Page 76 of Unexpecting

″A bit on the chubby side,” she commented absentmindedly as she pressed on my stomach. “Baby doesn’t give you a free rein to snack, you know?”

″No,” I murmured. Chubby! I’m not chubby! So I hadn’t been exercising lately. And maybe I’d put on a couple of pounds. It’s hard when the only foods I could keep down were carbohydrates. Babies are chubby, not me! Nasty old bat.

″These will only get bigger,” she told me next, with a curt nod at my breasts.

″Really?” I groaned. “I’m not going to be able to fit into my wedding dress this weekend.” I was already overflowing my quite substantial D-cup, and I couldn’t imagine how big I’d be when this thing was over. Double F-cup maybe.

″Are you getting married?” Dr. Morrissey asked politely.

″Oh, no, I’m just the maid of honour for my best friend—I’m not married. I don’t want…” I paused for a second before I added, “Is it a problem if I’m not married?”

″Not for me,” the doctor replied in a tone that implied that being unmarried might well be a problem for me.

Then Dr. Morrissey did the whole stick-her-fingers-up-my-who-who and poked around a bit. I could feel J.B. cringe across the room. “Your pelvis is a bit narrow,” she said, still absentmindedly.

″No, it’s not,” I couldn’t help saying.

″It is, through here.” She poked one of my hips.

″Is that a problem?” The way she said it, I felt I must have an irreparable defect.

″Again, not for me,” she told me, withdrawing her hand and pulling off the latex gloves. “But I doubt you’ll be able to have a vaginal delivery.”

″What? How am I supposed to get it out?”

Dr. Morrissey squinted at me like I was some kind of idiot. I admit it didn’t make me appear to be some Rhodes scholar, but what did she expect? She was not being at all nice to me. “In all probability, you’ll have a long and difficult labour that will not result in a vaginal delivery. This is without knowing how big the baby will be, but based on your size, I’ll most likely schedule you for a Cesarean delivery.”

″What? What if I don’t want a C-section?” I cried.

″Do the words long and difficult mean anything to you?” She lifted a grey-haired eyebrow.

″It’s okay, Casey.” I knew J.B. was trying to soothe me, but it was difficult when I could hear his voice shaking. “My sister had a Cesarean, and she was fine.”

Dr. Morrissey began pressing on my belly while I lay pouting. First I’m chubby, and then my pelvis is too narrow to give birth. What kind of doctor is she? I want a new one. I pulled my arm up, cradling my head; my shirt pulled up and my pants pulled down to reveal the expanse of my belly and its slight bulge. After spending a few minutes pushing down on my belly, Dr. Morrissey coated the skin with a jelly-like substance and ran a microphone thing over my stomach. I held my breath. It was about time for some good news.

″You can breathe, Casey,” Dr. Morrissey told me with doctor disdain. I let out my breath in a whoosh and tried to breathe normally—when I heard the faint thump- thump.

″Is that it?” I practically yelled. J.B. quickly moved closer.

″No, that’s you.” She moved the microphone a little to the right. “This is your baby.”

″That’s it?” I could hear the quicker thump-thump-thump, and to my embarrassment, my eyes filled with tears. “That’s my baby?” I could feel J.B.’s hand against my arm, and I glanced up at him. “That’s our baby.”

″Wow,” he said, staring at my belly with awe. “That’s really it. It’s really in there.”

″It really is.” J.B. clasped my hand, and this time I was so glad he was there to hold it. I was picturing myself holding a little creature swaddled in blankets and J.B. smiling down on us, when I noticed the doctor frowning. “What’s wrong?”

She moved the roller to another part of my stomach. “And it seems this is also your baby.”

″It moved? Already?”

″No.” She moved the roller all over again. “I think we should get you in for an ultrasound right away. Seems like you’ve got two of them in there.”

″Two of what?”

Dr. Morrissey actually laughed at that. “Twins, Casey. I think you’re having twins.” She listened for another moment, moving the roller around. “Goodness. Did you take any fertility drugs?”

″No. Why?” I could hear the note of hysteria creeping into my voice. At the word twins, J.B. paled, and now he was a ghostly white colour.

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