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“Oh. Okay.” He nodded. “Good to know. No stress.”
“That’s probably the most important thing you can do, Anna. Avoid it at any cost. Jacob, you need to buffer her from it as much as possible. Sex can help, since it’s such a good stress reliever.”
Jacob coughed. “Did you hear that, honey?” he asked, wagging his eyebrows at her.
Anna pursed her lips. First he’d pulled the wife thing in the waiting room. Now this. “Is that really safe for the baby?”
“Actually, yes. The baby’s so small right now.” The doctor pulled a funny-looking instrument, like a tiny microphone, from a drawer near the exam room sink. “Let’s see if we can find the baby’s heartbeat.”
Anna had read about hearing the heartbeat with the fetal Doppler monitor. The notion both thrilled and terrified her.
“Just lie back,” Dr. Wright said, lifting up Anna’s exam gown to reveal her bare belly. She squirted some liquid on to her skin. “Just a bit of gel. It’ll help pick up the sound.”
A crackling sound like an old transistor radio broke out in the room. Jacob inched closer to Anna, bewildered. “We’ll actually hear the baby’s heartbeat?”
The doctor nodded, moving the instrument over Anna’s stomach. “The heart forms and starts beating from a very early stage.”
More static came from the small speaker the doctor held in her hand. Pops. Snaps. A rapid, watery sound rang out—likes waves at the beach on fast-forward. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. A smile spread across Dr. Wright’s face. She nodded, consulting the instrument. “There’s your baby.”
Jacob held his breath. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. He’d never been so overtaken by shock and wonder, both at the same time. The miracle of the moment began to sink in, but it wasn’t a weight. Not as he’d worried it might be. The baby was not an idea or an abstract—the life that he and Anna had created, against all odds, was real. A tiny human, with a heart and everything. Whoosh whoosh whoosh. He’d never been so affected by a sound. That sound and the life force that created it needed him. Anna needed him. And he would not let either of them down.
Anna looked up at him, her eyes wide with astonishment. “Our baby,” she muttered.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” he said, taking and gently squeezing her hand. Maybe it was the wrong thing to do, but he was acting on pure instinct. She didn’t protest, which felt like such a gift. “It’s so fast.”
“It’s a tiny heart, Mr. Lin. It doesn’t know any other speed.”
“And what does the baby look like right now? When can we see it?” It? That didn’t sound right at all. “I mean him.”
“Or her...” Anna added, smiling. It was the first truly light moment of the appointment or for that matter, since she’d told him she was pregnant. He was so grateful for it. Finally, some good news.
“Or her,” Jacob agreed. “When can we see him or her?” He was no longer surprised by the excitement in his voice. It was impossible not to get caught up in the moment.
“We’ll schedule an ultrasound for next week. I’d like to do some 3D imaging. For now, the baby looks like a peanut with a big forehead.”
“Hmmm,” Jacob said. Had his dad been this involved when his mother was pregnant with him? Had he gone to a single doctor’s appointment? Jacob doubted it greatly. It was too bad—he’d missed out on so much. Jacob wouldn’t have traded this experience for anything. It was only made better by the fact that he was with Anna. Now if he could only convince her to stop tabling romance and let him back into her heart.
The doctor put away the monitor and wiped off Anna’s stomach.
“Where can I buy one of those?” Jacob asked. Being able to listen to the baby’s heartbeat any time they wanted would be amazing. His mind drifted to thoughts of him and Anna in bed, listening to their baby’s whoosh. Certainly their baby had an exceptional whoosh, far better than other babies’ whooshes.
“There are inexpensive ones, but they don’t work very well. The quality ones are in the neighborhood of six or seven hundred dollars.”
“Oh yeah. We need one of those. Can your nurse order one for me?”
“That’s a big expense for something you’ll only use for another six months.”
“And you think I really care about that,” Jacob replied. “Because I don’t.”
Anna shook her head, grinning at him. “He doesn’t care about that. At all.”
