Another Life

5

A few days later I found myself sat on the uncomfortable examination chair looking around the very familiar room, my gaze being met with the wall of pictures beside the chair and having the odd feeling of being watched by the pictures hanging there staring back at me.

The room was silent, other than the quiet squeaking coming from the stool Jay was sat on every time he moved - which was a lot. In the corner of my eye I could see him slowly spinning in a circle and pushing the stool around that side of the room, doing anything to keep himself occupied until the doctor came in. I was trying my hardest not to snap at him, tell him to stop moving because the squeaking was going right through my ears, but I knew he was doing it to calm his nerves and distract him, so I held down the need until the door opened again.

When it finally did I blew out a sigh of relief to see one of the much more well-known faces, to us anyway. Doctor Patterson enters the room and shoots both Jay and I a wide smile, shutting the door behind her.

"Oh how I've missed seeing the name Upton on my schedule for the day, what's it been now? Two years?" She asks as she approaches the chair, taking her own seat and throwing the file in her hand down onto the table.

Jay and I both nod to her question simultaneously, remembering back to when we had seen Patterson when I was pregnant with Macie.

The smile doesn't falter from her face. "Well just how fast time flies."

I cut in suddenly, scoffing under my breath with agreement. "Tell me about it."

My words gain a slight chuckle from Leah before she changes the subject. "So, given our previous encounters I can take one guess as to why you're back here again, have you taken a test yourself?"

I can see Jay look to me in the corner of my eye and it takes me a second to respond with all the eyes in the room staring at me - including the eyes in the picture. "Yeah, I did a few days ago, it came back positive, obviously."

Leah Patterson nods and I'm starting to question how she could keep a smile on her face for this long without it burning her cheeks. That's what I loved about her, she was always just so friendly, much more than some of the people here.

"Okay, well, at-home tests nowadays are pretty much as accurate as pregnancy tests done here so I'd say the next thing to do is get exams done, confirm one-hundred percent but first, do either of you have any questions regarding moving forward?"

I think about my answer for a minute, remembering all the answers the questions I asked last time round - which was every possible question you could ask in this situation. Jay looks to me as if waiting to see if I spoke up first and eventually I do, leaning forward in the chair.

"Do you have any good remedies for morning sickness? It was never this bad with Macie."

Leah turns to the side, retrieving the folder she had thrown down when she walked into the room, retrieving a pamphlet from inside as if she had expected us to ask a question like that and handing it over to me, responding verbally as she did so. "Getting plenty of rest, I know it sounds a little cliché but sleep is the best medicine, being tired can make the nausea worse. Avoid the food or smells that make you feel worse. Try eating small but frequent meals of plain foods that are high in carbohydrates and low in fat, such as pasta or crackers, or a drink containing ginger, that can help alleviate it. Unfortunately you're kinda stuck with it, for the next few weeks at least."

I send her a gracious smile, giving a quick skim of the pamphlet before placing it beside me. "Thank you."

She furrows her eyebrows. "Any more questions?"

Jay and I look to each other, not saying anything before we both slowly shake our heads, allowing her to continue on with the rest of the visit.

Leaning back in her chair, she counts the exams she needed to do on her fingers. "Okay, so we're gonna need to do a physical exam, a pelvic exam and a few labs, CBC, RPR, HBsAg, urinalysis, ones like that just to make sure everything is doing good with you and then we'll get the machine loaded up to do an ultrasound, make sure everything's good with baby."