For Bella and Paul, Monday couldn't come fast enough. They spent the entire weekend wrapped up in each other and just enjoying the fact that there was a little life growing inside of Bella. Paul's hands always seemed to find their way to Bella's stomach and Bella's eyes would often trail down to her still flat stomach, mesmerized by the fact that there was really a little tiny life in there. Paul was so excited and so happy that he wanted to share the news with the pack but Bella convinced him to wait at least until after their appointment on Monday; for some reason she wasn't ready to share this news with the pack, with the exception of Quil. She worried that Emily might decide, as the only imprint to have had children, it was her responsibility to impart as much knowledge as she could to Bella or that Bella being pregnant somehow bonded them and they would become best friends.
"So when do you think you'll be ready to tell the pack?" Paul asked as he climbed into the car
"Maybe Friday at the Bonfire once everyone but the pack and elders have cleared out; but I think we should tell Quil when he comes over tonight." She replied
"You've really got a soft spot for him, don't you?" Paul chuckled
"I guess; I mean since his imprint on Claire he's changed quite a bit and you know how the rest of the pack, except for you, act around him because of it; even Jacob doesn't hang out with Quil as much these days. I just think it really sucks that they're acting this way, I mean I get that it's weird that he imprinted on a kid but he had no control over that and no one ostracized Sam when the story of his imprint came out so why should Quil be treated so badly?"
"I completely agree with you and I've tried talking to the guys about it but they don't think they're behaving differently or doing anything wrong; they all say that it's Quil that doesn't come around much and that that's not their fault. And that's true that Quil doesn't hang with the pack much anymore but with the way they act around him I don't blame him, I'd stay away too if I was him."
"At least he has us though." Bella sighed
About an hour later, they were pulling into a parking spot at Dr. Leeman's office and hurrying into the building so as not to be drenched by the sudden downpour.
Bella told Paul to grab a seat while she signed in and took care of any necessary paper work. A few minutes later, she came to sit next to Paul, with a clipboard in hand.
"What's that?" He asked
"New patient forms, the lady said there's some forms here that you'll have to fill out to."
"Why do I have to fill out stuff?"
"It's just general medical history questions, like if any diseases or anything run in your family."
"As far as I know there's only one thing that runs in my family and I can't exactly write that down." He laughed
Bella rolled her eyes at him and continued to fill out what seemed like a mountain of forms; luckily it was mostly a bunch of yes or no questions so it only took about fifteen minutes to fill everything out.
Once the forms had been handed over to the lady at the check-in desk, Bella and Paul had to wait another ten minutes before they were called back.
"Mrs. Meraz?" A nurse called out into the waiting room
"Alrighty lets go see our baby." Paul grinned
They followed the nurse back to a room, where Bella was weighed, measured and asked standard questions before being handed a gown to change into and told the doctor would be with them soon.
"So what exactly is the doc going to do?" Paul asked the nurse
"Well there will be an internal exam and then I'll be called back in to assist with taking blood and a few other things depending on what kind of tests Dr. Leeman wants to run. She'll ask you a few more questions about medical history as well as genetic and disease history. The first visit is usually the longest visit throughout the pregnancy, so expect to be here for I'd say at least two hours."
"Two hours?" Paul muttered
"If you have any more questions Dr. Leeman will be with you shortly and you can ask her." The nurse said before exiting the room
About ten minutes after the nurse left, Dr. Leeman walked in and shook hands with Bella and Paul.
"Ok, so you guys went to Dr. Donnelly first and then were referred to me, would you mind telling me why you went to Dr. Donnelly first?"
"Well we'd been trying for a baby for quite some time but I was still getting my period and all test run by my primary doctor always came back negative for pregnancy, so we were under the impression that I wasn't pregnant and without assistance I wasn't going to become pregnant. We talked about it and decided that it was time to see a fertility specialist to find out what was going on; we were surprised to learn that I was actually around two months pregnant."
