Great Expectations

All Saints’ Tammy MacIntosh has only just got used to being married. Now she has to deal with being pregnant and having mood swings.

 

She was a breathtakingly beautiful bride when just four months ago Tammy MacIntosh wed Mark Yeats, the man she says has made her happier than she could’ve ever imagined. Mark says he didn’t have the words that day to describe how he felt watching the woman of his dreams walk down the aisle. It was the happiest day of their lives, and the couple says they were keen to become parents as soon as possible. They just didn’t realise it would happen so quickly.

 

“We started trying the night of the wedding,” Tammy, 35, giggles.

 

They didn’t have a honeymoon because Tammy had to return to work on All Saints, but weeks later the newlyweds received an early Christmas present.

 

“The day before I was due to finish work I had an inkling I might be pregnant, but I had thought that a few weeks before and it turned out not to be the case.” Tammy says. “We did a home pregnancy test and sat down for five minutes to wait for the results. This time it was positive. It was like: “Well, we did it!”

 

Mark, 30, and Tammy broke the news to his parents on Christmas Day. “I think they were expecting it,” Tammy says. “They said: ‘With the speed you guys got together, bought a house and got married, we expect every time we come around you’re going to have more big news.’”

 

Tammy’s mum died in 2001 and her father died when she was three years old.

 

Mark and Tammy were excited about the news they were about to start a family, but the joy of being expectant parents soon gave way to the reality of pregnancy. Eight weeks in, Tammy began to suffer terrible morning sickness. “Initially, I was just feeling a little queasy, but then it got a lot worse. It was pretty much all day,” Tammy says. “My nose also became really sensitive to every smell. I couldn’t take the dogs for a walk on garbage day, and if I walked past the house next door where they like to burn incense, I’d have to turn around and head for home.”

 

She’s also suffered massive mood swings, describing her behaviour on occasions “like being a three-year-old having a tantrum.”

 

“I’d feel so awful I’d fling myself on the bed and moan: ‘I don’t want to be pregnant any more. I want me back.’ I’m quite sure the wonderful man I married must have been looking at this whole different person he didn’t know any more, whining how upset I was because I didn’t buy the right pie. He must have been thinking: ‘Oh my God! What have I don?’” Tammy laughs.

 

“There was another weekend when I couldn’t have Mark in the house. We had been home together for six weeks and I decided I was sick of him. I told him he and the dogs had to go. I had to be on my own. It was like my whole body had been hijacked by this tiny little thing. I had these cravings for really spicy food for about three or four days. I’d wake up in the morning and want dhal. I had one terrible weekend when I was off the Richter scale. Poor Mark. I really felt sorry for him that time, but it’s starting to settle down now.”

 

The couple have decided against finding out the sex of their child until the birth.

 

Tammy stars as Dr Charlotte Beaumont on the Seven Network TV series ALL Saints. She admits it will be interesting to see how the scriptwriters deal with her pregnancy on screen, especially given Charlotte’s often-questioned love-life.

 

“I told the producer, MaryAnne Carroll, this year and I can’t say she was surprised. When I was sitting with her at the Logies last year, she started talking to me about what she was going to do with the storylines when I got pregnant, and back then I hadn’t even got married. So she was way ahead of me!” Tammy says. “I think the producer and the writers have put two and two together since the wedding.

 

But for Tammy, the future can wait. Her happiness lies in the here and now. “I’m so happy I’m going to have a baby with Mark. It just feels so right. He’s a truly beautiful man who has such a calming influence on me,” she says.

 

“It will be nice to take a few months off so I can enjoy the experience. I have pretty much been working non-stop for the past six years,” Tammy adds. She has won a large following of fans with performances in McLeod’s Daughters, Stingers, Police Rescue, Grass Roots, Farscape and The Flying Doctors.

 

And despite all the challenges, Tammy is having the time of her life. “I’m not freaked out by this big change at all,” she says. “It’s a really lovely thing to have created something so wonderful with the love of your life.”

 

Mark tenderly strokes his new wife’s arm, looks lovingly across at her and says: “Tammy’s going to be a sensational mum.”