A new mum was left astonished when she went into hospital with stomach pains – only to make a jaw-dropping realisiation.
Beth Crowder, a 25-year-old Merseyside admin assistant, had welcomed her son Brodie eight months before she went to A&E with her pains. It was there that doctors told her she was pregnant again – and was just weeks away from giving birth.
“It was quite a big surprise,” said Beth. “Not only that I was pregnant again, but that I was 30 weeks along. He’d been hidden the whole time! ” Her second son, Bailey, arrived in July, with Beth noting that her bump only became noticeable at eight months, allowing her to still fit into size-six clothes. Friends and family were initially sceptical when she announced her unexpected pregnancy.
Times have been tough financially for Beth, who has no savings and found it challenging to manage with two young babies. Fortunately, she had kept Brodie’s baby clothes, requiring her to purchase only a double pram and cot.
Another source of stress was that her employers had been expecting her back from maternity leave, and of course there was the disruption of suddenly having two young babies in the house.
She said: “At the start it was tough because one baby would cry and wake up the other,” Beth says, “but when you get a routine going everything just rolls.
Still, even with solid support from her family, it’s been tough going for Beth. She says she felt like she’d bounced back physically from giving birth to Brodie, but going through childbirth again so soon took a mental toll.
She said: “Physically, I was recovered, Mentally, it was a big thing for me. It took me a while to be OK once I knew I was having a second in such a short amount of time,” she added.
“I’m mentally OK now, but it really took a while even once I had Bailey, I was thinking ‘Wow, is this really my life?”
Beth said: “If I didn’t have my family and friends around me, it would really be different. “And she says although it can be hard work, Beth says wouldn’t change the age gap between her sons. She explained: “Their relationship is amazing.
It was hard for Brodie at first because he was used to it being ‘me, me, me.’ He would poke Bailey but now he tries to help. He tries to put his dummy in but it ends up going in his eye.”
Overall, Beth is delighted with how things turned out, saying: “I couldn’t wish for their relationship to be better. I can see how close they’re going to be when they get older. Everything has turned out perfectly.
“This time two years ago I didn’t plan on having two kids, but I wouldn’t change my life for anything.”