A Silenced Gift

Chapter 1

© 2017 D.S. Little
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the author, except as permitted by U.S. Copyright law.
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Fatima

       Jaren and I were at the clinic of my obstetrician, Dr. Andrea Rubenstein. Once we returned from the BET Awards in L.A., he had become obsessed with everything baby. We told my parents and his mom and sister right away. We told a few friends and only a few people on our management teams. Overall, we wanted to keep the news to ourselves.

      After telling my agent Charles Wideman the good news, he worked on a schedule to push up the book tour for my second book, Unapologetically Me. Since we weren't sure how I would be feeling later on in my pregnancy he felt doing the press now was the safest bet. He was working with Simon & Schuster on changing the release date. I was now only going to seven cities including L.A., Dallas, Houston, New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta, and Charlotte.

      Before traveling anywhere, I wanted to get clearance from my doctor to ensure traveling that type of schedule in a span of two weeks was safe for me and the baby. Jaren was in the middle of working hard on his next album and he was so high in demand after doing the  huge tour with Kendrick that he was constantly traveling to do studios across the country to do features and performances with other artists. I waited until he returned from working with The Game in L.A. to go to this appointment.

       During my appointment Dr. Rubenstein checked for the baby's size and heartbeat using the ultrasound machine. She took a ton of pictures and then told us to meet her in her attached office. As Jaren and I sat in her office waiting for her to talk to us. His hand kept finding its way to my stomach as he scanned through his phone. Ever since he found out I was pregnant he couldn't seem to stop rubbing me there. And every time he did it, I would get goosebumps all over because I could really feel his excitement for this baby.

       "Everything looks good!" Dr. Rubenstein said as she entered her office no longer wearing her medical coat.

       "So traveling these next two weeks shouldn't be a problem?" I asked her.

       "Not at all." She shook her head and leaned forward on her desk. "You're just at nine weeks and still in your first trimester. I don't see any reason why you can't continue your regular routine. Your vitals are great, the baby's heartbeat is strong, you should be fine."

       "When should she stop traveling?" Jaren asked.

        "It varies. Each woman handles pregnancy differently." She answered him then looked at me. "But I don't want you to do too much traveling in your third trimester." I looked over at Jaren and he met my eyes. I turned my attention back to her.

     "Our due date is still February 2nd?" I asked her.

      "Your baby is still measuring at that due date." Dr. Rubenstein confirmed with a nod.

      "Is there anything else she shouldn't be doing?" Jaren asked.

     "She should still live her normal life. Drink lots of water, work out at least three times a week, take your pre-natal vitamins, eat a balanced diet..." Dr. Rubenstein began to list off. "My only concern are those three major surgeries you had a few years ago. I don't see there being any issues since you've been living a healthy lifestyle since then, but I still want to monitor your heart throughout the pregnancy." At the sound of that I felt Jaren squeeze my hand.

       "I don't want either of you to worry." She went on. "I just like to take every precaution when it comes to my patients."

      "We appreciate that." Jaren told her.