Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 70092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
"It's so strange that I can't feel any of that movement," she says softly.
"It usually happens at around eighteen to twenty weeks depending," the doctor says as she clicks buttons on the machine. She moves up and down on her stomach, side to side, and then she presses a button, and you hear the sound of swishing now. “That's a strong heartbeat. One hundred and forty-two beats a minute." She presses more buttons, and the machine spits out something.
"Is that a normal heartbeat?" I ask. “Or is it too high?"
"It varies from one hundred and ten to one hundred and sixty, depending on the child," she answers me.
She takes the wand off Presley, wiping off her stomach and then the machine before she turns the lights back on. Presley sits up now, letting her gown fall down. “Here are some more pictures." She hands them to Presley, who just looks down at them. “Do you have any questions for me?" the doctor says, rolling back to the desk and typing things in.
"I have a question." I hold up my hand as if I'm in school and take out my phone.
"Yeah, you can still have sex." The doctor laughs, and I chuckle nervously at that comment.
"That wasn't the question, but good to know." I nod at her and look over at Presley, who just rolls her lips. "I was reading online that with the bleeding, the pregnancy could be a high risk?"
"From what I see, I don't think so,” the doctor says. “But it's still too early to tell. My advice is to listen to your body." She turns to look at Presley. “If your body is saying you are tired, sit down and rest. If you have all the energy and want to take a walk, then do that."
"Good to know,” Presley says, putting her hand on her stomach. “I've been staying off my feet ever since the hospital, only going in to work twice a week but mainly just sitting."
"You are doing everything you need to do." The doctor gets up. “I'll see you in a month, and if you have any questions, you can call me." She walks out of the room, and I look back at Presley.
"Are you okay?” I ask, and she nods her head.
"It's still crazy that the baby moves so much, and I don't even feel anything." She laughs. “Even if I put my hand on my stomach, I don't even feel a flutter." She gets down off the exam table. “Here you go." She hands me the pictures. Our fingers graze each other, and it tingles all up my arm. I look at her to see if she is as affected as I am. But she turns away just as quickly. “You can look at them while I change."
Chapter 22
Presley
"Here you go," I say, getting off the exam table and handing him the pictures of the ultrasound. Our fingers graze each other, and it almost feels like an electric shock runs through my body. I quickly move my hand away and turn so he doesn't see the tears that form in my eyes. “You can look at them while I change," I say softly, looking over to my dress that I hung up on the hook.
"I'll wait for you outside," he says, and I wait until the sound of the door clicks shut behind him before I walk over to the chair and sit down. My breathing is coming in pants now.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck," I say over and over again as I count to twenty, and when that doesn't work, I count to fifty. Ever since I walked into this office and saw him, my whole body has been on high alert. It's been over two weeks since I've seen him, and I thought for sure it wouldn't bother me as much as it did the last time, but I was wrong. The pain was, in fact, even worse than before, which I didn't think was humanly possible. How could you hurt more than you did before? There were days when I felt like someone beat the shit out of me. Every single bone in my body hurt. Every single step that I took felt heavier and heavier. The only thing that kept me going was the baby. It was the only joy in my life. I would spend hours online searching about things happening at this time.
I get up, making my way over to my dress that I wore just for him. My hand shakes when I take it down and put it over my head. Tying the sash around my waist, the small little stomach that has started to come out is making it uncomfortable for me to button my pants, so I’m often in dresses. I smile as I put my hand on my stomach. “He loves you so much,” I can’t help but say as I wipe the lone tear that comes out of my eye. Every single time I miss him, I tell the baby how much he loves her or him. Which happens about ten times an hour at this point. During one night of restlessness, I got so in my head that the heartache I was feeling would be breaking the baby's heart, so I spent five hours looking if this could or would actually happen.