Sorry it took so long to get this chapter up, between school, work and my
sister's hectic Competition cheerleading schedule I haven't had much time
to type. (Hence the portion later on in the story about the cheerleading
competition, because I was at one in Myrtle Beach so I thought I'd include
that in there since it was a really neat experience to watch.)
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By the tenth week, the morning sickness had started to ease up a bit, but there were still a few occasional bouts of nausea that were really strong. Most of the time it was a light or moderate sensation that she could deal with, the really strong ones were the type that grew tiresome to go through. She still became tired very easily but now to add to the mixture of pregnancy induced changes she started to go through the mood swing stage. One minute she could be happy as a lark the next she could be ready to rip your head off, you never knew what to expect. It seemed like when she was in one of her more irritable moments the slightest thing could set her off unexpectedly. Alex happened to be walking by during one of the mood swings and shot a sympathetic glance towards Bobby and said, "Hormones again?"
"Unfortunately yes," he replied as Kim headed upstairs to her locker.
"At least you know its not permanent." She replied, wondering what she'd be like if she were pregnant.
"That's a good thing that it's temporary, because the last time I saw her like this was when Jimmy did something to set her off. As far as I can tell he hasn't done anything to her so its gotta be hormone-induced." Bobby said, chuckling slightly.
"If I had to pick between the nausea or the mood swings I'd pick the nausea, because you can take something for it if you have to. This there's nothing you can do except ride it out." Alex replied, giggling slightly.
Bobby shook his head and laughed and headed up to check on Kim to make sure she was ok.
Kim was sitting down for a bit when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned and saw Bobby coming up.
"Everything ok?" he asked as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
"Yeah, just got a little lightheaded again." she replied softly.
"Try lying down for a bit and see if that helps," he said, never taking his eyes off her.
As she lay down beside him, she felt the lightheadedness let up a bit.
"Don't forget next Monday morning is our first prenatal appointment," she said looking up at him as she rolled onto her back.
"I'll be right there with you through the whole thing. I'll probably be nervous a bit since I've never been to one of these before though."
"All they will probably do is get a health history, determine the due date, and blood work. That's what I remember going through with Joey. Normally the first visit is the longest, then the others are shorter," she replied, hoping to ease a bit of his anxiety.
The rest of the week flew by and before they both knew it, Monday was upon them. As they drove towards the clinic, she looked over at him and could tell he was still nervous.
"Still nervous aren't you," she said glancing at his expression as he drove.
"That noticeable?" he asked chuckling.
"Just a little. Trust me everything is going to be fine." she said trying to be reassuring.
"Will you be seeing the same doctor you saw with Joey?"
"As far as I'm aware of, she's still here so yes" she replied as they pulled into the parking lot of the clinic.
It didn't take long for them to get in to see Dr. Cunningham. As they sat together in one of the exam rooms waiting for her to come in, they sat talking briefly when they heard a knock on the door of the room. Kim and Dr. Cunningham had been friends before she'd ever met Jimmy or Bobby, which seemed like forever ago.
As Dr. Cunningham walked through the door she said, "How have you been Kim?"
"Oh, the usual on top of being married and expecting another baby." she replied smiling.
"How's Joey doing? He's what about 8 or 9 now?" Dr. Cunningham asked.
"As feisty as ever for a 9 yr old." Kim replied giggling.
Kim turned her attention to Bobby and said, "This is Brenda Cunningham, one of my good friends."
Dr. Cunningham smiled and extended her hand to him and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." he said smiling, relaxing a bit more since things seemed to be relatively casual.
"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Dr. Cunningham began to say as she opened up Kim's chart; "Has anything changed with your health or medical history?"
"Nope, nothing's changed till now at least." she replied.
"Are you taking any kind of medications?"
"Other than a multivitamin, no." she replied.
"Has it made you any more nauseous than what you already are with being pregnant?"
"No, I got the same brand you recommended last time after the previous one I had made me sicker than what I was before I began taking it."
"Very Good; Let's go ahead and discuss when you're due." Dr. Cunningham said.
