Page 51 of Ghosted By Texas

“Okay, well it says you took a positive at home pregnancy test.”

“Three of them.” I’d taken two more after a quick stop at the pharmacy on my way home from Clea’s house after taking the first one there.

“Well, our tests concur. Going by your cycle, I’d say you most likely conceived sometime between February tenth and the fifteenth, which makes your due date around November sixth, give or take a few days.”

“He took you home from the party,” Clea muttered, clearly working out that Austin and I had been together more than once. I nodded my head and stared straight ahead as the doctor got her little machine ready.

“Okay, Rebecca,”

“Becs,” I corrected. Only my mother ever called me Rebecca, and I hated the way she said it with such disdain, so I refused to allow anyone else to call me that.

Dr. Danvers smiled placatingly. “Becs, if you could slide down to the bottom of the chair and then put your feet in the stirrups, I think we can take a look at the baby to confirm your due date.”

“Perfect,” I said as I moved into the awkward position of flashing my most private parts at the doctor. I wondered what it was like for them dealing with pregnant vaginas. Clearly, at some point, I wouldn’t be able to bend and see to landscape the lady garden. So, did all women start their pregnancies with a well-groomed downstairs and then over time, the visits became hairier? It wasn’t exactly a question I was willing to ask the doctor, but I’d talk to Clea about it when we were done here. Maybe she had some insight. Waxing might be an option.

“Why do you need a condom?” Clea asked.

The doctor smirked at her. “It helps to keep the equipment sterilized,” she answered.

“Safe toy sex,” I joked at the same time. Clea rolled her eyes at me. “What? I’m nervous and about to be wanded here. Just laugh at my inappropriate joke so we can move on already,” I demanded. Both women chuckled, making me feel better immediately.

“I think having you as a patient is going to be a lot of fun,” the doctor surmised as she prepped me. “Sorry, it’s going to be a bit cold when I insert, thanks to the thermostat issues.”

“No problem.” I managed to be accommodating, polite, and understanding of the circumstances just before she shoved a damn popsicle inside my vagina. I felt myself shriveling up from the cold as she moved the thing around down there and honestly, if the daggers I glared at her could have done harm, she would have been sliced and diced in under two seconds.

“I know, it’s uncomfortable, but should be warmed up in just a minute.” Then, Dr. Danvers flipped some switch on the monitor to her left and a whooshing sound filled the room. “You hear that slower beat?” She asked, to which I nodded. “That’s your heart.” She moved the wand a bit, “And that sound, like galloping horses?”

“Yeah?”

“That’s your baby’s heartbeat,” she informed me as she pointed to the screen. “You can see it there.”

And I did. There wasn’t just a blob like in those pictures I saw online. I mean, it still looked like a blob, but it was a blob with a beating heart that I could see. Tears immediately built and then fell down my cheeks.

“I can see its heart beating.”

“Oh my Gosh!” Clea moved closer and hugged my side. “I can see it, too. That’s so beautiful,” she sputtered through her own tears. “You owe me lunch, by the way,” she sniffled as she said it, but we both ended up chuckling as she swiped some of my tears away for me.

“This is really happening,” I managed to say. Up until that moment, it was more of a theory. Something that might happen, but there really wasn’t anything tangible to see yet, unless you counted my slightly larger breasts.

“I can’t believe it,” I whispered again, reverently that time.

“It looks like we were right on track with the due date, so we’ll keep it around November sixth.”

“That’s not too far from your birthday. If you went early, you might have the baby on the same day,” Clea informed me happily, as if stretching my lady bits to painfully intolerable levels was the best present I could hope for. Thinking back on my past birthdays, she might not be wrong.

“Don’t hold your breath for that to happen,” the doctor interjected. “Most first-time moms go later, rather than early.”

“That is not the kind of good news I want to hear, Doc.”

She chuckled. “Well, we’ll focus on keeping the two of you healthy until your due date approaches, and when he or she is ready to make an entrance into this world, they’ll let us know. How’s that sound?”

“Like I’m going to have a baby and the first act of being born is that my child has control issues?” I teased. Sort of.

Dr. Danvers laughed again. “I really am going to enjoy having you as a patient. Now, I’ll have a prescription for prenatal vitamins waiting on you when you check out, and you’ll need to schedule an appointment for four weeks from now.”

“Four weeks?” I asked while attempting to sift through all the information I’d read over the past week about doctor visits.

“Yes, unless there is a problem, they’ll remain four weeks apart until you’re well within the third trimester, then we’ll go two weeks, and be down to weekly just before your due date arrives.”

---