Forever, Plus One

Emily smiled to herself and mouthed them back. This moment was so perfect, so beautiful. She felt blessed that her life had finally aligned so perfectly.

That night, Emily and Daniel lay together in bed.

“I can’t sleep,” Emily confessed, rolling onto her side to gaze at him.

Beneath the covers she felt Daniel’s hand move protectively over her stomach.

“I wonder why,” he said with a chuckle.

Emily rested her own hand on top of his. “I know, I can’t quite believe it’s real. Maybe once I’ve seen a doctor, had an ultrasound, I’ll believe it.”

“An ultrasound,” Daniel repeated with awe. “I never got a chance to do any of that stuff with Chantelle.”

Emily felt sorry for him. Daniel had missed out on so much of Chantelle’s early life, including her birth. Things were going to be so different this time around. He’d get to experience every moment of their baby’s life, all the firsts; first smile, first sneeze, first step. The thought warmed her.

“So when will we get to see our baby?” Daniel asked. “When’s the first ultrasound?”

“Twelve weeks, I think,” Emily said, realizing that she herself didn’t know a huge amount about what was going on. Her pregnancy was something they would have to learn about together. “I’ll know how far along I am once I see the doctor.”

“Do you think you conceived on our honeymoon?” Daniel asked.

“I hope so,” Emily replied with a grin, remembering their lovemaking in vivid detail, knowing that the time they’d spent together on their honeymoon would never be forgotten.

Daniel fell quiet then. “What shall we do about telling people? Friends. Staff.” Then more quietly, he added, “Moms.”

Emily sighed. She’d been ruminating on it also. Neither of their mothers were in their lives in any real capacity. Both were difficult personalities, both had failed their children in the past. They would likely fail at being grandmothers, too. If they couldn’t put their issues aside in order to witness their children’s marriage, what hope was there for them playing any kind of active role in their grandchildren’s lives?

“Let’s not think about them just yet,” Emily said. “I want to stay happy for at least a few weeks. Can we do that?”

Daniel nodded and turned his face toward the ceiling. Emily thought he seemed a little subdued, reserved. She hoped it was just over the mother issue and nothing more. But she couldn’t help worrying that there may be something else. Perhaps the news of the pregnancy wasn’t entirely welcome for Daniel. He’d wanted to plan their child together, after all. Maybe he was disappointed that it had just been sprung on them?

Emily decided against prodding him for an explanation. Daniel, she hoped, would come to her in his own time to share whatever concerns he had. It wasn’t like she herself wasn’t filled with anxiety over her ability to parent, or over the child’s health, the future, even the state of the world it was soon to be born into! There were a million things to worry about now. It would take some time for them both to process it.

She snuggled down beneath the covers, her mind still ru

She took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. Best to take things one step at a time. The first thing to do was get an appointment with the ob-gyn.

CHAPTER TWO

Emily felt as nervous as a child on her first day at school as she sat on the bed in the obstetrician’s office, swinging her legs beneath her. Daniel looked just as much out of his depth as he sat in the hard plastic seat beside her. There were framed medical certificates on the mint green walls, colorful posters showing the different phases of pregnancy, and the unpleasant smell of antiseptic lingering in the air. Emily realized she was going to have to get used to this environment. Over the next few months, she’d be smelling a whole lot of antiseptic!

The door swung open and in walked the doctor, Rose Arkwright. On first impressions, Emily thought she was dressed very smartly, more like an attorney than a doctor. It was really only the comfortably flat shoes, the white doctor coat, and the stethoscope around her neck that gave her away.

She smiled at them both as she placed her clipboard down beside her computer and took a seat at the desk.

“Mr. and Mrs. Morey?” she asked, addressing them both. “Firstly, may I say congratulations.”

She had a warm smile, Emily noted, and she shook each of their hands with a firm, confident grip. Emily got the distinct impression that Doctor Arkwright was an intelligent, no-nonsense kind of person. She felt like she was in very safe hands.

“Thank you,” Daniel said, smiling shyly. “We’re over the moon.”

Emily was glad to hear him say as such. She wasn’t entirely sure how he felt since he’d seemed a mixture of shocked and stressed yesterday.

“Shall we get right to it?” Doctor Arkwright said. She flipped over the first piece of paper and looked at Emily. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to take a lot of detailed notes to begin with. Forms, forms, and more forms.”

“No problem,” Emily said. “Fire away.”

“The first thing we need to determine of course is how far along you are. Are your periods usually regular?”

Emily nodded. “My last one was just before our wedding. So it’s been about eight weeks.”

“So this might be a honeymoon baby?” Doctor Arkwright said with a smile. “How romantic.”

Emily blushed.

Doctor Arkwright continued. “The way we work out the due date is to initially take it to be thirty-eighty to forty-two weeks after the end of the last period. So currently we’re looking at December eleventh.”

Emily and Daniel looked at each other, their eyes wide. So close to Christmas!

“Then when you have your first sonogram and the baby is measured that can be adjusted slightly,” the doctor added. “Can you tell me what symptoms of pregnancy you’ve been having and how long for?”

“She was feeling nauseous and faint,” Daniel explained. “From right after the wedding really, wasn’t it?” He looked over at Emily for confirmation.

“I thought it was stress,” she said. “There was a lot going on in our lives at that point of time.”

Doctor Arkwright nodded. “They’re the two most common symptoms to have early on. And often confused with stress. No fainting, though? Just feeling woozy?”

“Yes,” Emily said.

Doctor Arkwright took notes as she spoke. “Good. It’s not dangerous to the baby if you do faint because it’s too small at the moment and in a protective sac of fluid. But for you it can obviously be a bit distressing, particularly if you hit something on the way down. Keep an eye on that going forward. It’s likely to resolve over the next few weeks but for some women the symptoms do persist. If you’re naturally prone to low blood pressure it could continue into the second trimester. So make sure you take it easy. Stand up slowly. Eat regularly. Best to keep a banana in your purse. And a bag of nuts.”

“Sure thing,” Emily said, nodding, already starting to feel a little overwhelmed. She wished she was taking notes and hoped Daniel was committing to memory all the things she was too overwhelmed to absorb.

“Right, shall we take a look at you?” Doctor Arkwright said, standing.

Emily swung her legs round so she was lying flat on the bed. Daniel stood and hovered beside her. Doctor Arkwright put on some latex gloves.

“I feel like I’ve been abducted by aliens,” Emily said, peering up at her audience.

Daniel laughed.

“Yes, you’ll be prodded and poked more in the next few months than ever before in your life,” Doctor Arkwright said. “By the end you’ll have no qualms about stripping off in front of people. Body hang-ups go completely out the window.”