As Kim began to go through her last menstrual cycle the doctor took notes on what she heard and figured up her due date.
"Your expected due date is July 19th. You two ready to see the baby?" the doctor asked smiling.
"Most definitely," Kim replied smiling looking over at Bobby who was just as excited as her to see their child on the ultrasound.
"Instead of giving print outs of the images, we now record them to a video tape." Dr. Cunningham said after getting the machine ready and getting the gel to put on the lower part of Kim's abdomen.
"Joey should get a kick out of watching it when we show the tape to him." Kim said, looking over at Bobby who was eager to get a view of his child.
"You know he will." Bobby replied smiling back at Kim as he sat in a chair beside her.
Kim shut her eyes briefly as the cold gel was placed on her. Bobby looked down and noticed she was trying not to squirm as the gel was put on and said snickering, "Little cold eh?"
"Don't even go there." Kim replied giggling, unable to hold still any longer.
Dr. Cunningham laughed to herself as she dimmed the lights before beginning the procedure.
"You ready?" she asked Kim as she turned on the monitor that would display the pictures of the ultrasound.
"Yep." She replied smiling looking over at Bobby as Dr. Cunningham placed the transducer on her abdomen.
As the first images appeared on the screen, the doctor repositioned the transducer until she found the spot where the baby was. Both Kim and Bobby felt tears in their eyes when they saw the first images of their child. It was one thing to take a test and find out your pregnant. Seeing the images of the baby solidified the feeling that in nine months they would be seeing their new son or daughter. The two listened as they heard the fluttering heartbeat of their child. A thirty-minute ultrasound went by incredibly fast and before they knew it the visit was over, but they left with a copy of the ultrasound on videotape, something they both would treasure.
As they headed back to get ready for work, all they could think about was the videotape of the ultrasound. She was thrilled to be having another baby, they both felt they were ready to take on the responsibility even though it hadn't been planned. For the rest of the day, all he could think about was the tape. It cemented the fact that he was going to be a father. Even the guys at the station could tell something was up with him. He had gone upstairs and Kim was getting a bottle of water out when Alex came up and said, "What is up with Bobby today? He's seems more mellow but way hyper."
Kim had to laugh at Alex's question and replied, "We had our first ultrasound this morning, I think everything is still sinking in right now."
"How did everything go?" Alex asked.
"Everything looks good. I swear he was a nervous wreck through the whole thing and completely changed once he saw the ultrasound." Kim replied laughing.
"Who was a nervous wreck?" came Bobby's voice as he headed over towards where Alex and Kim were standing.
"You were this morning till we got to have the ultrasound done." She replied looking over her shoulder at him.
He rolled his eyes at her and replied chuckling, "I told you I would be."
"What was it like seeing the ultrasound?" Alex asked curiously.
"It's hard to put into words because that is when it really hits you. Don't get me wrong finding out with a test is one thing but putting a visual picture to the results really cements the fact in place." he replied as he wrapped his arms around Kim's slightly protruding stomach.
Just then a call came through and the two of them had to head out. Alex stood shaking her head, silently laughing when Jimmy came up behind her.
"What's up with him? He's got a weird vibe going." He said as he watched the two of them leave.
"First ultrasound." She replied.
"Ah, I remember going through that with Joey. I was a nervous wreck." Jimmy replied, thinking back to when he experienced his first ultrasound when Kim was expecting Joey.
"I guess then its normal for a first time parent to be nervous?" Alex asked, looking over at Jimmy, seeing the distant look in his eyes as he thought more about when Joey had been a baby.
As Kim and Bobby pulled up outside of Madison Square Garden and headed in with their gear. When they entered the building their ears were some what blasted by loud music.
"What on earth do you think is going on in there?" Bobby asked her as they headed towards the door.
"Look around and maybe you'll get a clue." She replied giggling as she began to reminisce briefly as they headed into one of the large halls of the building.
He looked around and saw himself surrounded by cheerleaders. He groaned silently to himself, he'd never really been to fond of them when he was younger and not much had changed since then either.
