A Baby By Bestie

21: Check up day!

I've been staring at a jar of peanut butter for the past ten minutes, wavering between throwing it in the garbage or test to see if I'll throw up from tasting it. It's been roughly three weeks after the sour patch kids thing and I haven't had another bite of the treats since. That's unless you count prenatal vitamins as treats. I was in need of food now, at five in the morning on the day of my six weeks checkup and I was actually excited because I actually felt like eating.

You know, you've never really made actual sandwiches with this thing before. I thought while reading the labels on the jar. That's strange, but so true. Let's try it! I grabbed some bread and spread some peanut butter on two slices. Two? Isn't that a bit much? I shrugged, and looked at my work. I felt like I needed something more and searched the kitchen until I came upon some cream cheese from the last baking fiasco that mom and Rick had. My grin felt creepy as I spread the thing all over the peanut butter, pretty sure I was committing a terrible food crime. I then topped it off with a few shavings of a carrot.

I slapped the two slices together and took a huge bite just as Rick walked in. I barely heard his chirpy good morning that came with a kiss on the cheek as an explosion of tasted erupted in my mouth. Mmmmhhmmm! Ohmygosh! This is ssoooo good!

I think I moaned, and my eyes closed by itself. Who knew such weird combination of food could taste so extraordinary. That's because it is, genius. I opened my eyes and found Rick giving me a look that I couldn't quite dicipher.

"What?" I mumbled with my mouth full and tried not to laugh at his beautiful wide eyes. 

He studied me for a minute, quietly before he shook his head and chuckled a bit. "I was about to ask you who's giving you an organism, but all I see is a funny looking sandwich."

I rolled my eyes and playfully threw the butter knife at him. He ducked and the utensil flew through the open window behind him. "That's not funny."

"It is to me," he said, still laughing silently, "what's in it anyway?"

"Cream cheese and peanut butter," I said between munches. Rick took a closer look, squinting his eyes at my meal. "And carrots."

He cracked up again. "What's with you?" I almost screamed at him. If only I wasn't in complete bliss by my sandwich.

"It's just that..." He took a deep breath and bit back a laugh. "I've never heard or seen a sandwich quite like that before."

I rolled my eyes and poured myself some water. I finished off my sandwich too fast for my liking and drained my glass with a load unladylike burp. I bit my lip, trying not to laugh at myself but my best friend, future hubby snorted behind me and I burst into happy tears. We spent nearly the whole morning acting like idiots, laughing at everything and nothing at all until we finally bundled ourselves into Rick's brand new navy blue Chevy  already fitted with a baby seat.

I watched him drive with his dimples on display right through the short journey Cheryl's office and just knew that he was secretly excited about our appointment. He didn't even seem phased when some asshole ran the red light and an old lady forgot to indicate before she made a turn-off. And when we got to the small private hospital, and it was our turn to see Dr Cheryl, he greeted her with a huge grin and actually hugged her.

I would ask him if he's okay, but I think I like him like this.  Rick sat down patiently through my usual check-ups, giving me every ounce of his attention. He even helped me up on the uncomfortable examination bed thingy and stood beside me as Cheryl pressed the cold stethoscope on my baby bump. Cheryl also ended up entertaining Rick's resourcefulness by showing him how to fidget with the ultrasound machine. I was almost jealous. Almost! And then more cold stuff touched my navel.

The sound of breathing and rapid heartbeats filled the room and for a minute I wondered if it was mine before Cheryl grabbed my attention. "Okay, guy," she said softly, and pointed at a little monitor on the machine, "let's see the little one for the first time!"

She handed Rick the extension thingy that served as a super camera against my tummy and told him to move it around. "Okay, slowly search for baby... Next side please... Awesome, stop right there."

I could make out the tiny dark shape inside a small space all curled up and cuddly. It got blurry pretty soon but it was because of some tears that kept blocking my view, and Rick whispering "holy shit" on repeat beside me was a gift.

"There's your health baby, guys." Cheryl softly said and inched her way to a corner of the room while we stared in awe at the screen.

"It's so tiny..." Rick whispered.

"What do you expect, I barely have a tummy." I replied in the same tone.

He chuckled, "this is amazing!"

"I know, right!" I said, then a thought hit me. "Why are we whispering?"

We both cracked up simultaneously which turned into full on laughter, and the heartbeats in the room started to accelerate. This almost caused us to panic and turned to Dr Cheryl for some kind of guidance before she sort of rolled our eyes and told us it was okay. As she handed me a paper towel and arranged her work area, she gave us a brief run down of my check up.

"Blood pressure is normal, but you need to eat more or both you and the baby will be underweight soon. You can still work until your maternity leave date, but try not to get too stressed. Also, would you like to know your baby's gender?" She just dropped the last part with a slightly raised eyebrow and a hint of a smile on her face like she was talking about the weather.

"Yes!"
"No!" We both screamed and then glared playfully at each other.

"Why not?" Rick protested, throwing his hands up "I've been waiting my whole life for this."

"Your whole life is one month and two and a half weeks?" I asked flatly.

He nodded, "pretty much."

"I don't want to know because I'll end up telling Samantha before the gender reveal party."

"But how are you going to reveal what you don't know?" He had a point.

I pursed my lips. "Okay. You alone gets to know." I said and he literally started jumping and clapping his hands. I think if the room was bigger Rick would've done some cartwheels. "But don't tell me until like when we start shopping for the party."

He nodded and kissed my lips, "of course, hun."

He helped me up and out of Cheryl's office and made sure I was okay in the waiting area before going back inside for like two seconds and emerging with a huge grin on his face.

"What is it?" I couldn't help but ask.

"You said you didn't want to know." He winked at me knowing that I was starting to get annoyed. "Would you please eat some lasagna with me today?"

No! My tummy grumbled, "whatever."