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Archie rose and shook her hand, polite smile in place. “Hey, Doc,” he said. “Hope everything is fine.”
“It’s great,” she said before moving over to the sink and washing her hands. “How are you two doing? I know Frankie said we wouldn’t need to do any paternity testing this time.”
“No,” I told her. “Archie was the only contender this time.” I grinned at him.
“Got it. That’s good. It means we’re already starting ahead. You updated the medical chart with his family medical history?”
I nodded. “Took care of it this weekend when I did my online check-in.” I loved not filling out paperwork anymore. While paper was tactile and I liked it for some things, trying to fill out microscopic lines with a long list of anything sucked.
“Excellent.” Turning, she swept her gaze from me to Archie and then back. “Any concerns?”
“No,” I said with a quick shake of my head. “I haven’t really had any issues with morning sickness. Nausea has been pretty minimal across the board. My appetite is definitely fine. Maybe a little more tired than normal, but the kids just went back to school and Charlie was sick the first week of classes and keeping us up.”
“That’s all relative. The kids will settle down into their schedules and you have a lot of help at home.”
“I do. More than enough. Getting ready to do another tour, so that’s something to discuss. It’s not going to be extensive. We’re going to do what we did when I was pregnant with Charlie. A few shows followed by a break, then another few shows. I want to be home by the third trimester unless Archie and I are having a babymoon, but that won’t be stressful.”
Surprise flickered over his face, followed by a hint of delight. “I forgot about the babymoon. That—is going to be fun.” The sudden mischief in his eyes and the way he rubbed his hands together promised that he was already planning. Good, I liked giving him something else to focus on.
“Right then, we’ll just dive into the ultrasound. I’d normally have my tech do this, but I know how you are with the first one.” The lightness in her tone robbed it of any sting. The guys could be a lot with the techs and with the doctor there, she could answer everything right away. “I will want new bloodwork soon, but all of your labs look great and you’re exercising regularly without overdoing it. Go ahead and lay back for me, Frankie.”
She was pulling the machine over. Archie moved to the other side of the bed and when I held my hand up to him, he gripped it.
“As a reminder, we’re at fourteen weeks. This is our first scan. We may not be able to see any genitalia. Not all babies are cooperative.”
Archie chuckled, more of the tension leaching out of him. “We were just talking about Charlie on the way here.”
Dr. Patterson paused and made a face before she broke into a sunny smile. “He really didn’t want anyone to know.”
“That or he just wanted to keep mooning us.” That had been Coop’s theory. The comment made both her and Archie laugh.
“Maybe so,” she said as I rolled up my shirt and then she spread the warm gel out on my stomach. Even warmed up, it seemed a little chilly. Maybe I was just being too sensitive. “Ready?”
She had the screen up and was typing one handed while she held the wand with the other. One deep breath, then another. I had no reason to be all anxious, yet here I was, getting nervous. Archie squeezed my hand and that helped too.
“Ready,” I said.
“And if I can tell, you both want to know?” She confirmed as she began to rub the wand against the gel.
“Yes,” I said firmly and Archie echoed me.
“Let’s see what we can see…” She hummed a little as she began searching. From this angle, I could kind of see the screen but squiggly lines made it harder to read. She paused a couple of times, hit a couple of buttons and then continued. It was really quiet, though.
“Why can’t we hear the heartbeat?” We’d heard it during an earlier appt, but…
“Oh, don’t start panicking on me, Mom. Here you go.” She turned up the sound and there was a distinctive beat. I tried to relax my hand where I’d been digging my nails into Archie’s skin. For all that I’d been calm, the lack of sound had actually been the worst thing.
“Thank you.”
“Of course, sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you. I just wanted to see if our little one was going to give us a good look.” The last few words came out far slower than the first few. She frowned as she stared at the screen, then fiddled with something.
“Not being cooperative?” Archie asked.
“Yes and no, give me a second here. They’re moving.”
I bit my lower lip. Calm thoughts. Focus on calm thoughts. Everything was fine. It took forever with Charlie too, cause he was being so difficult. This was really just our first chance, hardly the last.
“Okay,” she said with an exhale of determination. “Here we go…”
