Babies, Boyfriends, and Why I was Pregnant by 16

Chapter Two: Doctor

I waited on the hard plastic chair, massaging my stomach. Jasper sat beside me, holding my hand. My hands were going up and down over the little bulge on my stomach. I was 3 months pregnant, and going in for my monthly check up.

I had dropped out of school and had started taking online courses, instead. Annabelle came to visit me everyday, telling me cheerfully that I looked fatter by the day.

I thought back to when our baby was conceived.

Jasper and I had started dating each other when I was 12, and he was 13. It was a terrible year when he had to go to high school and I was stuck in Elementary school. We knew that we loved each other even then. We had dated all through high school, and he had never made the move. I had expected him to, because I really loved him, and I knew that he felt the same about me. He was just sweet, and didn't want me to think badly of him. We went on like that for years. I would try to talk to him about it, because I knew that men... well, yeah, but it never happened. One day, he was over at my apartment, and I just turned around and kissed him. The kiss lasted longer than usual, and we both knew that it was now or never. In our teenage craze, we forgot to use protection, but we thought that nothing bad could happen.

Obviously, we were wrong.

Now I sat there, at the the doctor's office, cradling a pregnant stomach, even though I had only made love once. Oh, the irony of it all.

My stomach growled, and I pulled out a granola bar. My thighs were getting bigger as I succumbed to my cravings, and I hoped that Jasper wouldn't be upset that he had a fat girlfriend... fiance.

'Hannah Love?"

"That's me." I stood up and Jasper came too. I walked into the office, and saw my favourite doctor in the world, Dr. Robertson. He was an old friend of mine's father. He was very kind and understanding, and he knew that I was normally a very responsible person.

"Hello Jasper, and hello, Hannah. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine," I answered, "but the cravings and morning sickness is starting to annoy me."

"Of course, of course. All right then, let's weigh you, quickly." I stood on the scale and waited.

"Perfect," he said after a minute, "you're gaining weight at the perfect rate. Some girls your age resist the cravings, and the babies come out premature, because they have been mal-nourished. You must be doing the exact right thing, which is listen to the cravings. You are at an awesome weight. Good job."

"Aren't my thighs too fat? And everything else?"

He chuckled, "It depends on what you think, Hannah, but from a doctor's perspective, you're a gem."

I grinned. Jasper smiled at me. Dr. Robertson looked down his nose at Jasper and spoke, "I hope you've been treating her well, Mr. Louis. She's a good girl."

"I know that, Dr. Robertson, I've been with her for 4 years, and I love her very much. We're getting married after she gives birth." My eyes filled with tears at his words. The way he said it, the way he made it sound so obvious that he was in love with me, was too much.

"I love you, too." I mouthed to Jasper. He grinned at me.

"Well," Dr. Robertson turned to face me, again, "we're ready to do an ultra sound."

"Okay," I said, lying down on the hospital bed. I rolled up my shirt at his instruction and he started spreading a strange gel over my stomach.

"At this point, we'll be able to tell the gender. Would you like to know?"

"No," Jasper and I said in unison, "I want to be suprised." We both laughed, and the Doctor smiled.

"All right then," he said, pulling out a machine that looked a lot like a scanner at a library. He pressed it onto my stomach and started moving it around.

A black and white picture appeared on the TV screen, it was very shiny looking inside my stomach. He pushed it around a bit more, and a strange wrinkly baby was curled in my womb.

Thud-thud. Thud-thud. I heard a strange noise coming from the TV.

"And that'll be the heartbeat." The doctor smiled at the expression on my face, and suddenly, hot tears were flowing down my face. Jasper was immediately at my side as the tears flowed freshly on my cheeks.

"That's our baby," I mumbled quietly, once my tears had faded, "that's our baby."

Jasper nodded, and looked again at the black and white picture of our baby.

***

Once we arrived back at the apartment, I ran to the bathroom and threw up. I hated morning sickness.

I looked at myself in the mirror when I was in my underwear. I looked at the curves I didn't have before, the extra weight I was carrying. I loved it.