Always been you//Jolex

Chapter 20

"Alright, Jo. Ready to see your little bambino?" Carina says, walking through the door of the exam room 10 minutes later. I nod, and she pulls the machine over. I've been through this before, so I've already taken everything off from the waist down. A blue papery sheet is draped over my lap, covering my lower body. Alex's hand is in mine, and he stands by my head stroking my hair like every appointment before this.
"Okay. This will be cold." She says, squeezing the familiar gel.
Alex and I had decided to find out the gender weeks ago, and we've just been waiting for the baby to cooperate. We should have been able to tell at our 12 week ultrasound, but he/she wasn't in the the right position.
A moment after she places the wand on my abdomen, the black and white sonogram pops up on the screen, and my breath hitches. This is our 3rd or 4th ultrasound, but I still get choked up every time I see our little blob. Like most other things these days, I've accredited it to the hormones.
"Alrighty, lets take a look. It's a..."
"Girl!" Alex shouts, cutting Carina off as he reads the ultrasound for himself. He leans in and gives me a quick kiss, and squeezes you hand. "We're having another girl!" He says, his eyes tearing up a bit. Although, he doesn't have hormones to blame.
"Told you." I say in a bit of a mocking tone, my sarcasm a bit ironic considering the tears of surprise and joy streaming down my face. It sounds like a stereotype, but I also have sad tears, angry tears, and tired tears. I pretty much just cry a lot.
Alex hands me a towel to wipe the gel off my belly, And we walk out of the room hand in hand. Meredith is nearby, and she looks at the both of us emerging from the exam room with teary eyes and our OB. I can see how this might send the wrong message.
"Everything okay?" She asks in a concerned tone.
"It's a girl!" I say, smiling.
"Ha! Jo totally called it." She says, putting her hand up to give me a high five.
"I know, right?" I reply. Alex looks at the two of us and rolls his eyes.
"Babe, I have a patient to check on but I'll see you in the lobby at 4?"
I nod and go back to talking to Meredith.
"You're 14 weeks, right?"
"Yeah. I'm already exhausted all the time, I don't know how I'm gonna do it when I have a 7 pound baby attached to me. Or when the baby comes out and never lets me sleep again."
"Yeah, kids are exhausting. And you guys went from 0 to 2 in like, 10 minutes. Good luck with that." She grins and picks up her chart, and then walks away.
"Gee, thanks a lot!" I shout after her.
Later the same day, Alex and I meet in the lobby as planned. Sadie stays after school for extended care, which Meredith recommended. We'll have to get a nanny to pick her up and take care of dinner and homework, but we decided to put it off until she gets used to the new schedule.
We drive to the school, and the kids are standing in a line outside. We drive down the line and the program's supervisor opens the car door and let's her in the car.
"Hi!" I say, leaning into the back seat to give her a kiss.
"Hey Sadiebug! How was it?" Alex asks, pulling the car away.
"It was good."
"Good? That's all we get?" I say in a silly voice.
"I had fun with Zola. She introduced me to her friends. They seem nice. My teacher is really fun. We went outside and blew bubbles and colored. And we had music."
"That's so much fun! I brought you a snack if your hungry." I say, handing it back to her.
"Mom and I have a surprise for you when we get home." He says, referring to the little gender reveal we set up for her. Alex called a bakery and ordered a cake that says "boy or girl?" With pink icing when you cut inside. We figured we'd take a video and post it on Instagram to announce it to our friends.
We pick up pizza because I'm craving it, and we don't wait to eat it. I'm starving, so we end up eating a pizza in the car at 5:00 on a Monday night.
As soon as we get home, Alex brings out the cake.
"Okay Sadie, ready for dessert?" I say. She comes running into the room.
"Yum! Cake! Is it someone's birthday?" She says.
"Look what is says!" Alex says. She reads it and her face lights up.
"We're gonna cut the cake, and if the frosting is pink, it's a girl, and if it's blue, it's a boy."
I start the video camera, and Alex goes to cuts the cake.
"Okay, help me pull it out and put it on the plate, Sade."
They remove the slice to reveal the layer of pink icing.
"It's a girl!" Sadie shouts, jumping up and down. Alex scoops some frosting off the side and smears it on my nose.
"Hey!" I say, returning the gesture.
He cuts another piece and hands me the plate.
"That's can be your piece. I'm eating for two, here." I say, taking the knife and cutting a hunk of cake equal to three slices. Alex laughs at me and sits at the table beside Sadie, and I sit on Alex's lap. His arm is on my waist and his hand rests on my thigh, and at this particular moment, I'm really wishing there wasn't a kid in the room.
Hormones.