A/N: as i promised, 3 chapters in one day! :D so each chapter is about one trimester and there are three short stories every 4 weeks starting at week 8 until week 40. i tried to keep the drama as light as possible and amp up the comedy (if you dont find it funny, sorry! i tried!) hope you enjoy and please R&R
A/N2: oh forgot to say hope you're having an awesome spring break (if you're in school and are on spring break like i am right now) ok continue reading...
Chapter 11
Eight weeks
"Oh…my…God…"
"I'm what?" Jo shot up in the bed. Did he just say PREGNANT? How is this even happening? What the…
"Yes, congratulations," Doctor Robbins said again. He was still smiling brightly while Jo sat, shell-shocked.
"Oh…my…God…" Lindsay repeated. She was possibly more stunned than Jo in the fact she could barely stammer out a sentence.
"I…what?"
Doctor Robbins laughed. "I can see you need a moment to collect your thoughts. A nurse will be back in a few with your discharge papers and to make you an appointment for your first prenatal check up." Doctor Robbins turned swiftly and exited the room, leaving Jo and Lindsay staring blankly at each other..
"Oh…my…God…" Lindsay was running on autopilot.
"Please, say something else!" Jo brought herself back to reality. The doctor's words were still swirling around her brain.
"I…don't even…I don't know what to say!" Lindsay flashed a huge smile. "You're pregnant! This is great! Oh my gosh, wait until you tell Mac! He's going to be so excited! I bet you're through the roof right now! This is fantastic!" Lindsay was staring into space, barely noticing the still blank expression on Jo's face.
"Jo, honey," Lindsay waved her hand in front Jo's face. "Jo, come back…"
Oh my gosh…I'm…pregnant…with Mac's baby…
"Jo?" Lindsay gently shook Jo's shoulders.
"Huh?" Jo realized then that she was still in the hospital with Lindsay hovering over her. "What?"
"Aren't you excited?" Lindsay was waiting for Jo's reaction, unable to read her face.
"I…yeah…" Jo smiled weakly.
Lindsay stood up straight not completely convinced. "Uh, huh…what's wrong?"
"Nothing…I'm…" Pregnant. Jo hadn't said those words in twenty two years and they felt weird coming from her mouth, but there was no mistaking she was ecstatic about it.
"Say it with me Jo; 'I am pregnant.'" Lindsay was holding Jo's hands in hers, as if transferring her excessive amount of energy to Jo.
"I'm pregnant…I'm pregnant!" Jo and Lindsay screeched.
"Now just to tell Mac!" Lindsay and Jo giggled then Jo frowned. "What?"
"I'm gonna be huge!"
.
.
.
"You're what?"
Jo laughed at Mac's reaction. "That's what I said." Mac had the same stunned expression Lindsay had when she found out.
"You're what?"
Jo sighed. "Oh, God, not this again."
"That's…that's…GREAT!" Mac swooped Jo up in his arms and kissed her passionately. "This is amazing! I can't wait to tell everyone; I mean of course we'll tell them together. When you're ready too; I know the first trimester is tricky and everything and I don't want to rush you." Mac set her on her feet again. "This is…wow! I can't believe it! We'll have to set up a nursery and buy new clothes and Lindsay can throw you a baby shower and…I wonder how Ellie and Tyler will feel. I hope Ellie won't get jealous-" Mac's face was slowly turning red and he finally paused to breathe. "Wow…" He said as he kissed Jo again.
Jo laughed. "We're pregnant!"
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.
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Twelve weeks
"Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, it's good to see you again." Doctor Robbins said as he entered Jo's exam room. Jo was already twelve weeks and she and Mac were only at their first prenatal checkup. Doctor Robbins had warned her before that since she was so far behind, it'd be a long checkup and they'd probably need the whole day off.
"Can we get started please? You are taking away from us protecting the city of New York." Jo said. Doctor Robbins laughed but Mac could tell she was serious. Jo hated to be away from her job and he wondered how she would deal during her maternity leave.
The doctor pulled out his chart, preparing to give a rundown of the checkup more for Mac's benefit than Jo's."Okay, we need your medical history, physical exam, internal exam, blood tests, urinalysis, weight and blood pressure, ultrasound if you'd like-"
"Yes!" Mac and Jo exclaimed before the doctor could finish his last syllable.
The doctor smirked. "You do know that'll take from your job as well."
"Don't care; I wanna see our baby." Jo blushed.
"Alright then, let's get started."
.
.
.
After what seemed an eternity of tests and exams and questioning, Jo lay across on the bed, her still flat stomach exposed.
"Can you tell the gender right now?" Mac asked, squeezing Jo's hand as the nurse rubbed a blue gel on Jo's abdomen.
"Too early to tell right now, baby." Jo said, already knowledgeable on the subject because of Tyler.
"Well, when can we tell?"
"Usually between eighteen and twenty weeks." The nurse answered for Jo.
"Oh, okay…" Mac was almost disappointed until he heard a quick and steady THUMP THUMP THUMP in the small room. "Whoa, is that her…er, it's heartbeat?"
Mac and Jo leaned in close to the screen. "You probably can't see it; the baby is about the size of a grape right now, but yes. That's your baby's heartbeat."
"It's so fast. Is that normal?" Mac already had that overprotective, concerned tone he took whenever the subject of Ellie or Jo came up.
"Completely; the baby's heart rate sort of depends on the mother's. It usually twice as fast as the mother's so you," The nurse gestured toward Jo. "should try to keep as unstressed as possible. It can be very dangerous for the baby if you're heart rate gets too fast."
