7 weeks later….
Everything had calmed down since the day the passengers were found which I found to be a big relief. Being stressed and pregnant is never a good thing and I'm glad I haven't been put in any stressful situations since then. We also are currently renting an apartment with Ben since none of us had anywhere to go. Jared and I were talking about buying a house once the baby is born. We don't want Ben to live in an apartment with a screaming baby day and night so we thought it was best to start looking for our own place where we can raise our child. Jared and I are in the car heading to our next doctor's appointment. We are excited for this one because I have reached the 16 week mark which means the doctors can finally tell the gender of the baby. Since we're having a gender reveal party I'm asking them not to tell us and to put the gender on a piece of paper so that I can give it to Ben.
"Are you excited?" Jared asked
"Yeah I am. I wish I could find out the gender today, but it's going to be even more special finding out with all our family surrounding us." I said
"What do you think it will be?" he asked
"My motherly instincts are telling me its a girl and I really hope I'm right" I said
"I hope it's a girl too, don't get me wrong I would love it if the baby were a boy, but there is something about having a girl that gets me really excited to be a father." he said
"Yeah I wouldn't mind it at all if the baby turned out to be a boy" I said. We finally arrived at the doctor's office; we went inside and I filled out all the paperwork that needed to be done. While we waited I put my head on Jared's shoulder I was feeling a little extra tired today for some reason, but that always happens every once in a while.
"Michaela Stone" I heard someone say. I saw a nurse standing by the door waiting for me to follow her inside. We got up and followed her to the room I was given. I sat down on the examination table while we waited for the doctor to come in.
"Hi Michaela. How are you feeling?" Doctor Bradley asked once he entered the room
"I'm doing great." I replied
"Have you had any problems so far with the pregnancy?" he asked
"No, none that I know of. I've been feeling great lately just a little tired." I said
"That's to be expected. Have you been taking your daily vitamins?" he said
"To my dismay yes I have" I said both the doctor and Jared laughed at my comment.
"Okay good. Now how about I look at how the baby is doing. Lay back on the table and lift up your shirt a little?" he said. I did as I was told and waited patiently for him to put the cold gel on my stomach. Even though I was expecting the coldness of the gel I still felt the hairs on my arms stand up from the temperature.
"Okay let's take a look." he said. When he moved the scanner to the right place on my stomach I immediately heard the baby's heartbeat. I'm always in awe whenever I hear it. It's hard to believe that there is an actual human living and growing inside me and this moment makes it even more surreal. I looked over at Jared and saw the happy expression on his face as he was hearing our baby's heartbeat.
"Now this is your 16 week ultrasound which means we can look to see if we can find out the gender of the baby. Do you want me to do that?" doctor Bradley said
"Yes you can look to see what we're having, but could you write it down on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. We don't want to know the gender just yet." I said
"Yes of course I can do that. Let me take a look to see if we can figure out the gender." he said. I saw him moving the scanner around and then he spoke.
"Okay I was able to tell the gender let me go get a nurse to write it down for you and put it in an envelope. I'll be right back." he said and walked out of the room. He wasn't gone for that long because two seconds later he walked back inside.
"Okay the nurse will bring in your envelope in a minute. Everything looks good the baby is healthy and it has a strong heartbeat. Keep taking your medicine, rest and I'll see you for your 20 week scan." he said
"Okay thank you Doctor Bradley" I said
"Your welcome" he said. I heard Jared say thank you as the doctor walked out. I turned to him and had a big smile on my face.
"Can you believe it we're going to be parents in a few short months" he said
"Sometimes it doesn't feel real to me, but I'm over the moon with excitement." I said
"I can't wait until we find out what we are going to have. It's going to be such a special moment with our families there to give us love and support."
"Yeah it really will be special." I said and then I got up and I kissed him. I'm so happy that I have him back in my life.
"Thank you for giving me this" he said after we broke apart and he put his hand on my growing stomach while saying it.
"You don't have anything to thank me we both did this together. We have this baby in our lives because of the both of us." I said
"Actually I do have to thank you because you could have easily kept the pregnancy to yourself and not told me about it. After everything that happened I honestly wouldn't have blamed you if you had, but you didn't. You let me be a part of our child's life and yours too so thank you." he said
"I know that I wasn't happy when I found out you married my best friend, but I promise you I wouldn't have kept it from you." I said
"I love you so much" he said
"I love you too." I said I kissed him again, but it didn't last long since we heard the door to the room open.
"Okay here is your envelope and once you confirm your appointment with the receptionist you should be good to go. Have a nice day." the nurse said
"Thank you, you too." Jared replied. We made our next appointment and headed home. The entire drive home both of us were dying to open up the envelope and find out the gender, but we restrained ourselves from doing it and put it out of sight so that we wouldn't be tempted again. We talked more about the baby and the gender reveal party and that's how we spent the rest of the drive home.
"Ben are you home?" I said once we got inside.
"Yeah what's up" he said as he was walking out of his room
"We just got back from the doctors appointment." I said
"How did it go?" he asked
"It went great the baby is healthy and doing well. We actually have something for you." I said
"Okay what do you have?" he asked
"We were able to find out the gender of the baby today and we wanted you to be the first to find out. We don't know what the baby is and we don't want to find out just yet. We want to throw a gender reveal party with our families and you're in charge of finding a way for us to find out the gender." I said
"Wow thank you for entrusting me with this. I won't disappoint I promise." he said
"You're welcome" I said "Well I'm going to go eat something and take a nap" I continued
"Okay" he said. I walked into the kitchen and started making a sandwich. For some reason I was craving a sandwich and chips, so I decided that was going to be my food. Hopefully we have chips because I can't remember if we bought any. I checked through the pantry and luckily was able to find potato chips. Once I finished my meal I went straight to bed.