"What school are they all from?" he asked as they were directed over towards a huddle of cheerleaders on the practice floor.
"This isn't your everyday high school cheerleading competition. This is an all-star competition; I'm guessing a championship competition. And the people here cheer for gyms, it's not necessarily a school type competition since it's a sanctioned NCA event." She replied, noticing all the NCA posters and stuff.
"NCA?" he asked breaking through the throng of people to get to the injured person.
"National Cheerleaders Association. You mean to tell me none of your sisters were into stuff like this?" she asked snickering softly.
"I'm afraid they weren't. But if they had I probably would have gone crazy." He replied, the loud music starting to get on his nerves.
Kim rolled her eyes at him as she finally got through to the injured girl. Bobby began to check the girl over while Kim talked to some of the girl's squad members to find out what happened. Once she'd gotten the information she needed, she knelt down and helped Bobby with the young girl lying on the floor.
"What happened?" he asked Kim as he checked the girls level of consciousness.
"From what I got from her squad members, they just finished performing out on the main floor and came back here to talk to their coach. She was up in a stunt and when she came down the people who were supposed to catch her coming down missed and she hit the mat quite hard. She was able to finish the routine but when she came back here she collapsed." She replied starting to get vitals on the girl.
Kim finished vitals and went and got the c-collar off the gurney and began to put it around the girl's neck. Several minutes later the girl came too and one of the girls from her squad came over and began to talk to her while Kim and Bobby finished checking her over. The girl looked over at Kim and said, "Can she at least stay till awards are given out? I think there are only three or four more squads left before our division is done."
Kim looked over at Bobby when he said, "She can stay but she won't be able to go out there with you because she might have hurt her neck so she has to stay still incase there was any damage done. But as soon as the awards are over we're taking her to the hospital. Deal?"
The girl looked over at her squad members who said it was ok and replied, "Deal. If you two want to go watch the remaining parts of the competition we'll keep an eye on her."
Kim looked over at Bobby who was about ready to say something when she took him by the hand and led him towards one of the barriers keeping people off the competition floor. They still had a clear view of the girl, who was talking to the rest of her squad members about their performance.
Bobby looked over at Kim and said, "How do you know so much about this type of stuff?"
"Because I've been to these before." She replied as the next group got ready to take the floor.
"On which end, the observing end or the competing end?" he asked.
"Both." She replied, glancing back over to the young girl.
As the next group took the floor, Bobby noticed Kim seemed a bit distant, she was probably was remembering the last competition she was in, however long ago that was. As soon as the music began she focused on the group on the floor. He watched the group begin their routine and realized this group of cheerleaders was totally different than the ones he'd seen when he was in school. All the cheerleaders did when he was in school was shout out cheers at sporting events; they never did anything like this. He was amazed and saw them in a different light now.
As soon as the last group finished their routine it was only a few minutes till the awards would be given out. Kim and Bobby put the girl up on the gurney and moved her closer to the floor so she could see her squad from where she was. As soon as the awards were over and the girls squad carried there fourth place trophy off the floor they all walked out to the ambulance to watch her leave. The girl's parents went to the hospital with her and Kim looked at the girl who had been talking to her fallen friend and said, "Would you like to go with her?"
"Can I?" she asked softly.
"Sure, hop into the front seat since her parents are back here." Kim said as she closed the back doors to the ambulance.
As soon as the girl was in they headed towards the hospital. Kim monitored the girl's vitals to make sure everything was fine enroute to the ER. Once they arrived they unloaded the gurney and headed into the hospital with the girl's parents and her friend in tow. After getting her situated, they took the family and her friend over to the waiting area and told them the doctor would be out shortly to talk to them once he'd checked her over and ruled out any spinal injuries.
On their way back to the station after the call was over, all the memories from when she had been on a competition squad came back to her. The three years she spent on the squad were three of the most exciting years of her life. Traveling to various cities across the country performing at NCA sanctioned events with her squad was one of the most exciting things she'd ever done. Bobby looked over at her and said, "Did going to that competition bring back all the memories from when you used to compete?"
