“Are you ready to see the baby?” Dr. Contreras asks as she puts the cold gel on my stomach. Liam stands next to me holding my hand.
“Yes,” I nod and look up at him. His eyes are focused on the machine. It’s finally time for my ultrasound and we’re going to see our baby. We had to push back a few weeks with all the craziness, but I’m beyond ready.
“And we’re doing the gender reveal later, so you don’t want to know, correct?”
Liam groans then shifts his attention to me. “They don’t have to know we know. We can pretend we don’t know at this stupid party. Look, I even have a great shocked face.” I glance over and he gives his best impression.
Such a dork.
I ignore him, “No, we don’t want to know.”
“You suck.”
“You’re being a baby. The party is in two weeks.”
“Stupid. I’m the father. I should know before some damn baker.”
“Zip it.”
She laughs and puts the wand on my stomach. I swear I don’t remember being so big with Aarabelle this early. I’m either retaining a lot of water or my body figures it’s already done this so might as well return to form.
The room fills with the wooshing sound of the baby’s heartbeat. Liam’s eyes widen, and his jaw drops as it echoes around us.
“What the hell is that?”
Dr. Contreras smiles. “That’s your baby’s heart. Nice and strong.”
“Our baby has a heart,” he says sounding clearly surprised.
I giggle, “I know.”
“I didn’t mean that literally.”
I twist my fingers with his and listen with a full heart. It’s a miracle we’re standing here hearing our baby or that any of this is happening.
“See that there,” the doctor says pointing. “That’s the baby’s heart. You can see everything looks good there.”
She continues to show us small glimpses of our peanut. Each time she points a new piece out, Liam claims he sees a penis, which she obviously won’t confirm. She goes through all the organs then hands us a few photos.
“I’ll let you get dressed and then I’ll be back to go over everything,” she explains.
“Is there anything to be concerned about?”
“I just want to look at the timeline and set a plan.” Her voice is reassuring, but something has me on edge.
Liam kisses the top of my head, and hands me a towel to clean off.
“I have a bad feeling,” I relay my fears to him.
“Everything looks fine, Lee. I know you’re worried, but from what I saw, the kid’s got all the parts.”
“Says the man who thought he would dent him or her with his giant penis.”
“Can’t help the equipment that was bestowed upon me.”
I stare, waiting until he looks over so he can see my face. He’s smiles then sits next to me.
“All joking aside, if there’s something wrong, we’ll handle it. But you’ve had a rough go at getting pregnant and staying pregnant . . . so, this is good. We’re at twenty-three weeks now. I’m handling everything I can so you can stay off your feet. Let’s just wait before we freak out.”
My head falls on his shoulder, and he wraps his arm around me. There are times in my life I feel so weak. As if all anyone does is reassure me that things will be fine. It’s just this baby . . . this life inside of me . . . is my chance. It’s my chance to prove I wasn’t broken or marred, but that I was meant to be a mother.
We sit here quietly and Dr. Contreras knocks and enters. “Okay, everything looked good. The baby’s heart and all of the organs are great. I’ve sent the gender off to the cake people, so yes, we were able to get a clear picture of that.” She smiles and then looks at the chart. “Only issue I have is your weight. You need to eat a little more. So far, you’re not gaining much and you said you weren’t having morning sickness. Are you eating healthy?”
“I have a kid who has no idea how to sit for two seconds so that could be why.”
She nods. “I want you to make sure you’re taking in enough calories for you and the baby.”
“She’ll eat.” Liam offers his promise.
“I’ll be more mindful.”
Dr. Contreras smiles and shakes my hand. “Good. I’ll see you in a few weeks.”
She turns to Liam and he returns the gesture. “She’ll eat . . . no worries.”
“Thanks, caveman. Go put your club away before you hit yourself on the head,” I say grabbing my coat.
The doctor laughs while leaving the room. Liam and I head to the car, I look closer at the sonogram to see if I can figure out if it’s a boy or girl. It’s going to kill me to wait until the gender reveal. Reanell and her stupid party. I was against it from the beginning, but somehow she tricked Liam into thinking this would be a fun idea.
Aidan returns from Ireland next week and is coming into Dulles, so he asked if he could come for a visit and meet Aarabelle. We figured we could spend the week with him and then find out the sex of the baby.
I groan, “I can’t tell if I see a penis.” I huff and throw myself back on the seat.
“Careful with the pushing on the seat please.”
“You’re kidding me?”
“Sweetheart, Robin has been good to us.”