“It isn’t all bad.” I try to sweeten her up. “When Liam is ready to introduce me – and I suppose our baby – to his teammates, I’ll make sure you’re there too.” I pop some of my painkillers in my mouth as I stand up from the desk, closing the lid on my lunch. I see her try to restrain a grin. Suddenly the paperwork must seem less daunting when she can daydream about the Spears players to get her through.

Late afternoon starts to creep in by the time I’ve collected Jack and driven home. I’m still clinging to the relief of my last dose of pain meds, so I use the last moments of that relief to tidy up our home.

As I sort through the washing, Jack’s favourite time of the day approaches: screen time. I was never the person who was going to be able to parent without some kind of distraction. Now that school takes up a lot of his day, I have cut his time down to an hour before we eat dinner. Before I was pregnant I would use this time to clean up more or to read, but now I use it to try some non-medicated ways to reduce my pain. First, I attach a TENS machine to my back to reduce the pain signals in my spine in an attempt to help relax my muscles. It does what it should, but only while the machine is running. Once it powers off it doesn’t take long for the pain to come back. But even small relief is a win in my book.

Other doctors have recommended yoga to help my pain, but I’ve never been particularly bendy. I had pretty much forgotten about that suggestion until I read it can be a good way to prepare the body for the difficulties of pregnancy. I’ve tried meditation in the past, but my brain is too loud to turn off. The moment I try to centre myself it decides to run through every embarrassing thing I have ever done or conjure up new embarrassing things that could happen in the future. Not exactly the relaxing time I was promised.

I know I could try these things once Jack is tucked in bed, but since I’m cutting down my medications I won’t be taking any more until I go to bed myself. Besides, when Jack is in bed it’s my time to focus on what I need to do for the baby. I am going to have to start looking for a bigger place eventually. The baby can sleep in my room for a while, but both Jack and the new baby will want their own space soon enough. My evenings are now spent scrolling through housing listings and baby furniture sites to find everything we are going to need.