“That’s not too bad…is it?”
“Not yet, but I would want you much lower than that at this stage in your pregnancy.”
Swallowing, I sat there as she examined me and answered any questions she had. I didn’t like that there could be a potential problem. Especially this early. That couldn’t be good.
“Do you have a blood pressure cuff?”
“No,” I told her.
“You’ll need to get one. Take your blood pressure in the morning and evening and keep track of it. Then next week, when we meet again, I’ll get those numbers from you.”
“Okay.” I looked over at Bolo and his eyes softened a bit as he gave me a quick reassuring smile.
“And my last question is if you’d like to give some blood for NIPT? It stands for Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing. There are some insurances who won’t pay for the testing because it’s a screening, not a diagnosis. But it analyzes small fragments of fetal DNA within your bloodstream,” she said, nodding toward me. “It’s a preliminary screening. If anything were to come back positive, we’d need to conduct further testing to find out if it was accurate, or not. Also, it will tell you the sex of your baby.”
I looked over at Bolo questioningly.
“Any risks or side effects?” he asked.
Doctor Natalie shook her head. “Nope, it’s a simple blood test.”
He glanced back at me. “I’ll pay for it if your insurance rejects it, if you want to do it.”
“Sure,” I said, nodding eagerly. I was excited to find out the sex of my baby, not that I cared either way. And if there was anything wrong, I’d rather find out early to see if any preventions could be done. I made a mental note to look up what those conditions were.
“Perfect. That’s usually done between ten and thirteen weeks, so with you being twelve weeks along now, it’s perfect timing. Go ahead and lay back.”
I stared at the ceiling, there was a pretty decoration hanging there for me to look at as she got everything prepped, and before I knew it she was pointing at the screen in front of her. She’d adjusted it so I could see.
“There’s your baby.”
Bolo moved his chair over to the side of the bed and put his hand on my shoulder. “Damn. It actually looks like a baby. Mostly.”
Natalie laughed. “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing how fast they go from looking like a blob to a baby.”
I reached over and grabbed Bolo’s hand. “I-I don’t hear a heartbeat.”
They both went silent for a brief moment. Bolo realizing he didn’t either, and Natalie processing what I’d just said.
“Oh, sorry, this machine doesn’t have sound. But this line right here?” She pointed to the screen. “That’s your baby’s heartbeat.”
The breath whooshed out of me. The minute she’d pointed out my baby, but I hadn’t heard anything, my heart had started slamming against my ribs.
Bolo squeezed my hand, making me realize I was strangling his in my grip. I relaxed it, but he just rubbed his thumb over my skin in a comforting manner.
I watched in fascination as she took a few measurements, and told us everything she was doing. That was my baby. It was crazy to see her or him on the screen like that. I held back happy tears.
The rest of the appointment went by fairly quickly. She gave me a print out on what to expect in this time frame of pregnancy. And some ultrasound pictures. Before I knew it we were leaving her office.
Bolo stopped me outside the door and wrapped me in a hug. We stood there silently for a bit before he whispered, “Our baby,we got to see him. Or her. But…we’re having a baby.” Then he went silent again.
I just leaned into the hug and absorbed it. I could tell, just from his tone, that he was already in love with our baby. A happy tear slid down over my cheek. This may not be the normal way that people started families, and he may not be a typical man, but I was so happy I might just burst. Normal and typical didn’t matter to me at all. This was what mattered. His strong heavy heartbeat thumped against me as we clung to each other.
We eventually pulled apart, neither of us really wanting to. “We’ll stop by the pharmacy before we head home,” Bolo told me before leading me to the parking lot.
I was so ready to pick up anything that would help me feel a bit better. The drive to the store was quick and I walked down the aisle and grabbed the other nausea meds the doctor had suggested I try, before getting the last medication from the pharmacist. Bolo was off getting blood pressure monitors.
Before long we were back in his SUV and on the road. I was reading about the medications on my phone when he got onto I-10. Frowning, I looked over at him. “Where are we going?”
