Waiting For You

Chapter 25: Playing House

Chapter 25: Playing House

Amelia

There's a bit of awkwardness and confusion between our last time at the fertility clinic and my first time with my new ob-gyn, who's actually also my old gynecologist from before I got pregnant. I like Dr. Morrissey and I know she'll take good care of us for the remainder of this pregnancy, but it's still nerve-wracking to go through a change this big after being used to something else. It also takes a while for them to review all of the paperwork and make sure our insurance is in order, which doesn't make me feel any better. Basically, I'm almost in my fourteenth week by the time we finally get a day and time for our dating scan appointment with the sonographer: Friday, November 16th.

I'm not necessarily worried about the timing since we've had more ultrasounds at this point than most expecting parents, but we've opted to do the prenatal screening test to find out if our babies might have Down's syndrome or some other genetic defects, and that does have me feeling a little anxious on the days leading up to the appointment.

Is it crazy that I never stopped to think that there might be something genetically wrong with our babies? Whenever I thought about our future with them, I always imagined them completely healthy and perfect.

When we first found out we were pregnant, I was so overjoyed. Nothing could've burst my bubble. When we discovered we were actually having two babies, there was a bit of panic. We started worrying about the risks of carrying multiples and the challenges of raising two babies instead of just one. But in all of this time, I never stopped to think that something could still be wrong or that there was a chance our babies weren't developing properly.

"Hey babe, guess what," Sam says the moment he gets home from work on the day before the appointment. I look up from the assignments I've been grading.

"What?" I ask.

"Do you remember the ranch house near your parents?" he says as he puts his jacket away in the coat closet and kicks off his shoes. He makes his way over to me, leans on the back of my chair and kisses the top of my head. "They dropped the price on it. Check it out."

He takes control of my keyboard and mouse, and we spend the next few minutes looking at the house online. We've seen it a dozen times before. We've driven by it countless times more. Hell, I've had dreams about this house. It's a four-bedroom fixer upper with a ton of land, the kind of place I'd love my kids to grow up in. It's only a few minutes' drive from my parents'.

"It's still a bit over our budget," I say uncertainly.

"We're almost done with the payments on the truck. We don't have IVF things to worry about anymore. We can get a loan. We can afford it," Sam assures me. "Come on. Let's at least go look at it again. It's our dream house, baby!" He sounds so happy and excited that I can't help but agree with him. So he gets up and starts pacing the living room. He's practically bouncing with energy as he makes the call. I don't expect him to reach anyone this late, and I almost tell him to wait until tomorrow, but a few minutes later he's done his magic and suddenly we've got a showing for this Saturday.

We've got a pretty busy start to our weekend, that's for damn sure.

I have to go alone to my ob-gyn appointment as Sam was called into an emergency surgery at the vet clinic. It's not so bad. On top of them taking my blood and doing an exam, I mostly just answer a lot of questions and fill out forms. I think if I would've gotten the screening test results on the same day I would've wanted him there with me, but they won't get back to us for about a week so it's all good.