I could feel the butterflies in my stomach as I sped to the hospital. It wasn't an emergency; it wasn't a problem. I had absolutely no reason to be driving at the speed I was, but I could help it. The excitement had taken over me. What could I say? My dream might be coming true.
I parked in a handicapped parking space, not even really thinking about it. My mind was set somewhere else; it was already in the hospital, waiting for the doctor to tell me what amazing thing might just be happening to me. It's all I had been thinking about for days, and now that I had actually tested positive, there was nothing else to think about.
People stared at me as I sprinted to the elevator. Once again, completely unnecessary, but I didn't really care what they thought anyways. Much larger things were on my mind. My quick speed was eventually put to a halt. I couldn't control the speed of the elevator and sitting in there was unbearable. It was about ten seconds, but it felt like hours.
And then I was in the waiting room. I rushed to the counter and signed in. The receptionist just smiled at me, seemingly unaffected by my anticipation, and said, "The doctor will be with you in a moment." A moment, too long to wait.
I sat in the waiting room, frustrated by how slow the time was moving. My leg bobbed. I tried to look at the old magazines stacked on the tables, but I couldn't focus. My mind was set on one thing: the fact that there just might be a baby growing inside of me.
"Mrs. Platt?" a female voice called. I looked up to see a nurse standing by a door. I took a deep, excited breathe, and walked up to her, trying not to freak her out by the excitement. I'm sure most people aren't so excited to see the gynecologist. She brought me into a room that looked like any other hospital room, and said, after asking me a few health questions, "The doctor will be with you soon." I was trembling with anticipation.
Thankfully, there was a slight knock on the door, and the doctor came in quickly. Instantly, his looks caught my attention. His hair was golden and shiny, like a person's you see in a shampoo commercial. And his eyes, they were intense, golden, like his hair, but yet gentle at the same time. And when he smiled, I realized that he looked perfect.
"Mrs. Platt, I'm Dr. Cullen," he said to me, holding out his hand. Oh, that voice. "I hear that you're here for a possible pregnancy?" I nodded to him as if I didn't want to interrupt his beautiful voice with my own, normal, squeaky voice. "Well, you can take off everything below the waist, put on this gown," he said, handing a paper dress to me, "And we can get this started. You look excited."
"Oh, I am, " I replied with a smile, although I knew it wasn't quite as beautiful as his.
He left the room, and I did as he said. I slipped off my pants and threw on the flimsy dressed. The seet top was cold as my almost bare butt touched it. I stared at the things by my feet. Did I really have to put my feet on those? That meant my legs were going to be wide open. I'd never been to this kind of doctor, and I had to admit, I was nervous. But it didn't last long. My excitement came back when he walked in the door again.
"So when was your lasted missed period?" Dr. Cullen asked.
The answer came quickly. I had been paying attention to it closely. "A week ago," I answered.
"Have you been late in the past?" he asked, his voice like music to my ears.
"Never. Always on time," I told him.
"And you took a home pregnancy test?"
"Yes, it was positive."
Dr. Cullen's smile became wide. My happiness was raiding off of me and it must've hit him. Maybe it's contagious. "Alright. Well it's sounds like you've got a baby in there," he said, still grinning. "Now just sit back and relax. This might be a little cold at first. " He held up a long tubey thing and put some goo on the end, was he really gonna put that in me?
And then he did. It felt weird, like an intrusion, but then he began to talk me through it. "You see these dark circles on the side?" he asked, and I nodded. "Those are your ovaries." Well, I didn't care about my ovaries. I wanted to see if there was something growing in there. "And here," Dr. Cullen said with a wide grin, his beautiful teeth shining, "Is your baby."
I was speechless as I stared at the screen. There was barely anything there, it was tiny. So beautiful. "You see that flicker there?" he asked, and I nodded, not taking my eyes off the screen, "That's the heartbeat."
"Heartbeat..." I repeated softly to myself. There was another heartbeat in there that wasn't mine. It was my baby's; the life that I created.
"It's amazing, isn't it?" Dr. Cullen said, "Life, something so many of us take for granted, is there pumping through you. You're going to give your child life. It's beautiful." His words were sweet and kind, unlike any other doctor I had had in the past. They were all in too much of a rush, ready to get the day over with, but here the two of us were, staring at my baby together.
"I can print you a picture, if you like," he told me.
"Oh, yes," I replied with a smile.
And before I even realized that he had gone, he was back with a picture. I couldn't keep my eyes off of it; a tiny oval of life. "She's got her mother's beauty," Dr. Cullen said, after he handed me the photo. I laughed. Beauty, yeah right.
I could've sat there forever, but I figured I didn't want to waste all of Dr. Cullen's time, so I got up and got dressed, clutching the picture tightly in my hand. The feeling that had come over me was magical, like nothing I ever felt before. I was already in love with my baby.
"Congratulations Mrs. Platt," Dr. Cullen said to me, his beautiful smile gleaming.
"Please, call me Esme," I told him, with a handshake. "And thank you so much Dr. Cullen."
"Please, call me Carlisle," he replied, and then the beautiful doctor was out the door.