Joie De Vive: Update from my love

So my Lobster posted his first post ever about our baby. I thought it was just too beyond cute to note share:

****************************

My first official post.
We're having a baby!!!

Ok, so you already knew that, but today is going to be our first appointment with the doctor since we found out a couple of weeks ago. It's the very first official event of the pregnancy.

Javi is in the other room getting ready as I write this. She told me the other day that she heard that it is common for newly pregnant women to have this "glow" about them and that she was pretty sure nature had it in for her. That she was pretty sure nature had slipped up; maybe somehow managing to skip over her. I laughed, mainly because I find that to be the exact opposite of what's happened. She very much does have a glow, it's just invisible to her. With the nausea in the morning, back pain, and overall exhaustion, it'd be amazing for anyone to view themselves through any other lens.

I see the glow when I walk in the room and happen to catch her in the middle of comparing baby cribs. I see the glow when she's on the phone and the conversation shifts suddenly to the pregnancy. The glow is there. It sits quietly and patiently, waiting for the perfect opportunity, the perfect opening, and then it shines through.

Today is the first day of a major snow storm and I use the word "major" quite loosely. Philadelphians are notorious for overreacting. The last storm hit us earlier this month and it took me about 3 hours to drive over to Shop Rite and pick up a few groceries. I saw the most people congested into a singular closed space than ever before. Definitely some sort of fire hazard. After wrestling with old ladies, I finally made it over to the check out lines. Had it not been for the Pharmacy clerk calling me over, I probably would have been there for another hour just waiting. Talk about luck!

Actually, I don't think luck has anything to do with it. I've come to the concrete conclusion that God truly protects us and sometimes the smallest things happen when we don't even realise it.

Let's take today, for example:
Today I had an interview scheduled for 5:30pm in a city called Warrington, which is about 40 minutes away. Our Pre-Natal appointment is for 3:00pm and I was really disappointed that I might not be able to stay with Javi the entire time. I was really uneasy that she might have to finish up alone and probably take a taxi home. I know it would not have been a big deal for Javi, but it was really important for me to be there. After accepting that things work out for the best, I received an email from the company I'm interviewing with saying that my interview had been rescheduled to next week due to the snow! Now I can stay the whole time and make sure that Javi has the support she needs.

Ok, so that's all for now. It's just about time to head out! I'll leave it here and pick it up after these short commercial breaks.

********************************
SHORT COMMERCIAL BREAKS
********************************

Since when did short commercial breaks mean the next day? Well, today is the first day on record that I'm using the baby as an excuse. Ha!

So, remember all that about things happening for a reason and about how things work out for the best whether we realise it or not? Let's recap the events of yesterday and you tell me.

Yesterday on our way to the hospital, we're all packed up, questions memorised, pen and paper in pocket just in case we need to write anything down. Javi presses the "unlock" button on her car keys and nothing happens. Maybe the battery died? She unlocks the door manually, sticks the keys in the ignition, and...

Nothing.
The battery died. Not the one in the remote, the actual car battery.

We go back upstairs and have security call us a cab. Javi gets on the phone to call the doctor's office and let them know that we might possibly arrive a little late.

The time is now 2:45pm and still no sign of the taxi. What could we do?

We wait a little longer and then, finally, a white car turns the corner and I see the ubiquitous TAXI sign on top of the car.

We jump in. The driver drops us off at Lankenau Hospital's bus stop and we make our way to a side entrance.

We come to a directory and look for Dr. Wendy Manko. Suite 433, 4th Floor. We walk through the door at exactly 3:00pm, sign up at the front, and let out a big sigh of relief.

We made it! Once everything is filled out, we wait a couple of minutes and then we're called in.

We meet the doctor. I was expecting a dinosaur to break through the door, but Dr. Manko was relatively young, really nice, and straight to the point. She answered all our questions and was really professional.

At one point she steps out and comes back in with a machine that I can only describe as a giant Wall-E. It had a big square monitor and I had my eyes fixed on the door, fully expecting a giant Eva to follow through. Disappointed by EVA's no-show, I come to my senses. Ahhh, a sonogram machine.

She turns it on and shows us the screen. At first I didn't know what I was looking at. I asked what the dark oval right in the middle was and she said that is the amniotic fluid that the baby is living in. That means that the grey area inside the black oval is our baby! If you look closely, starting from the left, you can see that there's a tiny head, short little arms and legs. Alhamdulillah (All praise is due to Allah).

Javi said the baby looks like a tiny teddy bear.

You can't see it from this picture alone, but the doctor showed us the heartbeat. It was this tiny dot in the middle of the baby that was flickering very rapidly. We both were astounded by it and were pretty much speechless.

We got a ton of reading material from the nurse and the doctor gave us samples of prescription pre-natal vitamins for Javi to try out. Once the doctor found out that we only eat kosher meat, she took the bag of samples back and said that there was this one brand which had no gelatin in it and to try it out for a couple of days. She also said that they would be running blood tests to check for any genetic anomalies. Down to the lab we go!

We pass by the coffee stand "Java City" and our stomachs start to grumble. Holding our breath we make it to Outpatient Testing in B4 and register. Once the paperwork is signed we head over to the lab where Javi proceeds to give about 10 vials of blood. I kid you not! (no pun intended)

Weakened and brusied, Javi opens her mouth and points to it. That's code for "I'm starving."

We find the cafeteria at the other end of the hospital and, for the first time since we left home, we sat down. The biggest news of the entire day was that the doctor said that having coffee every once in a while was ok. Armed with that knowledge, Javi made a quick dash to the nearest starbucks beverage she could get her hands on.