so that's what the stirrups are for...
It's cold outside. It's dark when I go to work in the morning and when I come home in the evening. I'm on my early morning schedule, warming up for my last season in the purgatory of art school. This morning, Nat picks me up at 8:20a to pop a few blocks down from the University to an IHC clinic where her obstetrician practices. I am a bit standoffish. This will be a new experience for me and I have no real clue what to think about it.
We arrive, enter the building and ride the escalator up to the second floor. Nat checks in. I pull out my pda and pick up where I've left of in Wolves of the Calla. The wait is not long and we are ushered back to a room by a nurse who pauses to get Nat's weight. We have an even briefer wait before Dr. Pipper pops in for the first phase of the visit. She is perky, upbeat and on top of her game. I can see why Nat has selected her for her doctor. After some pleasantries, Dr. Pipper instructs Nat to get in the hospital gown and excuses herself.
Prior to this visit, if you had asked me about having Nat strip for me someplace semi-public, I'd have likely said it would be very nice. If you had asked what I thought about Nat, naked and stirrups in the same sentence before today, my train of thought would likely not be considered very "nice" by proper folks. There is something off putting about this office and this visit, however, and I find the situation much less desirable than I'd initially imagined it would be.
Dr. Pipper comes back. Nat is poked, prodded, examined and sampled. I have never been more glad to be a guy in my life. I've got my PDA out, more as a security blanket than anything else. Dr. Pipper turns from the exam and asks if I'm taking pictures. I am so uncomfortable I cannot even laugh, though I find the idea hilarious. Finally, the poking/prodding part of the exam is over the doctor rolls over her "toy" sonogram machine. She lubes up the scanner and rolls it across Nat's stomach. The grainy black and white image begins to pulse as the scanner is moved down past Nat's at capacity bladder. Here, in glorious two bit color, is the addition to our family. As psychologically uncomfortable as the exam has been for me, seeing our developing child via the sonogram's display is really quite amazing. I almost wish I had a camera with me to grab an image of our chap.