even dancing around my living room with a pair of pants on my head. I am loving every single minute of it, and wouldn't dream of having it any other way.