“Oh.” Dr. Wong’s eyes widen. “Sorry… I thought I saw a family resemblance.”

“It’s fine,” I mumble. If she saw a family resemblance, couldn’t she have guessed “sister”?

Okay, I’m not going to obsess over this.

“So is it Abby’s egg?” the doctor asks.

Monica shakes her head. “No, Abby’s eggs are no good. We’re using my eggs and her husband’s sperm.”

“Oh!” Dr. Wong gives me a strange look, which I probably deserve. Monica is essentially having a baby with my husband. It’s not like I would have considered this if I weren’t so desperate to become a mother. “Well, that’s great.”

Dr. Wong proceeds to go through Monica’s medical history, which is fairly unremarkable. She’s barely had anything more than a cold in her life. Of course, I always thought I was perfectly healthy until I was unable to get pregnant.

After the questions, she does a pelvic exam, which I insist on stepping out for, even though Monica doesn’t seem to care. Then Dr. Wong comes out to bring me back into the room.

“We’re going to try to listen for the heartbeat with a Doppler,” she explains. “Monica thought you’d want to hear.”

My own heart is pounding in my chest. “Yes, that would be great.”

Monica has her pants on again so that she can lift her gown without revealing her nether regions. Her belly is completely flat. I had no idea it was possible to be nearly three months pregnant and have a belly that flat. I look more pregnant than she does.

Dr. Wong dabs gel on her Doppler probe and places it gingerly on Monica’s tummy. Monica shivers and giggles. “Cold!”

“Sorry about that.” Dr. Wong smiles at her. “Okay, now let’s see if we can find that heartbeat. Remember that it’s still on the early side, so I wouldn’t panic if we can’t hear it. We’ll do the transvaginal if that’s the case.”

But then Dr. Wong shifts the probe and we hear it:

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…

It’s really fast, but I’ve heard fetus’s hearts are faster than adult hearts. It sounds… well, it sounds normal to me, but what do I know? Actually, it sounds perfect.

That’s my baby’s heart.

“Perfect.” Dr. Wong smiles up at us. “One-hundred-eighty beats per minute, which is normal for ten weeks. It will slow down a bit in the second trimester.”

I feel a lump in my throat and my eyes are tearing up. All of a sudden, I’m sorry I didn’t invite Sam to come along. I wish he could be here to hear this with me. Our baby.

Monica is gazing down at her belly, her mouth hanging open. “That’s incredible,” she breathes.