Jo and Mac glanced at each other. Obviously, the nurse was uninformed in the fact that Jo was a cop and that stress was a constant factor in her job; trying to keep calm might be easier said than done.
Mac was smiling deliriously when Jo looked up. He stared at the screen, probably imagining a hundred million memories soon to come. "That's our baby's heartbeat…"
Jo giggled. "If this is your reaction at just its heartbeat, I can't wait to see how you react when you actually get to meet it in person."
.
.
.
Jo itched at her stomach; some of the gel from the ultrasound was still clinging to her skin. "Where is Doctor Robbins? I told him we had to get back to work."
Mac laughed. "You don't have to get back to work; you want to get back to work. Be patient; he said he had to finish with another patient, and then check your blood pressure and then we can finally leave."
Jo grinned and began tapping her foot against the side of the exam bed.
"I hope our baby doesn't have that annoying tick…" Mac mumbled to the side.
"Oh, so you find this annoying?" Jo tapped both feet back and forth in a rhythmic pattern.
Mac got ready to open his mouth when the doctor entered. "Alright, let's check your blood pressure then you can leave, because I know you've been itching to." Doctor Robbins immediately wrapped the sphygmomanometer around her arm. "Deep breath,"
Jo obeyed and immediately darted her eyes toward the meter. Doctor Robbins shifted his shadow in the room so she couldn't read it and she sat back. "One-forty-seven over ninety-six." The doctor scribbled the numbers down on his chart and unwrapped the meter.
"Alright then, all done; let's go Mac." Jo jumped off the bed and went for her jacket.
"Hold up there; is that good or bad doc?" Mac said, holding Jo's hand.
"Well it's a little high but that could be temporary. Do you have any major stress factors Mrs. Taylor?" Doctor Robbins held up his pen, signaling Jo that her appointment wasn't quite over.
Jo sighed. "I'm a cop, stress comes with the job; there's no avoiding that."
"Well you're going to have to try because we can't risk the baby's health if your blood pressure gets higher."
"I know, I know." Jo mumbled.
Mac stepped forward. "Don't worry; I can take care of that." Jo eyed him, knowing what he meant by that.
"Good, I will see you in four weeks."
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.
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Sixteen weeks
Jo rubbed her hand over her flat stomach in the mirror. She sighed heavily and pulled her shirt down.
"What's the matter, babe?" Mac came into the bedroom and wrapped his arms around her stomach.
"I'm already sixteen weeks and I look like I'm not pregnant at all, though the symptoms are definitely still there." Jo covered her mouth, feeling another wave of nausea.
"I know, but Doctor Robbins said not to worry; everything else, excluding your blood glucose, is perfectly normal. Besides, I thought you'd be happy you aren't showing."
"Oh yeah…" Jo recalled when she and Mac were reading a pregnancy book and it mentioned a weight gain. Jo was furious she wouldn't have her perfect form for nine months plus two to six months afterward. "Still…I have nothing to show off. Do you know how awkward it is to tell people 'I'm pregnant!' and no proof?"
Mac half laughed to himself. "Okay, I understand but hey, when we go for your next checkup we'll get an ultrasound of the baby so you have something to show off." Mac kissed her on the neck. "For now, let's get some sleep, okay?"
At just the mention of the word, Jo yawned loudly. She nodded her head before falling on the bed into a deep slumber.
.
.
.
Mac rolled over to find Jo still fast asleep. He wrapped his arm over her waist to find a large bump in his way. "Jo, baby, wake up…"
Jo rubbed at her eyes and turned to Mac. "Hmp…"
"You might want to look in the mirror." Mac rubbed his hand over her belly. Jo pushed the sheets back to find her stomach had practically exploded overnight.
She jumped out the bed and ran to the mirror. "What the hell?" Mac laughed at the edge of the bed. Turning to the side and pulling up her shirt, Jo exclaimed, "Was that there yesterday?"
Mac shook his head, still laughing. "No, no it wasn't." He got up and wrapped Jo in his embrace. "Happy now; you have some proof."
Jo smiled brightly. "You know what this means right?" She turned to face Mac, her stomach taking up the space between them.
"Uh, no…but I have a feeling I'm not going to like it." Mac had an idea where this conversation was going and it would definitely end up costing him…a lot.
"Shopping trip!"
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.
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Jo stared at the shirt waiting for her vision to return. All day she'd been having trouble seeing straight. There was no explanation but Jo blamed it on the pregnancy, like all her other symptoms; excessive sleeping, morning and evening sickness, and the need to "powder her nose" every ten minutes.
"You okay, hon?" Lindsay asked, placing her hand on Jo's shoulder.
Jo shook her head trying to make her vision return to normal. "Yeah, I'm fine…I think."
"You think? What's going on? Is it the baby?" Lindsay's eyes darted from Jo's face to her belly.
"I don't think so. I mean I always have to go to the bathroom and I'm always thirsty or exhausted." Jo rubbed her temple.
"Honey, those tend to be symptoms of pregnancy. I'm sure you're fine."
"Okay, what about my blurry vision? I know that's not normal."
Lindsay gaped at Jo. There was no explaining that. Then Lindsay remembered something she'd read about while she was pregnant with Lucy. "Jo, do you remember what your blood glucose level was at your last checkup?"
Jo squinted at Lindsay. What does that have to do with anything? "Uh, yeah…it was…one hundred-nineteen something I think. Linds, what does that have to do with this?"
"Jo, we need to get you to the hospital, now."
A/N: aren't you glad i posted all three chapters? now you dont have to wait to see what happens when Lindsay rushes Jo to the hospital...