"Yeah it did," She replied smiling as they pulled back into the station.
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By the tenth week, the morning sickness had started to ease up a bit, but there were still a few occasional bouts of nausea that were really strong. Most of the time it was a light or moderate sensation that she could deal with, the really strong ones were the type that grew tiresome to go through. She still became tired very easily but now to add to the mixture of pregnancy induced changes she started to go through the mood swing stage. One minute she could be happy as a lark the next she could be ready to rip your head off, you never knew what to expect. It seemed like when she was in one of her more irritable moments the slightest thing could set her off unexpectedly. Alex happened to be walking by during one of the mood swings and shot a sympathetic glance towards Bobby and said, "Hormones again?"
"Unfortunately yes," he replied as Kim headed upstairs to her locker.
"At least you know its not permanent." She replied, wondering what she'd be like if she were pregnant.
"That's a good thing that it's temporary, because the last time I saw her like this was when Jimmy did something to set her off. As far as I can tell he hasn't done anything to her so its gotta be hormone-induced." Bobby said, chuckling slightly.
"If I had to pick between the nausea or the mood swings I'd pick the nausea, because you can take something for it if you have to. This there's nothing you can do except ride it out." Alex replied, giggling slightly.
Bobby shook his head and laughed and headed up to check on Kim to make sure she was ok.
Kim was sitting down for a bit when she heard footsteps coming up the stairs. She turned and saw Bobby coming up.
"Everything ok?" he asked as he sat down next to her and put his arm around her shoulder.
"Yeah, just got a little lightheaded again." she replied softly.
"Try lying down for a bit and see if that helps," he said, never taking his eyes off her.
As she lay down beside him, she felt the lightheadedness let up a bit.
"Don't forget next Monday morning is our first prenatal appointment," she said looking up at him as she rolled onto her back.
"I'll be right there with you through the whole thing. I'll probably be nervous a bit since I've never been to one of these before though."
"All they will probably do is get a health history, determine the due date, and blood work. That's what I remember going through with Joey. Normally the first visit is the longest, then the others are shorter," she replied, hoping to ease a bit of his anxiety.
The rest of the week flew by and before they both knew it, Monday was upon them. As they drove towards the clinic, she looked over at him and could tell he was still nervous.
"Still nervous aren't you," she said glancing at his expression as he drove.
"That noticeable?" he asked chuckling.
"Just a little. Trust me everything is going to be fine." she said trying to be reassuring.
"Will you be seeing the same doctor you saw with Joey?"
"As far as I'm aware of, she's still here so yes" she replied as they pulled into the parking lot of the clinic.
It didn't take long for them to get in to see Dr. Cunningham. As they sat together in one of the exam rooms waiting for her to come in, they sat talking briefly when they heard a knock on the door of the room. Kim and Dr. Cunningham had been friends before she'd ever met Jimmy or Bobby, which seemed like forever ago.
As Dr. Cunningham walked through the door she said, "How have you been Kim?"
"Oh, the usual on top of being married and expecting another baby." she replied smiling.
"How's Joey doing? He's what about 8 or 9 now?" Dr. Cunningham asked.
"As feisty as ever for a 9 yr old." Kim replied giggling.
Kim turned her attention to Bobby and said, "This is Brenda Cunningham, one of my good friends."
Dr. Cunningham smiled and extended her hand to him and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too." he said smiling, relaxing a bit more since things seemed to be relatively casual.
"Let's get down to business, shall we?" Dr. Cunningham began to say as she opened up Kim's chart; "Has anything changed with your health or medical history?"
"Nope, nothing's changed till now at least." she replied.
"Are you taking any kind of medications?"
"Other than a multivitamin, no." she replied.
"Has it made you any more nauseous than what you already are with being pregnant?"
"No, I got the same brand you recommended last time after the previous one I had made me sicker than what I was before I began taking it."
"Very Good; Let's go ahead and discuss when you're due." Dr. Cunningham said.
As Kim began to go through her last menstrual cycle the doctor took notes on what she heard and figured up her due date.
