photo by Chandra Marsono
Monday night April asked if I had any questions I wanted to ask the doctor on Tuesday at our first doctor’s visit of the pregnancy.
I thought for a moment. “No,” I said.
“Do you?” I asked.
“No,” April said.
Tuesday morning I had a few minutes, so I did a search online to find out what happens at the first doctor’s visit. I read through all the information about the various tests the doctor would be doing. It seems like a lot. I wondered how long we would be at the doctor. But I still didn’t have any questions.
Should I have questions?
I always assumed that when we got pregnant, I would go crazy, reading parenting books, picking out exotic baby names, buying stuffed animals and Disney movies and all the boutique baby clothes we would need up until the baby was two. But the truth is I’m not going crazy. Actually, I’m quite the opposite. I’m taking my time.
I’m easing myself into the idea of becoming a dad.
We went to the doctor on Tuesday and we got to see our baby for the first time. Even though I had read a few things online, I didn’t know we would see the baby.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t get very emotional at all, actually. Maybe I’ve seen too many TV pregnancies because I thought everything was supposed to be more melodramatic than it was.
It felt normal, somehow, to see our baby there, wriggling on the screen of the ultrasound. I couldn’t think of anything better to do than just to smile, like I usually do when I think something is good.
Check out Kelly’s book for new fathers called Becoming Dad: A True Story of One Man’s Transformation from Clueless Husband to Involved and Nurturing Father. The pregnancy section of the book is available as a free ebook.