Water Ch. 115 - Amen

 

“Beth Adams??” They heard from the doctor’s office waiting room.  They look at one another and Jon smiles so big, he’s excited.  Beth grabs his hand and leads him behind the nurse, to the room that’s waiting for them.  First stop – the scale.  55.3kg.  Beth asks for the conversion and the nurse tells her, “122 pounds.  That’s a great weight.”  Beth swallows hard. 

On the exam table, there’s a disposable blanket.  Beth picks it up and sits down with it on her lap. The nurse takes her vital signs and when she’s finished, she tells her to strip from the waist down and Dr. Keto would be with her in a minute.   And she leaves the room. 

Jon’s excitement is building, he can’t wait to hear all there is to hear.  Knowing that it all will be good news.  He’s certain of it.  Beth strips, with Jon’s help from the waist down.  He folds her pants and her panties and holds them on his lap.  “Are you nervous?”, he asks her. 

“No, not really.  Are you?” she looks at the nervous dad to be, acting like this is his first.

“I am a little bit, maybe not nervous, but scared.” He admits to her, knowing it opened the door for conversation that he didn’t want to have.

She gives him a sad face, and asks, “What are you scared about?”

He sits up and fidgets with his pants, and begins to tell her, “I have researched the medication that you were on, and I am a little scared.  I gotta be honest.  That warfarin is bad stuff, babe.  Specially in the early stages of pregnancy.”  He gets up and moves to be closer to her, sitting behind her on the exam table, rubbing her shoulders. 

“I took so little of it, I’m really not worried.  I am slightly, but I think the dose was small enough and I was only on it for a few days.” She tries to reassure him, but inside she’s terrified.  She tries to convince herself that all will be okay, but she’s a little freaked out.

Knock, knock and the door opens, they hear, “Miss Adams?” And in walks an older lady in a white coat that introduces herself.  “Hello, I’m Dr. Keto – resident obstetrician, here at the hospital.  How are you?”  She walks up to Beth and shakes her hand, and then Jon’s.  She looks at Jon and asks, “Are you who I think you are?”

Jon admits that he’s who she thinks and they exchange pleasantries, all while Dr. Keto is preparing to do and ultrasound on Beth.  Once she’s ready, she asks Beth, “Lie back please.” And she pulls out the foot rest of the exam table.  Jon grabs Beth’s hand and the Dr. goos up her belly and starts to move the wand over Beth’s belly.  This is just the Doppler test to see if heartbeat is present, and after a few minutes of moving the wand around and having the proper angle, they hear the ‘swoosh, swoosh’ ‘swoosh, swoosh’. 

Jon knows what the sound is, but Beth doesn’t.  She sees Jon’s eyes tear up and panics.  “Jon, what’s wrong?”

“That’s her heartbeat, can you hear that?” He is smiles from ear to ear. He’s looking at his mother to be and he can’t help but cry.  When he sees that she realizes what she’s hearing, her eyes tear up and she cries too.  She puts her hand over her mouth, she can’t believe that’s what she’s hearing. It has suddenly become clearer, she’s having a baby.

Jon’s hand couldn’t squeeze any tighter before it started to hurt her.  He leans over and kisses her forehead over and over.  She puts her arm around him and whispers in his ear, “We’re having a baby.”  He looks at her and says, “Thank you.” 

The doctor listens to the baby’s heartbeat for a few more minutes and is pleased with what she hears.  She explains to them that at 7 weeks, they were lucky to have heard it at all, since it’s usually heard around the 9^th week.  But Beth’s small build helped and the baby’s position did too. 

“I want to send you down for a vaginal ultrasound to get measurements.  I want to make sure that the baby is right where it should be and that everything looks perfect, is that okay?  With the ultrasound we can measure its femur and see if the growth has been affected at all due to the medication.  I know you guys are concerned about that, but based on what I just heard, I think we’re okay.  But let’s take a look anyway.”

Jon and Beth agreed, and the doctor made arrangements for them to go down and have it done immediately.  The doctor respected who he was and didn’t want to cause them any grief while they were there, so an in and out would be prefect.

Jon had to wait in the hallway while they prepped the room and Beth.  He sat on the ledge and waited patiently.  He doesn’t recall Dorothea having a vaginal ultrasound, so he’s a little nervous.  He’s wondering why he can’t be in there with her, but it is what it is.  The hallway was cold, so he could imagine that Beth was cold too.  The time ticked by so slow, 'What's taking so long?' he thinks to himself.  A few minutes later the door opened and the ultrasound tech said, "Sir, you can come in now."  Waving him her way.

Jon gets up and walks into the room.  Beth is laying on the table, with her legs in stirrups and a blanket draped over her.  The room is cold, so he knows that she's cold.  It smells like hospital and it's dark. 

He takes his place at her side, grabbing her hand and rubbing it.  "How ya doing?"  he asks her, with a little bit of discomfort in his voice.

"I'm good, you look like you have seen a ghost though, are you okay?"

He chuckles and honestly tells her, "I'll know when this is all over if I'm okay.  This is a little erie."

The technician tells her what's going to happen, what she'll feel and what to expect after the procedure.  she then asks if Beth or Jon have any questions.  Both shake their head no, and both are thinking 'let's get this over with!'

The technician inserts the lubed probe into Beth and she flinches, not in pain more so for the shock of it all.  As soon as Beth can relax, she opens her eyes and looks at the monitor and can see the xray image of her little teeny tiny baby.  She can see Jon out of the corner of her eye, watching too.  She has tears in her eyes and she can imagine that Jon does, too.  Beth can see the little nubs of arms and legs and if she looks really close, she can see the 'swoosh, swoosh' that she heard earlier.  There it is, her baby - their baby.  She can't believe what she is seeing and she looks at Jon.

"Jon, look.  Can you see her?  Can you see her little arms and legs.  Look, she's moving."  and Beth can't hold it together anymore.  Her happy tears are now joyous sobs and she really can't believe that that little moving thing is in her, that's her baby.

Jon bends over and kisses her forehead again, and just rests his head there.  The both of them are now crying the happy tears and are fixed on the images that they see.  The technician was moving the probe and clicking away, taking pictures of several things.  She measure baby's arms, legs, head and sac size. 

When she's done, she hands Beth a towel and gives her the OK to get cleaned up and that the radiologist would be in, in just a few minutes.  Jon and Beth both thank the technician and she leaves.  Jon helps Beth get up and wipe up, being the doting father to be.  "Jon, I can get this."  And she laughs at him, wiping the gel off of her self and putting her pants back on.  When she's cleaned up and dressed, she can't help it - she throws her arms around the man that made her the happiest she has ever.  And, he didn't even try.