When Girlfriends Step Up by Savannah Page

assisted in a handful of same-sex couple pregnancies.
    “Well isn’t that neat? To have your best friend here to show her support. Let’s get started then, shall we?” The doctor wanted to get down to business, asking me lots of questions about when I thought (ah-hem, knew ) I’d conceived, if and what I’d been reading about pregnancy, nutrition, vitamin supplements, and the like. Finally, after Lara was handed a million and one pamphlets that apparently held the information about what I could and could not do, and should and should not do, throughout my pregnancy, it was time for the ultrasound.
    “Oh, wow,” I said. “I didn’t expect this gel to be warm.” Dr. Buschardi started to spread the warm gel around my stomach with the ultrasound scanning instrument.  
    “Such a simple thing so many doctors neglect to consider,” Dr. Buschardi said. “We’ve come quite a long way in the obstetrics field. Why some doctors still can’t figure out that a woman doesn’t want to be squirted with ice cold gel still gets me.”  
    Could the medical world possibly take another step forward and get proper dressing gowns while they’re at it?
    “All right,” the doctor said. She tapped a few keys on the keyboard below the monitor, then made some clicks with the mouse, the pointer set at grey voids on the screen that told me nothing.
    A few more turns of the instrument and she said, “You’re definitely at the end of your first trimester…your calculations are spot on with your date of conception…”  
    No advanced medical breakthroughs needed to find out that one.  
    “…You’re definitely at about your twelve-week mark, Robin, so I’ll calculate your due date in a sec…” She squinted behind her small, rimless glasses, tapping a few more keys.
    I looked over at Lara, who was also squinting at the screen behind her reading glasses. “See anything?” I asked both of them. Lara gave me a big smile, then went back to squinting at the black and white screen.
    A few more clicks and taps, then, “Okay, it looks like there’s only one baby in there.”
    “Well good!”
    Dr. Buschardi let out a small laugh. “We always want to make sure.”
    God, twins? I don’t think I could have handled that kind of news.
    “Is it a boy or a girl?” Lara blurted out.
    “Oh, we won’t be able to tell that for another ten weeks or so. Okay…the size of the baby is right on schedule. Looking healthy, too.” Dr. Buschardi looked over at me and gave a nod of “all things look great,” then said, “Ready for the heartbeat?”
    “Oh yeah!” Lara and I said in unison. And within seconds I heard the strong thumping of my baby’s heartbeat interwoven with my own.
    “Wow,” Lara breathed out.
    “Wow. That’s my baby?”
    “That sure is,” Dr. Buschardi said. She moved the instrument around my belly. “Can you see the head here?” She tapped another key and pointed at a white, oval figure. “And in a couple of months we can do another ultrasound…” A few more keys. “…And then we can find out the sex of the baby if you want. Do you think you want to know?” Some more taps and clicks, then she pulled back the instrument.
    “Oh, definitely! I couldn’t imagine the suspense. I definitely want to know.”
    Dr. Buschardi told me to make an appointment with reception about nine or ten weeks from now, as she was sure she’d be able to do a gender test then.
    “And you don’t want to forget these,” she said, tearing out the print she’d made with the machine. “Baby’s first pictures.”
    I stared, mouth wide open, at the roll of three black and white photos of my baby. I’d never in my life felt how I did at that very moment. It was more special and unique than the feeling I’d had when I first learned that I was pregnant, and stronger than when I actually realized that my life was going to change in drastic ways because a baby was, no doubt, going to come into my life. Right then and there—with the