The toilet had become my new best friend over the past couple of days, and saltines, they were the new pineapple upside cake for me, and Joe was there for me the whole time offering me words of encouragements, and the saltines when my stomach could handle them.

We had our first doctor's appointment today. Now before you get too excited, today was just like a regular check up. They did do the sonogram, but it wasn't to see the sex of the baby or anything. It's way too soon for that. They just did a sonogram to take some measurements of the baby and to see how well it's developing. Joe sat there and held my hand the whole time, and a noticed a few tears in his eyes when the first picture of our baby, barely big enough to even be called that, was shown on the machine.

He was going to be a good daddy, I knew it.

After the sonogram was finished, our doctor escorted us into her office and shut the door. "Well, congratulations you guys, it seems like your baby is very healthy at the moment."

Even though I knew it was, I let out a sigh of relief. Like it or not, I was not the mother type. I'm not even sure what I was supposed to be doing while I was pregnant, but lucky us. The doctor knew me and he knew that I wasn't ready so she gave me some advice. She said she gave it to all new parents, but I knew this was especially for me.

" You'll be able to find out the sex of your baby in about two to three months from now, since you're about six weeks along now. When that is determined, then we can start getting into the technical stuff, like circumcision, if it's a boy, or just any questions on how to take care of anything else. To give you a relative look of your baby now," she paused and pulled out the picture from our file and continued, " your baby doesn't even weigh a pound yet, so it's still pretty little. It'll definitely start gaining weight in the later months."

Joe was nodding, listening to every word. And me, well I was fascinated with the picture, wow there really is a baby inside me. OMG, I was going to get fat like Valerie did.

"In order to understand this pregnancy though you do need to realize that not all pregnancies are easy. I'm sure that you are finding that out with your bouts of morning sickness you described to me earlier," she paused and looked at me, " now I'm not saying this is going to happen, but I do need to tell you that it does. Miscarriage is also a very talked about subject, especially in this first trimester, and since it's your first baby, we don't know your history of how well your body is able to carry it, so we're going to watch you carefully. I do recall you're sister, Joe, having one as well. Is that right?"

Joe just nodded, and I looked back at the doctor as she continued, " I'm pretty sure you have nothing to worry about, since everything seems to be going great at the moment, but that's just a heads up. Other than that the baby is doing great developing, and we are looking at a January 21st due date, but you never know for sure."

I just laughed, wow that is a long time from now, and continued listening.

" Another item that I want to bring up is your diet." I groaned, and Joe looked at me and laugh. I glared at him. This was not going to be a fun pregnancy I already knew.

The doctor looked at me and laugh, " Now Stephanie, I've known you your whole life, so I know all about your dessert passion. Now I'm not saying you have to give up dessert all the way, just take it in moderation. And since I know you both so well I also know about your love for fast food," she stopped and looked at our faces in laughed, " easy guys don't shoot the messenger," she stopped and looked at Joe, "seriously. You really want to gain about 20 to 30 pounds during pregnancy and most of that you want to be just the baby and the water sac. The baby eats what you eat, Stephanie. So if you eat a meatball sub from Pino's, it eats a meatball sub from Pino's, and I'm sure even you can agree that it's not very healthy for a baby. I'm saying take the fast food in moderation. Try some fruits and veggies for the folic acid that you need. You will also need a lot of protein, so red meat is also good too. Like I said before, take sugar in moderation."

Joe had grabbed a pen and began jotting all the minor details down. I just rolled my eyes. Welcome to prison. I looked at him and laughed. Oh yea, he is worth it.

"What about pain reliever," Joe began, " I remember my sister saying she couldn't take certain types when she was pregnant."

" Tylenol is the only one I can recommend, but you even need to take that only when necessary. As for other types of medication that you may need, definitely see me to see if that's ok. I'm also prescribing some pre-natal vitamins for you to take everyday Stephanie, so you may pick them up at the pharmacy later this evening."

I nodded, finally getting serious about my pregnancy. I was going to be a mommy, and there was no stopping that.

" If you guys have anymore questions, you know how to reach me, and I'll have my secretary set you up with another appointment, about a month from now. So if that's it, I'll let you guys be on your way." She smiled and stood up.

We stood up, shook her hand, and said our thanks as we walked out the door. Once in the car, I looked at Joe and said, " I think we need to do a little grocery shopping," and laughed.

He was obviously worried about how I was going to react to the whole diet thing. When he heard what I said, he smiled and nodded. And when he leaned over to give me a kiss he said, "that's my girl, Cupcake. I'm so proud of you."

And off to the store we went.

*************************************************************************************

Later that afternoon, after our field trip to the grocery store, I plopped down on the couch. I was about asleep, when I heard Joe open the kitchen door. I didn't think anything of it until Mary Lou came into the living room.

" Rise and shine," she said all cheerful and such.

"No."

" Come on I brought you presents, and I know you like presents," she said baiting the hook.

I do like presents, but I was so tired. Presents or sleep? Presents or sleep? Ugh, I hate Mary Lou right now.

"This had better be good," I seethed.

"Well, I know you're pretty much clueless when it comes to pregnancy, or even babies in that matter. So first of all I got you this book."

I looked at it, and read the title. " What to Expect when You're Expecting. Hey yea, I've seen those before."

She nodded, " This book was a life saver when I was first pregnant, so I know it'll help you a lot."

I smiled and nodded my thanks, but she wasn't finished yet.

"And I know that when you have you're baby shower, you get all your gifts but I couldn't help it. I'm just so excited for you and Joe, so I had to get you something else." as she pulled out what looked to be a gift set and handed it to me. "Now I know you don't know what you guys are having yet so I picked out a neutral color. It can go for either sex. It's just a little ''Congratulations" present from me,'' she squealed, " oh I'm just so excited!"

Joe looked at her and laughed, but I just looked down at the tiny clothes that were in the box for our baby. This was really happening to me and I just couldn't believe it. I had the man of my dreams and now this. It was to surreal. "Thank you," I said as I started to cry. She came over to us and hugged us both.

" Hey," she said, " it's what I'm here for. Now the kids are going to be out of school any minute so I better get home. But I just wanted to say my congratulations officially."

We both said our thank you's to her and then she was gone.

I ended up falling asleep on the couch still wore out from shopping today, I guess. Cause the next thing I remember was Joe waking me up, telling me it was time to eat. He had made something "healthy" tonight, and I could tell he was proud. He made baked chicken, with mashed potatoes, a tossed salad with low-fat ranch, and straw-berry fruit smoothies. Now if that isn't healthy I don't know what is. I even drank a glass of milk while he got his regular beer. I'm really proud of myself.

Afterwards, we did the dishes together, and only got a little bit of water on the floor. The rest of it was on us. We were about to go to bed when we heard knocking at the front door. Joe went to answer it but I followed.

I knew who it was the second he opened the door without having to look, cause his fists clenched, and his breathing was shallow.

I looked around him and all the voice said was, "Babe."