I collect Jay from home and we make our way up to the hospital. Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen each other a fair bit. Dad has returned to the UK. It was good to see him but I am happy to have our lives return to some normality. Well, as normal as it can be with the birth of a baby on the horizon.
Jay is now showing a bit. She is not enjoying the changing shape of her body. She has had to swap her usual skimpy tops and shorts that showed off her size 8 body to its fullest sexiness, for more flowing tops and trousers with expanding waistlines. “You look nice'” I say as she gets in the car.
“I feel fat.” She is not happy.
“Oh, Jay, you look lovely and look, your body is finally showing that you are growing a baby!”
“And my skin is looking awful.”
“That will be the hormones, love. It will get better.”
“And I feel tearful.”
I remember the havoc that pregnancy hormones played with my emotional state all too well. “It is so crap, being pregnant sometimes,” I concede.
Jay nods.
“So who are we seeing today, do you know?”
“No I don’t. Laura just said it is a routine check up with the clinic obstetrician.”
We arrive at the hospital. The clinic waiting room is heaving with pregnant women. It is stuffy in the room – the January heat is streaming through the large floor to ceiling windows. I can’t help look at all the bumps and imagine that in just a few short months, my baby girl is going to be that person, about to expel her own human being. I still wonder how ready she is for this. I wonder how ready I am to be a grandmother.
“Jay X!” The obstetrician calls her name. She is an asian lady. She smiles at us as we walk into the room and beckons for us to sit down. “So have you been doing?” she asks.
“Yeah, good.” I smile – such a typically teenage response.
“Any morning sickness?”
“A bit, but that has largely passed now.”
“Okay, so I have had a read over your file. You are rhesus negative, so at 28 weeks you will need an anti-D injection and then again at 32 weeks. Depending on the blood type of the baby, you will also have one after the baby is born.”
Jay nods, she has been told all this before.
“Also, I will be booking you in for your 20 week ultrasound. This ultrasound will be checking for any abnormalities. It will also tell you the sex of the baby if you want to know.” Em and Jay have decided they would definitely like to know. We have held off buying anything for the baby until we know the sex.
“Right, it all looks like it is going swimmingly. You are young and very healthy. You are making a healthy baby. You will only see me again towards the end of your pregnancy.”
Jay smiles. I smile.
After we leave the hospital, I offer to take Jay for our usual coffee and food, but this time at a different shopping centre. Our tour of the centre still takes the usual format – baby stores, baby departments and maternity sections. She is in need of some maternity clothing, so I buy her some bras, a couple of tops and a pair of leggings. I am appalled at the cost of maternity wear. Your tummy takes on a life of it own and suddenly the price goes up by 50%.
Jay still cannot help herself with shoe stores. She tries on shoes with heels that I know she will probably never wear. She can’t help herself and we all have our weaknesses, don’t we?