On the eve of our 20 week scan (and the the eve of Christmas Eve) we decided to go to into central London. By we, I mean my wife. Truth be told, we went to meet one of her uni friends and I needed to get some last minute bits for Christmas.

We got on the tube way out of the city and we laughed about how not busy it was. Oh dear god, 3 stops later it was horrific. I’m normally fine with crowds and awkwardly confined tubes, but naturally, I felt an overwhelming sense of protectiveness over my wife and the baby to be today. London is a wonderful place, but to be frank people using the tube can be utter twats. The closely contained carriages coupled with the unwritten no eye contact or communication rule on the tube, makes it an absolutely awful experience for a pregnant woman. People were just hugely inconsiderate and in protective mode, I was getting angry.

The missus had a few layers on today. It’s not always obvious when somebody is pregnant, they don’t have a flashing red light above her head that shows everyone we are expecting. After my initial anger of “can’t you see she’s pregnant” I realised that although it’s at the forefront of my mind, it’s not really in the fore front of other people’s. I chilled out once a nice woman gave up her seat. I was so surprised that all of the men just gawped at their papers and phones, ignoring everything around them. Turns out the tube isn’t the best place for a pregnant wife at Christmas and chivalry is dead…trust me. The old me would have said something but to be honest, conflict is the last thing anybody wants at Christmas.

Although the streets and shops were busy, it was great to be in the city. There is something magical about London at Christmas. All we needed today was a bit of snow. A couple of people made comments like “oooh last Christmas together then!” and “how long do you have left”… it dawned on me that we are half way through our pregnancy. Mental! It was so nice for strangers to actually notice (unlike on the tube) that something huge was happening for us. It really made me happy.

So as it turns out, being an expectant father with a wife in London at Christmas can be alikened to circumnavigating a mine field – constant pressure of unknown threat. I know it’s melodramatic but I just want to keep them both safe…I’m going to be a nightmare when somebody upsets my children!!