"Your expected due date is July 19th. You two ready to see the baby?" the doctor asked smiling.
"Most definitely," Kim replied smiling looking over at Bobby who was just as excited as her to see their child on the ultrasound.
"Instead of giving print outs of the images, we now record them to a video tape." Dr. Cunningham said after getting the machine ready and getting the gel to put on the lower part of Kim's abdomen.
"Joey should get a kick out of watching it when we show the tape to him." Kim said, looking over at Bobby who was eager to get a view of his child.
"You know he will." Bobby replied smiling back at Kim as he sat in a chair beside her.
Kim shut her eyes briefly as the cold gel was placed on her. Bobby looked down and noticed she was trying not to squirm as the gel was put on and said snickering, "Little cold eh?"
"Don't even go there." Kim replied giggling, unable to hold still any longer.
Dr. Cunningham laughed to herself as she dimmed the lights before beginning the procedure.
"You ready?" she asked Kim as she turned on the monitor that would display the pictures of the ultrasound.
"Yep." She replied smiling looking over at Bobby as Dr. Cunningham placed the transducer on her abdomen.
As the first images appeared on the screen, the doctor repositioned the transducer until she found the spot where the baby was. Both Kim and Bobby felt tears in their eyes when they saw the first images of their child. It was one thing to take a test and find out your pregnant. Seeing the images of the baby solidified the feeling that in nine months they would be seeing their new son or daughter. The two listened as they heard the fluttering heartbeat of their child. A thirty-minute ultrasound went by incredibly fast and before they knew it the visit was over, but they left with a copy of the ultrasound on videotape, something they both would treasure.
As they headed back to get ready for work, all they could think about was the videotape of the ultrasound. She was thrilled to be having another baby, they both felt they were ready to take on the responsibility even though it hadn't been planned. For the rest of the day, all he could think about was the tape. It cemented the fact that he was going to be a father. Even the guys at the station could tell something was up with him. He had gone upstairs and Kim was getting a bottle of water out when Alex came up and said, "What is up with Bobby today? He's seems more mellow but way hyper."
Kim had to laugh at Alex's question and replied, "We had our first ultrasound this morning, I think everything is still sinking in right now."
"How did everything go?" Alex asked.
"Everything looks good. I swear he was a nervous wreck through the whole thing and completely changed once he saw the ultrasound." Kim replied laughing.
"Who was a nervous wreck?" came Bobby's voice as he headed over towards where Alex and Kim were standing.
"You were this morning till we got to have the ultrasound done." She replied looking over her shoulder at him.
He rolled his eyes at her and replied chuckling, "I told you I would be."
"What was it like seeing the ultrasound?" Alex asked curiously.
"It's hard to put into words because that is when it really hits you. Don't get me wrong finding out with a test is one thing but putting a visual picture to the results really cements the fact in place." he replied as he wrapped his arms around Kim's slightly protruding stomach.
Just then a call came through and the two of them had to head out. Alex stood shaking her head, silently laughing when Jimmy came up behind her.
"What's up with him? He's got a weird vibe going." He said as he watched the two of them leave.
"First ultrasound." She replied.
"Ah, I remember going through that with Joey. I was a nervous wreck." Jimmy replied, thinking back to when he experienced his first ultrasound when Kim was expecting Joey.
"I guess then its normal for a first time parent to be nervous?" Alex asked, looking over at Jimmy, seeing the distant look in his eyes as he thought more about when Joey had been a baby.
As Kim and Bobby pulled up outside of Madison Square Garden and headed in with their gear. When they entered the building their ears were some what blasted by loud music.
"What on earth do you think is going on in there?" Bobby asked her as they headed towards the door.
"Look around and maybe you'll get a clue." She replied giggling as she began to reminisce briefly as they headed into one of the large halls of the building.
He looked around and saw himself surrounded by cheerleaders. He groaned silently to himself, he'd never really been to fond of them when he was younger and not much had changed since then either.
"What school are they all from?" he asked as they were directed over towards a huddle of cheerleaders on the practice floor.
