Page 56 of Afterglow

“Leanne Kole,” she says in a reedy voice.

Leanne steps out of my arms and says, “That’s me.”

I follow in her wake, taking deep breaths as quietly as possible to keep the hallway walls from closing in. The nurse glances at me and I give her my best smile. Being here is a good thing—or that’s what I keep telling myself—because I can ask questions and get reassurances without having to raise suspicions with Leanne about why I’m so worried.

I focus on the random baby pictures hanging on the wall while the nurse in purple scrubs records Leanne’s weight, then leads us to a room at the end of the hall.

It’s not until we’re inside and I notice the drape sitting on the end of a paper-covered bed that I realize Leanne might have to undress. My eyes go round and bounce from the bed to Leanne, finding hers as big as saucers.

“I, uh… Do I need to, um…” Leanne stutters over the words, staring imploringly at the nurse.

“Oh, no, you shouldn’t need to undress today. The drape is there for when we check the heartbeat to ensure we don’t get any of the gel on your clothes.”

Leanne’s shoulders relax and her relief is palpable.

It’s not like I don’t want to see her with her clothes off again, but that doesn’t seem very “friendly”… and it’s completely different in this clinical, sterile context.

“Okay, good. I mean, thank you,” Leanne stammers, and I don’t know where it comes from, but I chuckle, which earns me a glare. “Like you weren’t thinking the same thing,” she hisses as the nurse checks something on her tablet before pulling on a pair of gloves.

“It’s not like I haven’t seen it all before,” I whisper back with a smirk. She looks like she wants to throw something at me, but before she can, the door opens again.

“You’re not riling up my patient, now are you?” Becca asks with a pointed look in my direction from where she stands in the doorframe.

“I would never,” I say with a sweet smile, the picture of innocence.

Becca rolls her eyes and gives me a light shove before facing Leanne. “And how are you feeling, Leanne?” she asks, then lowers her voice conspiratorially. “If he’s driving you crazy, I can throw him out.”

Leanne laughs and the bright sound releases some of the tension coiling behind my sternum. She seems at ease with Becca, and I’m glad for it. I worried the revelation that I was married to her sister might give her pause about seeing Becca, but it doesn’t seem to have made a difference.

“I’m feeling pretty good. The nausea is mostly gone, and I’ve even skipped a few doses of the Zofran and haven’t been immediately sick.”

“You have?” I interrupt, and she nods. That’s news to me, but it’s definitely good news.

Becca voices my thoughts. “I’m glad to hear it. Now that you’re in your second trimester, you can wean yourself off and see how you feel. Many women find the nausea goes away entirely once they get past the first trimester. Hopefully you will too.”

“That would be amazing. Maybe I’ll try to go without this weekend and see what happens.”

Becca smiles widely with a nod of agreement. Her broad mouth filled with perfect white teeth pushes her cheeks up and makes her eyes crinkle at the corners. It’s a smile that reminds me of when she was a little kid running around after me and her sister—it’s a smile that makes my heart ache.

“Everything else going okay?” she asks Leanne while the nurse, Kendi, moves around her, rolling up her sleeve to take her blood pressure. “How’s your energy? Work’s going alright?”

“It’s getting better. Though my bedtime tends to be closer to eight o’clock and I struggle to get up in the morning, which has never been an issue for me in the past. This week was a little rough because we had a big association conference and I was at the venue late most nights.” In response to this, she yawns, which makes me yawn.

With a chuckle, Becca looks between us and says, “That’s very normal and should also get better now that you’re in the second trimester. So, what questions do you have for me?”

Before I can ask anything, Leanne pulls out a list from her pocket, covered in her loopy handwriting. I can’t help but smile at how meticulously prepared she is.

“When should I be able to feel the baby moving?” is her first question.

This was on my mental list as well. For some reason, I can’t remember exactly when Sarah said she felt Sam for the first time.

“For first pregnancies, it can take longer because you don’t know what you’re feeling. Internally you may feel flutters anytime now, but if you don’t, it doesn’t mean anything is wrong. It mostly depends on the location of your placenta. For example, if you have an anterior placenta—meaning it’s attached at the front of the uterus, here,” she says, indicating with her pinky along the front of her own stomach, “it may take longer to feel anything at all. Some women report not feeling anything internally until the baby is strong enough to be felt externally as well.”

Leanne nods, chewing her lip as she absorbs this information.

“By twenty to twenty-two weeks, you should feel the baby from the outside, so don’t be nervous if it takes a while yet. I know it’s the easiest indicator that all is well, but I don’t see any reason for you to be concerned,” Becca says, her eyes finding mine for a moment, and I give her a small nod, understanding she means this for me as much as for Leanne.

Leanne peppers Becca with additional questions: When does she need to start sleeping on her side? What tests should we consider and schedule? When will our anatomy scan be? Can the baby hear us?