Page 66 of Who's Your Daddy?

“That’s a common complaint.” She stands up and walks over to a door on the left side. “We need to do a physical exam. Please remove your clothes, put on one of the gowns, and knock on the door when you’re ready for me.”

“All my clothes?”

She picks up on Lia’s nervousness and tries to set her at ease. “You can leave your skirt on, but if we can’t see enough on the ultrasound, we may need to do a vaginal scan. You’ll have to remove it then.”

We walk into the small examination room, and she closes the door once we’re inside. There’s an awkward pause, and I twist around to give her some privacy, staring at the bed and some weird machine instead.

Lia undresses, pulls on the dressing gown, then knocks on the door as the doctor instructed. Dr. Cheng enters a moment later and immediately gets to work, pulling on a pair of latex gloves. She instructs Lia to stand on a scale and jots down her weight.

After that, she switches on the machine and tells Lia to lie on the bed. I sit down on the chair on the opposite side, rolling it closer so I can also get a better look.

“We’re going to do the ultrasound now. This is going to be cold.” She lifts the gown up, shifts the skirt down an inch, and applies a gel to Lia’s stomach.

Lia winces at the cold, but her smile shows a mixture of anxiousness and excitement. Dr. Cheng rubs a little handheld device over the lower part of Lia’s abdomen and a gray bubble appears on the screen of the machine.

“Okay, let’s see if we can find our little...” She moves the device. “There...There’s little baby Danahay.”

Everything – the words, how she said it, the tiny gasp Lia lets out – all of it rocks something inside me. My whole world shifts off its axis. This is real. This is happening.

I’m motionless for a second, staring at the bean-like shape on the screen. A loud sound fills the room, a whirring similar to a washing machine.

“What is that?” I ask, my throat tight.

“That’s the heartbeat,” Dr. Cheng replies.

“That’s his heartbeat?” I sound as awestruck as I feel. “Doc, that’s my baby in there?”

She giggles at the childlike wonder in my voice. “Yes, Papa, that’s your baby in there.”

Again, her words wind me like a kick to the stomach. I look over at Lia and she’s almost in tears. I don’t often get emotional, but I’m so overcome at this moment, I feel like I may just cry.

I reach over and squeeze her hand. “That’s our baby, Li.”

“Yeah.” It’s barely a word, more like a breathy whisper.

I lean closer to see it flickering on the screen. It’s like witnessing a miracle.

“Heartbeat is strong,” Dr. Cheng says. “Everything looks normal. Oh, look. That might be a little arm.”

“He’s got arms?” That spurs my next question. “Is it a boy?”

She laughs as if she’s amused by my ignorance. “It’s too early to tell.” Based on the way she’s moving the device and the numbers that appear on the screen, it looks like she’s taking measurements. “So, looking at the size and stage of development, it looks like the fetus is about...eight...no, maybe closer to nine weeks.”

“Um...” My eyebrows crease together as I think back. “Sorry, Dr. Cheng. The math is not mathing. We...” I’m embarrassed to admit this to a stranger. “We don’t even know each other for eight weeks.”

The revelation makes her a tad awkward. “Well, did you and Mahalia engage in...unprotected sexual activities quite early in your relationship?”

“Uh...yeah. Very early...like the second time.”

“So...” She glances at Lia, careful not to make assumptions. “The age of the fetus is not counted from the date of conception. It’s technically counted from the first day of her last period. We don’t know when that day was because her cycle isn’t regular, but it’s generally a few weeks before conception. So, the age will be the number of weeks post-conception plus a couple weeks for the ovulation process. Does that...track?”

I nod. We met about five weeks ago, plus a few weeks...okay, the math is mathing. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

“Okay, today is August, twenty-fourth, so baby’s estimated due date is March, twenty-sixth.” She gives us a warm smile as she hands me a picture of the ultrasound. “Congratulations.”

Hearing that cements...everything. My adrenaline levels shoot through the roof, and I feel like I’m buzzing.

I walk out with Dr. Cheng while Lia dresses, and when she comes out, the doctor talks us through what prenatal vitamins we need and what we should expect over the next few weeks.

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