What My Heart Desires

A Picture is Worth A Thousand Words…

After our family dinner I settled down for a day or two, trying to get my feelings and body under control. The morning sickness seemed to come and go and it didn’t really matter what time of the day or night it hit. There was also a new development – smells were making me queasy too.

All of the family was excited about the news and don’t get me wrong, I was too but it was hard right now when any movement, any smell made me retch. I never had morning sickness with either of my other two and this worried me. Suppose something was wrong with this baby or this pregnancy?

Tamara gave me the name of her OB/GYN and I made an appointment yesterday. Given my age they decided to get me in immediately and so tomorrow Adam and I would go for my first prenatal examination.

I was actually feeling pretty good this morning. At times like these I feel so excited – Adam and I were going to have a baby! Would it be a boy or a girl? Did we want to know? We asked each other a million questions and had made a list to take to the doctor with us.

Her name was Dr. Bridges and we both liked her immediately. This was not the same doctor that Tamara had had with the boys so she was meeting us both for the first time. She was about our age we decided and was very matter-of-fact, open to all our questions too; she never once looked at her watch as if to say, ”okay, let’s hurry up”.

She confirmed it (not that I had any doubts), I’m pregnant, the ultrasound would tell us how far along I was. Yes, she would probably do an amniocentesis around 20 weeks, just to be sure everything was well. But she felt confident that it would be okay for me, I was in great health otherwise and both of my other two pregnancies had gone fine.

Adam and I waited in the exam room for her to come in to perform the ultrasound. I was on the table in the little mini-gown with a sheet draped over my lower body since she was going to perform a pelvic as well. Adam paced nervously around the small room, stopping occasionally to look at something that caught his eye, which was funny because most of what was in there was all pregnancy related.

Finally, there was a tap on the door and Dr. Bridges popped her head in and asked if we were ready for her. As she heard us both exclaim ‘Yes!’ she smiled and stepped into the room and closed the door behind her.

She turned the ultrasound machine on and lifted the sheet from my belly. I took a deep breath as I felt the icy-feeling gel hit my abdomen and she grinned and said, “Just making sure you are paying attention!”

I felt the head of the probe touch my stomach and I jumped; it was all becoming so real now. She moved it around a bit to spread the gel around and finally she focused in on one area and smiled.

“There you are! That is your baby,” she told us. “See this thing right here?” She indicated a tiny spot on the monitor that seemed to be pulsing. “That is the heartbeat, good and strong!” She pressed a button on the machine and it took a picture of the screen. After several more angles and several more pictures she finally turned the machine off and handed me some tissue to wipe the goop off of my stomach with.

Well Sarah, the ultrasound indicates that you are 7 weeks along” she told us, smiling at our surprise. “So that gives you a due date of January 2nd! How about that?”

I looked at Adam; we both had tears in our eyes. We nodded in excitement and anticipation. Adam leaned down and kissed me and I grabbed for his hand.

“That sounds good,” I managed. No, that was wrong I decided, that sounded great!




***OOPS! Bad Hope! I forgot to schedule this to post on Monday. Thanks so much Rosenina for the reminder!

Copyright 2010 by Cynthia Hope Hodge

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