Crescendo

Chapter 29: We're Having a Baby

"Dianara Jimenez?"

"That's me." I sighed, standing up from my seat.

"You can come on back now." The nurse smiled warmly.

"You ready for this?" Dom asked, squeezing my hand.

"As ready as I'll ever be." I squeezed back.

We followed the nurse quietly as she led us to the examination room.

"There's a gown right there." She pointed to the examination table. "Go ahead and change and Dr. Alvarez will be with you shortly," She said, before leaving the room.

After I changed, I took a seat on the exam table while Dom pulled a chair up and sat down beside me. We sat in silence waiting for the Doctor to arrive. The anxiety radiating between the two of us was overwhelming. We were both nervous.

The room we were in was cold and smelled of disinfectant. It was something about the emptiness of it that brought me chills. There was a clock on the wall. The ticking of the clock was the only sound that could be heard throughout the room. It was unsettling.

After a few short minutes, Dr. Alverez finally walked in the room.

"Diya." She smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm alright." I shrugged, pushing my hair out of my face.

"Dom, It's nice to see you again." She smiled warmly at him.

"Always a pleasure, Dr. Alvarez." He flashed her polite smile and offered her his hand.

"Likewise." She shook his hand.

"Alright, let's get down to business," She said, going straight into doctor mode. "Diya, lean back on the exam table and put your feet in the stirrups. I'm going to go ahead and give you an ultrasound."

I took a deep breath and leaned back like she asked while she placed a long towel over my legs to cover my private areas.

"Okay, now take a deep breath and try to relax," She said, putting on a pair of gloves. "This is a vaginal ultrasound so, I need your muscles to be as relaxed as possible."

"Okay." I nodded, taking a deep breath.

She took out a long white probe and applied a small amount of ultrasound gel on it. The probe was thin, but the length was a little daunting.

I tried not to focus on the size and willed myself to relax as much as possible. I took a deep breath and when I opened my eyes, Dom was staring at me intently.

"You okay?" He whispered softly.

I couldn't bring myself to speak so I just nodded my head.

"Relax, babe." He leaned over and kissed my forehead and then laced his fingers through mine.

The gesture made me feel much more at ease. There had been a lot of tension between Dom and I since I told him about the cysts and the pregnancy. I wasn't really sure about where we stood but, I was hoping things would get back to normal after this visit.

"Okay, are you ready, Diya?" Dr. Alvarez asked.

"Yes." I nodded.

"On the count of three, I'm going to place the probe inside of your vagina. One... Two... Three"

On three, she slowly slid the probe in my vagina until it was about five inches in. It didn't hurt but it the probe felt uncomfortable inside of me.

"Okay Diya, look up at the screen for me."

I looked up to see an image of my uterus projected onto the ultrasound screen. I knew it was too early for me to see a fully grown baby but I was still hoping I'd see something other than darkness.