The Strypes Pregnancy Series

Ultrasound

Evan:

You clutch his hand nervously as the nurse motions you towards the bed. Pulling up your top so that your bump is exposed, you lie down on the bed. The nurse rubs some gel on your stomach and then turns to a computer.

"So, will you be wanting to find out the gender today?"

You and Evan turn to each other, nodding. "We've decided not to find out the gender" he tells her.

She smiles and turns to the monitor. "Sure, I'll just check that everything is going okay then-"

"No, wait," Evan interrupts. "We do want to know the gender."

"What?" you hiss. "I thought we'd decided not to know?!"

"I know, but I can't wait any longer. Please?"

"Ev, we can't discuss this now! I said-"

"Can you make a decision please?" the nurse asks impatiently. You both glare at her.

Evan scoots closer. "Look, babe, I'm really sorry. I just hadn't realised how desperate it am to find out about this baby. Tell you what, how about we ask the nurse to write it down and then... And then we could have a gender reveal party? Fun, and you get to wait..."

"Okay, sure. Please, let's just do this. The gel is really cold. I'm trusting you, Ev, don't screw this up please."

"Why would I screw this up? Yeah, um, Nurse Wooton, would it be possible for you to write the gender down in an envelope so that we don't know yet?"

She smiles and rolls her eyes. "Of course. Now, can we begin?"

Josh:

"Oh- oh, look, is that the head? Oh, she- or he is beautiful!" Josh squeals.

"Well, actually, it's a-" the nurse begins.

"No, wait!" you scream. We don't want to know yet. We're having a gender reveal party. Would it be possible for you to write it down in an envelope or something? Sorry for the inconvenience..." you mumble.

"Sure, honey, it's not a problem. Anyway, if you look here you can see the baby kicking- s- they're a bit small, but that's probably normal. We'll have to keep an eye on it, though."

"Really? Are you sure it's okay? I mean, I've been trying to eat well and everything-"

"It should be fine, although you'll have to wait a minute whilst I do some more tests to check that your uterus is delivering nutrients to the foetus correctly. Oh, by the way, here's the envelope. The gender is inside, along with some pictures."

Pete:

"You still okay with our decision?" you whisper in Pete's ear as the nurse rubs the cold gel into your stomach.

"Yep, I'm happy to keep little monkey a surprise until he or she is born" he smiles back.

"Will you be finding out the gender today?" the nurse asks.

"No thank you." She nods.

You both gasp as the blurry image appears on the screen. It flickers as the nurse moves the screen so that you can see better.

"Oh my god, is that a leg? It's so small!" Pete gushes.

"No you mutt, it's an arm. Wait, isn't it? Jesus Christ, I can barely even see this baby." You feel tears prick your eyes. "It's so small..."

Ross:

You stare at the screen, frowning. "I can't see two babies?"

Ross holds your hands in one of his and with the other points at the monitor. "Look, babe, there. You see? There's one head... And there's another. Jesus Christ."

The nurse moves the scanner and the two babies become more focused. "Well, since they're sharing a placenta, it means that they're identical twins. This is quite unusual, considering the genders- Sorry, you asked not to know. Let me just write out the card for you. Are you planning to have a gender reveal party?"

"Yes, yes we are. It's tomorrow actually! We're so excited to finally find out what gender munchkins we're having."

I know some of these are quite short, but it means I can write more :p there are some longer ones, of course!