"I'm going to take a nap you want to join me" I said to Jared, who was sitting in the living room watching the tv.
"Of course I'll join you I'll be there in a sec" he said
"Okay" I said and started walking towards our room. I changed out of my clothes and got into comfy pajamas and got into bed. I was starting to drift off when I heard the door open and shuffling around the room. Then I felt the other side of the bed dip and Jared's arms go around me. I turned around and put my head on his chest and fell asleep.
Four days later…
Since the gender reveal party was going to be small and intimate it wasn't hard to plan it in a few days. We decided to throw the party at my dad's house since he was the only one with a backyard we could use for the reveal. Since it is still winter the party is going to be inside the house and the reveal will be done outside. Today is finally the day that we get to find out the gender of our baby and we couldn't be more excited. We have waited as patiently as possible, but we have been dying to find out. Jared had to go to work, but he will be out in time for the party so that leaves just Ben and I to pick up all the things that we need to pick up before heading to my dad's house.
"Are you ready to go?" I asked him
"Yeah I'm ready" he said
Once we were in the car and on the road I asked "where are we going first?"
"We are going to the baby store" he said
"Why?" I asked
"I called this store to make sure that they had gender reveal confetti cannons. The color of the baby's gender will be inside and when the time comes you twist the bottom and you'll find out what it is" he said
"And you're sure this store has them?" I asked
"Yeah I am. I'm getting two of them so that there will be a lot of confetti." he said
"Okay I just want everything to be perfect today" I said
"Don't worry everything will" he said. We did everything we had to do before heading to the house. We picked up balloons, desserts, decorations and food we had so much that we didn't have anymore room for anything else. We finally got to our dad's house and started to unload the car. I saw my dad open the door and head towards us.
"Hi dad" I greeted him
"Hey sweetie" he gave me a hug and a kiss on my head "do you guys need a hand?" he asked
"Yes please we would love your help we have a lot of things to unload. The more help the better." I said. With the three of us unloading the car it didn't take a lot of time getting everything inside. Once everything was put in its place we started decorating the house. Everything turned out beautiful we had a perfect balance between pink and blue and I couldn't be more excited for everyone to see how pretty it looks. My good mood was not long lived. I got a text from Lourdes. I invited her to the party with the hope that she would come, but unfortunately I didn't get my wish. She texted me letting me know that she won't be able to attend since she has this important meeting regarding her research for her masters degree. I tried to not let it get to me especially today, I understand why she isn't coming I just wish that she could still stop by even for just a few minutes. I picked up my phone and started a call it wasn't long before he picked up and I heard his voice.
"Hey what's up?" Jared said
"Hey I was just calling to let you know that everything is all done and set up. Will you be here before the party starts?" I said
"That's great and yeah I'll be there on time I just need to finish up a few loose ends over here and I'll be good to go." he said
"Okay. Lourdes texted me today." I said
"What did she say?" he asked
"She just let me know that she won't be able to come today." I said
"Really?" he said
"Yeah" I replied
"How do you feel about that?" he asked
"Well I have mixed emotions about it. A part of me understands that she can't get out of her meeting, but the other part of me wants her to ditch the meeting and come anyway and right now the selfish side of me is winning." I said
"It's your day today don't let this upset you and stop you from being happy and enjoying your party. There will always be other things she can come to like your baby shower." he said
"That's true, but your wrong" I said
"What do you mean?" he asked
"It's not my day it's our day. We both get to find out the gender of our child it's not just me." i said
"That is true well I'm going to have to let you go if you want me to show up on time." he said
"Okay I'll see you later. I love you" I said
"I love you too" he replied back before he hung up the phone. I heard my dad walk towards me so I turned around and gave him a smile.
"Everything looks beautiful." he said
"Thanks dad. I really wish mom were here to see this. I believe she would have loved it." I said
"Yeah she would have, but she is here in spirit darling so don't worry about her not being here because I bet you she is watching over us right now." he said while giving me a hug
"I know it's just hard. I visited her a few weeks ago" I said
"You did?" he asked
"Yeah I had been so busy that I didn't have the time to do it before and I feel like it wasn't just that either. I could have easily made time to visit her, but I think that I wasn't ready to face the facts. That day I felt like I was finally ready." I explained
"It's understandable everyone is different when it comes to mourning a loved one's loss; I'm glad that you finally have some peace of mind" he said.
"Yea me too" I said. After our conversation we just tried to fix some last minute things with the decorations. Jared showed up on time just like he said he would and then we just waited for our first guests to arrive. Once everyone arrived we opened up all the food trays so that people could grab food to eat. Everything was going so well and I couldn't have been happier. We waited two hours before we did the reveal so that everyone could enjoy themselves. When it was finally time I was so excited, but also very nervous. We were in the middle of winter, but I'm glad that it wasn't snowing outside. It was cold, but we really wanted to do the reveal outside. Ben had bought two confetti cannons, he gave me and Jared one each.
"Okay when we count to three you guys twist the end of the cannon." Ben said
"Okay" we both said
"Ready?" he asked us
"Yeah" we both said
"One, two, three" everyone said. Jared and I twisted the bottoms of our cannons and we were engulfed in a cloud of pink confetti.
"We're having a girl" I said to Jared when I turned to look at him.
"Yes we are." he said and he grabbed me and spun me around. Once he put me down he kissed me and we were extremely happy in this moment. Everyone came over to us giving us so many hugs and congratulating us. I was excited for what the future held for me, Jared and our little girl, Evie Adriana.