"This isn't your everyday high school cheerleading competition. This is an all-star competition; I'm guessing a championship competition. And the people here cheer for gyms, it's not necessarily a school type competition since it's a sanctioned NCA event." She replied, noticing all the NCA posters and stuff.
"NCA?" he asked breaking through the throng of people to get to the injured person.
"National Cheerleaders Association. You mean to tell me none of your sisters were into stuff like this?" she asked snickering softly.
"I'm afraid they weren't. But if they had I probably would have gone crazy." He replied, the loud music starting to get on his nerves.
Kim rolled her eyes at him as she finally got through to the injured girl. Bobby began to check the girl over while Kim talked to some of the girl's squad members to find out what happened. Once she'd gotten the information she needed, she knelt down and helped Bobby with the young girl lying on the floor.
"What happened?" he asked Kim as he checked the girls level of consciousness.
"From what I got from her squad members, they just finished performing out on the main floor and came back here to talk to their coach. She was up in a stunt and when she came down the people who were supposed to catch her coming down missed and she hit the mat quite hard. She was able to finish the routine but when she came back here she collapsed." She replied starting to get vitals on the girl.
Kim finished vitals and went and got the c-collar off the gurney and began to put it around the girl's neck. Several minutes later the girl came too and one of the girls from her squad came over and began to talk to her while Kim and Bobby finished checking her over. The girl looked over at Kim and said, "Can she at least stay till awards are given out? I think there are only three or four more squads left before our division is done."
Kim looked over at Bobby when he said, "She can stay but she won't be able to go out there with you because she might have hurt her neck so she has to stay still incase there was any damage done. But as soon as the awards are over we're taking her to the hospital. Deal?"
The girl looked over at her squad members who said it was ok and replied, "Deal. If you two want to go watch the remaining parts of the competition we'll keep an eye on her."
Kim looked over at Bobby who was about ready to say something when she took him by the hand and led him towards one of the barriers keeping people off the competition floor. They still had a clear view of the girl, who was talking to the rest of her squad members about their performance.
Bobby looked over at Kim and said, "How do you know so much about this type of stuff?"
"Because I've been to these before." She replied as the next group got ready to take the floor.
"On which end, the observing end or the competing end?" he asked.
"Both." She replied, glancing back over to the young girl.
As the next group took the floor, Bobby noticed Kim seemed a bit distant, she was probably was remembering the last competition she was in, however long ago that was. As soon as the music began she focused on the group on the floor. He watched the group begin their routine and realized this group of cheerleaders was totally different than the ones he'd seen when he was in school. All the cheerleaders did when he was in school was shout out cheers at sporting events; they never did anything like this. He was amazed and saw them in a different light now.
As soon as the last group finished their routine it was only a few minutes till the awards would be given out. Kim and Bobby put the girl up on the gurney and moved her closer to the floor so she could see her squad from where she was. As soon as the awards were over and the girls squad carried there fourth place trophy off the floor they all walked out to the ambulance to watch her leave. The girl's parents went to the hospital with her and Kim looked at the girl who had been talking to her fallen friend and said, "Would you like to go with her?"
"Can I?" she asked softly.
"Sure, hop into the front seat since her parents are back here." Kim said as she closed the back doors to the ambulance.
As soon as the girl was in they headed towards the hospital. Kim monitored the girl's vitals to make sure everything was fine enroute to the ER. Once they arrived they unloaded the gurney and headed into the hospital with the girl's parents and her friend in tow. After getting her situated, they took the family and her friend over to the waiting area and told them the doctor would be out shortly to talk to them once he'd checked her over and ruled out any spinal injuries.
On their way back to the station after the call was over, all the memories from when she had been on a competition squad came back to her. The three years she spent on the squad were three of the most exciting years of her life. Traveling to various cities across the country performing at NCA sanctioned events with her squad was one of the most exciting things she'd ever done. Bobby looked over at her and said, "Did going to that competition bring back all the memories from when you used to compete?"
"Yeah it did," She replied smiling as they pulled back into the station.