"Was there any irregularity to your period within the last two to three months?" Dr. Leeman asked
"Well I'd noticed that they were lighter, almost like spotting instead of an actual period but I'd assumed the stress from trying to get pregnant was the cause for that." Bella replied
"Stress can alter your period but usually stress will affect the timing of your period, not the flow. It's not unusual for women to experience spotting during the first trimester and I think as long as the spotting has stopped or at least began to lessen by your second trimester, then we won't have anything to worry about there. I do see in the information that Dr. Donnelly office sent over, that your uterine wall is a little thicker than we typically see in pregnancies so I'd like to check that out just to make sure everything is ok with that."
"I've been doing a little reading on pregnancy and I read that the uterine wall is supposed to be thick during pregnancy, so can it be too thick?" Bella asked
"Yes and no… between 8 and 13mm is what we like to see but anything over 15mm can interfere with your ability to conceive and have a successful pregnancy. But what we really want to pay attention to is how thick it is at the cervix because if it's too thick there that could make it difficult for you to have a vaginal birth."
Dr. Leeman began her exam, being sure to answer any questions the couple had during the process. Once she'd completed the physical exams she cleaned her hands and sat back down with her clipboard and began filling in the information she'd gathered.
"Ok, everything looks really good, your uterine lining is just under 13mm thick and it is a little thicker at the cervix than we like to see but that should thin out as you get closer to your due date. You can go ahead and put your underwear back on so you're not so exposed while I do the ultrasound."
Once her panties were on, she lay back on the table and lifted the gown up to under her boobs.
"Alright, let's get a look at this baby."
Bella gripped Paul's hand tightly and shivered a little as the cold gel hit her stomach. Soon the sounds of a baby's heartbeat filled the room but it sounded different than Bella had remembered at Dr. Donnelly's office.
"Is there something wrong?" Bella asked
"Not at all, in fact it's my pleasure to inform you that this," Dr. Leeman turned the screen so that Bella could see where she was pointing her finger "is baby A and right here is baby B."
"Wait a minute, are you telling us that there are two babies?" Paul asked
"I sure am. And Bella when you asked if something was wrong, I'm assuming you were referring to the sound of the heartbeats."
"Yes."
"Well sometimes with twin, their heartbeats are in sync so you don't always hear them both and sometimes one of them hides behind the other but it appears they both wanted to be seen today. And I'll be sure to print you out a couple copies of this sonogram." Dr. Leeman explained
"Wow… I can't believe that just a few days ago we were worried we wouldn't have kids and now we find out we're having two." Bella grinned
Paul leaned down and gave Bella a heated kiss.
"Paul." She whispered, cheeks turning a very rosy red
Paul just grinned at her, wiping tears from his eyes before they had a chance to fall.
"Now based on what I'm seeing here I would say you're at about 12 weeks and 4 days; however, you and the babies are both underweight right now so I'll be giving you a pamphlet that tells you what kind of things you should be eating and how often you should eat. So your due date is going to be May 23 of next year, but it's not uncommon for twins to come a little early so don't expect to go into labor on that exact day."
"How early?" Bella asked
"Anywhere from a month to a week early." Dr. Leeman replied
"We have one last thing to do before you two are free to leave. I'm going to call the nurse back in and she'll take some blood samples from you both and then you can schedule your next appointment at the front desk and you'll be free to go."
"Ok. Thank you so much Dr. Leeman."
"You're very welcome." She smiled, handing each of them a print out of the sonogram.
The nurse entered the room just moments after the doctor left and she took a few samples from both Paul and Bella. Once that was done, Paul helped Bella back into her clothes and led her back out to the front desk to make their next appointment.
A/N: So there you have it... TWINS! The gender(s) of the babies has already been decided but I haven't decided when I'll reveal that. I'll try to get another chapter posted before Friday but if not, then it will be after Monday before you lovely readers get the next chapter.
