AMY, FRANKIE AND LOLA

If it hadn’t been for a line on a pregnancy test, Amy Byrne and her partner, Frankie Moore (pictured above), might have been in Thailand right now — or more likely, trying to get their money back from a cancelled holiday of a lifetime

We hadn’t been trying for a baby — in fact, we were planning to go to Thailand and saving up. My cycle isn’t regular so I’ve taken pregnancy tests before in the past and they’ve always been negative — but this time it was positive!

We were absolutely delighted but when the pandemic started, it was scary, too. I didn’t know if I could see my family. Do we go outside? I’m close to my mam and wondered if I should I stay with her.

There were definitely days of me panicking, and it was scary trying to figure out what lockdown was going to mean for us. Sitting inside, it’s easy to get upset thinking about all the crazy things that could happen: what if I get it? What if the baby gets it? But then Frankie would say to me, ‘Come on, let’s take the dogs for a walk and just get outside’.

We were out for a walk when my waters broke, a week after my due date. I ended up having to have an emergency C-section. When I phoned Frankie to say he needed to come in, he was almost there before I’d hung up. His mum lives down the road from Holles Street and I think he must have run the whole way. But he could only stay two hours in recovery and then I was alone with our baby daughter, Lola.

The midwives were lovely, but it was hard. I didn’t know what to do and could only stare at her. I was on the phone crying to Mam and FaceTiming Frankie and crying. It was tough, I just wanted to be close to someone and I was counting down the days until we could go home.

I feel lucky that, because of the pandemic, Frankie was able to spend more time at home with us than he would have had with paternity leave. And it’s funny to think that we might have been in Thailand and not able to get home, or lost the money. I do think everything happens for a reason and Thailand will have to wait.