"Boy or a girl, what do you think?" Gerry asked as he pulled up outside the hospital's scanning department.
"I don't know, Alexis is certain she wants a sister so they can play dolls and dress up and this morning that boys were stupid."
"I think I may need to have a word with her about that." Gerry said as they both laughed.
"Have you thought about any names?" Sandra asked her after having found a baby names book under his pillow that morning.
"Course I have, I love Alexis' name and everything but I had no input into it."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be, anyway I was thinking Noah or Sebastian for a boy and Maria or Chloe for a girl."
"No child of mine will have a Biblical name. Sebastian is a possibility and I love Chloe."
"Well Chloe if it's a girl then but we still have 15 weeks if it's a boy."
"Yeah, come on we're going to be late." Sandra said as she got out of the car
"Is it a boy or a girl?" Gerry asked the nurse excitedly.
"I'm not sure, let me just go and ask the doctor to come and have a look." The nurse replied as she gave Sandra and Gerry a half hearted smile.
"A doctor? Something must be wrong." Sandra panicked.
"No, it's all fine. She's probably only newly qualified and looked for some reassurance, she looked quite young. The doctor will come in and tell us whether our baby is a he or a she."
"Yeah that'll be that." Sandra replied but she didn't look at all convinced.
"Hello, I'm Dr Kenton, I'm sorry about Darcy, she's new and still learning so unless things are textbook simple then she hasn't a clue."
"Not simple? Is something wrong?" Gerry asked as he began to feel as panicked as Sandra looked.
"I doubt it but let's check." Dr Kenton said as he powered up the scanner and put more gel on Sandra's tummy. "Look, there's your baby, it's developing well."
"It's not moving." Sandra pointed out.
"I wouldn't worry they get a little tired sometimes. Would you like to know baby's sex?"
"Yes please." Gerry replied after he and Sandra had shared a look.
"Say hello to little Miss Standing."
"A girl?" Sandra beamed as she saw a mirror image of her happiness plastered across Gerry's face.
"Yep." The doctor smiled. "Congratulations."
"We should have guessed that! It seems I'm only capable of producing girls."
"Who said she was yours?" They both laughed. "So it's Chloe then?"
"Yeah." Gerry smiled, overjoyed at the fact that he was a part of this pregnancy.
"So should we have a listen to how strong Chloe's heartbeat is?" Dr Kenton asked.
"Yes." They chorused, knowing that it'd add to the realness of it all.
"Okay." The heartbeat detector was now being skimmed over Sandra's tummy.
"Why can't I hear anything?" Sandra asked as she began to panic all over again.
"I don't know, I'll put a heart trace on, it could just be that she's not laying the way we'd hoped."
"Is that a problem?" Gerry asked as Sandra squeezed his hand tighter looking for reassurance.
"Mrs Standing, you're going to need to have some surgery, things aren't looking too great for Chloe. The heart trace told us she's got a very weak one. Her only chance is to get her out now, we need to take you up for a c-section."