Page 123 of Perfect Chemistry

Kai’s Point of View

“Are you ready?” I asked Katie.

She was nibbling her nails as we sat in the parking lot outside the doctor’s office. The last two months were a roller coaster. Just after New Year’s, Katie had passed out on the site, and they had to call an ambulance. Thankfully, Paul sent one of the guys to the clinic to get me. I got there just in time to ride with her to the hospital. I won’t lie. Seeing her so pale on that stretcher scared the shit out of me.

Paul and Jack assured me that she hadn’t been near any fumes or chemicals. She had been talking to the owners and then collapsed. The hospital kept her overnight for observation. She was anemic and her blood sugar was lower than they would have liked. They sent in a dietician to discuss dietary changes, and prescribed her a different prenatal to help with her vitamin deficiencies.

The sonographer at the twelve week scan saw something that concerned her, and refused to let us see the scans. She said the doctor would be in contact with us with the results. Katie cried for two days, convinced that the baby was dying. I couldn’t wait, and called the doctor for the results. There was nothing wrong. The baby was healthy, organs developing like they should and all limbs accounted for.

With all of the ups and downs, Katie stopped running. She stopped working on the 4th street house. If that weren’t enough, she cut me off. No sex. She stayed in bed and focused on her health. I tried to get Andie to come over and sit with her, but she refused to tell anyone about the pregnancy until we reached the half-way mark. She made excuses for why we needed to take rain checks when we received invitations, and promised to make it all up later.

We were finally going in for the eighteen week scan, and I prayed that this put Katie’s worries to rest. Her blood work over the past four weeks had been perfect. Her blood pressure was amazing. Her weight gain was perfect. Everything on paper said we were through the worst, but she wanted to see this scan before anyone could know. I remembered her sobbing when we lost the first baby. I would support anything she wanted to do to keep this baby safe. I never wanted to see her cry like that again.

“Come on,” I encouraged her, opening my car door. I walked around the car and opened her door for her. She looked terrified. I tried the most reassuring smile I could muster. “When they tell us this baby is perfect, I am going to take you home and pamper the shit of you for being such an amazing oven,” I said, pulling her into a hug.

She giggled against my chest. “I’m being crazy, aren’t I?”

“Nope. No crazy here,” I swore, making her giggle some more.

Thankfully, the original sonographer was in today and not the last one. They got us in pretty quickly and had Katie’s belly lubed up in no time. “Ok, mommy. Let’s see how this little baby is doing!” She said excitedly, smiling.

The heartbeat was perfect. No murmurs, and no malformations were visible on the heart. The organs were all perfect. “Mommy you have to tell me your secret! This little girl is a tank,” the woman cooed, and then realized what she said. She looked at Katie and I as if she was in trouble. “Did you want to know the baby’s sex?” She asked.

“It’s a girl?” Katie asked, eyes already tearing up looking at the screen. Her eyes darted to mine. “We’re having a girl!” she cried.

The doctor came in to review the scans and then looked seriously over to Katie. “I don’t know how to say this…” She started. “You have a perfect baby. The placenta is moved up. Your labs are spot on. As far as this little girl is growing, she’s meeting all of the growth markers that we want to see. She is active, and your vitamin levels are stable. I’d still recommend you continue with light duty because of your physical condition, but I feel comfortable saying we’re out of the woods.”

My eyes were watering up. The baby looked perfect. She was great. Everything was perfect. Katie let out a choked sob. “She’s perfect?” She asked.

The doctor chuckled, “Yes. She is. I’ll see you back here between 22 to 24 weeks. If you have any pains or her activity drops, and I mean no movement over six hours, come in. Don’t even wait, just come in. You’re doing great, Katie. Kai, keep up the support.”

The sonographer gave us a copy of the ultrasound pictures, and let Katie record the heart beat. We couldn’t stop smiling the whole way home. I knew she wanted to tell everyone. Keeping it quiet was killing her, but now she wanted to tell everyone.

“Let’s invite everyone over for dinner. We can set up a bonfire in the backyard, invite our family and friends over. Make up some bullshit, and surprise them with a reveal and announcement,” she suggested, hugging me as soon as we got in the door.

“When do you want to have this grand party?” I asked, chuckling.

“Is this weekend too soon?” She asked, giving me the saddest puppy eyes.

I laughed and kissed her. “We can invite them over tonight if you want, Kitkat. You tell me when, and I will pack the house and the backyard!”

We sat down and sent text messages to everyone. Katie included Paul, Jack and the Craigs from work. They had been so good to her in the time she was at work, that she wanted to include them. By the time our phones died, I think we had invited like seventy-five people over.

* * *

Saturday afternoon and the house was quickly filled to near bursting. We set up space for the kids to play games, color, or watch cartoons in the living room. Her mom brought over a chocolate fountain and surrounded it with tons of fruit and bread bites to dip. It was still relatively cold out, so we ordered thirty pizzas and sorted them according to preferences: cheese, meats, veggies, etc.

It was nearly three o’clock when the last of our guests arrived. We had no idea how we wanted to tell everyone, so Katie’s mom suggested putting pink frosting inside of one of the cupcakes. Then we would just wait to see who got the cupcake. Katie’s dad had a better idea. He told everyone that we were announcing a big venture, and that Katie’s company and a lot to do with it. Seeing the new workshop in the backyard, most thought Katie was starting her own business.

I called everyone out to the backyard and passed around glasses of sparkling apple juice. “First, we want to thank everyone for coming over on such short notice. We haven’t been able to see everyone a lot lately, so we thought we would have everyone over. As you can see we’ve been busy here around the house, and we wanted to share some of our firsts with you all,” Katie announced.

“The first time I saw Katie was in fifth grade. She had no idea I even existed, but I noticed her. We didn’t have enough people in percussion, and she volunteered to play the xylophone and bells for a concert. She was so focused and energetic, I couldn’t help but love her,” I said, making Katie tear up.

“That’s not true!” She yelled. “I noticed you. But you made fun of me, so I ignored you!”

“Ha!” Andie yelled, laughing.

“Our first kiss was during our senior year of high school,” Katie admitted, leaving out all of the details.

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