SEHE; Chapter 3

Friday August 01 [11w 4d]

"Annabel?" Phoebe and I stand up and follow the ultrasound tech down a hallway to a small dressing room. "My name is Jessica. If you could remove everything but your undergarments, there is a gown for you to change into. Make sure the ties are at the back. We'll be in this room right across the hall when you're done." I switch into the gown then bring my stuff to the ultrasound room.

"Where do I put this?" Phoebe is sitting on a chair beside the exam bed.

"You can set it on the other chair. Lie down on the bed for me." I lay on my back and Jessica places a paper sheet over my legs, tucks it into my panties, then pulls the gown above my stomach. She squirts a gel onto my lower abdomen then moves a wand type thing across my belly. "I'm just going to check a few things out before I show you the monitor. Should take me about 10 minutes." I look at Phoebe as she takes my hand. She can see the monitor from where she's sitting.

"What types of things are you looking at?"

"Size of the fetus which can give us a pretty good estimate of it's gestational age. We look to see that it's developing normally. And in some cases we find surprises of twins or more. In your case, there's one baby." I let out a huge sigh of relief. One is more than enough. "I can print out a couple pictures for you if you'd like."

"Sure." The rooms falls silent, save for the clicks and taps Jessica is making with the machine. It feels like ages but Jessica finally turns the monitor so I can see it. She points to a blob that looks like a kidney bean with arms.

"This is the head here. Good size and shape. Here is the spine and the feet. Nice, healthy heartbeat. You've got a wiggler there." A warm feeling spreads across my chest. "You've got an anterior placenta; which means that your placenta is located at the front of your uterus. It's likely you won't feel many of the smaller movements because they're hidden. Delivery can sometimes be a problem, depending on how it grows. That can be discussed with your doctor later on." I watch the baby - my baby - wiggle and kick on the screen.

"Can you tell the sex yet?"

"No, that's usually done between 18 and 22 weeks. Even then it isn't an exact science. You get that information at your own risk." I smile a little.

"So how many weeks am I, anyway?"

"My best guess; I would say you're close to 12 weeks." I give Jessica a look.

"What? No way. Shouldn't I have known way before now?"

"Not always. Lots of women have a bit of bleeding around when their period is due, called implantation bleeding. Some women don't experience any symptoms, a lot of which can be mistaken for flu like symptoms. It's not entirely unheard of for women to find out when they're well into their second trimester." I look up at the ceiling, trying to take it all in. "We're all done for today, Annabel. Once I get you cleaned up you're good to go. I'll just print the pictures for you." She wipes the gel off my belly then pulls the gown back down. I sit up and take two pictures from Jessica. One is a profile shot of the body and the other is of the spine.

"How big is it?"

"About the size of a lime." I just shake my head. Amazing.

+++

Friday August 15 [13w 4d]

I'm reading in my bed when my door opens. It's my mom and she looks troubled, mad and sad all at once. Alarmed, I put my book down. "What's wrong, mum?" She closes the door and sits at the end of my bed, wringing her hands together. "Is everyone okay?"

"There was a message on the answering machine on Monday. It was from an obstetrician." I can feel my face getting hot and my chest constricting. My mom just looks at me and I have no idea what to say. The silence stretches. "How far along are you?" I cringe internally.

"Almost 14 weeks." I don't know what I expected, but my mom completely breaking down and crying in front of me was not it. The longest five minutes of my life go by before she looks at me.

"When were you planning to tell me? You're leaving in just a couple weeks." I stumble through an apology.

"I know, I'm sorry. I only found out a few weeks ago and Jordan's been getting into more trouble than usual lately. I didn't want to burden you." She sputters out a laugh and stands up.

"Annabel! You are 16 years old! Jordan's trouble definitely takes a back seat to this. I thought you would have known that." I shake my head sadly.

"I'm sorry. Seriously."

"Had you planned to tell me before you left? Or were you just going to surprise me when you came back with a baby?"

"Of course I was going to." My mom just shakes her head.

"I assume you're planning to keep it?"

"Yes." She sighs and sits back on my bed.

"Who else knows. Phoebe?" I nod.

"And Nate."

"You're kidding me." Another minute of silence goes by before my mom stands up again. "Well you can assume you're grounded for the rest of the summer. I'll have to think of some other repercussions. We can discuss those later." With that she leaves my room and slams the door behind her. I sigh and rub my eyes. Before I can decide what to do next there's a quiet knock at my door.

"Yes?" Charlie opens the door.

"May I come in?" I nod and he sits on my desk chair. "So your mother talked to you."

"You don't need to come in and smooth things over. She's pissed, I'm grounded, that's it."

"Just let her simmer down and maybe she'll be a little more reasonable."

"It isn't like I nicked something from the corner store. I'm pregnant! This isn't going away."

"I know that and your mother knows that. She just needs to calm down. It's kind of a surprise." I roll my eyes.

"Kind of a surprise. You say that like I found some money on the ground." Charlie gets up and gives the top of my head a kiss, then leaves my room. Even though it's only 9 I shut my light off and lay down, hoping to fall asleep. Please let the next 16 days go by quickly.