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Happy New Year!

So, I have a little less than a month before my ultrasound. Still don’t know if it’s a boy or girl. I read that someone did a study to find out the sex by determining certain factors in the ultrasound. I don’t know much about medicine or science, so I don’t know for sure what the study actually encompasses, but it showed that a certain ultrasound technician (they used the same one throughout the study) could predict sex with ninety-something percent accuracy at 12 weeks or less. The difference was in the amniotic sac, or umbilical cord, or something. If whatever was to the left of the baby, it was a girl. If something or other were on the right of the baby, it was a boy. I had an ultrasound at around 12 weeks. My situation is so different than all my other pregnancies, I can’t know anything for sure. I’ve given up trying to figure it out, but when I looked at my ultrasound, I thought it looked like they baby was to the right of the uterine wall. That really tells me nothing, but I’ve had other things that make me hopeful for a girl. There have been no male children born in our family since 2005. When we first became reproductive (myself and 3 siblings), everyone had girls. Then I had the first boy and everyone had a boy for the next 7 children. Six girls have been born since then. Two of them are grandchildren, so I don’t know if that counts, and one of my brothers has a hard time finding faithful partners, so none of his may count at all. Of course, I started the boy trend, so I might be the start of the next wave. Maybe I can eek out the last female before we revert back to males. Of course, our father was the oldest living child of three males in his family (four total, all male) and my mother was the youngest child of four with three half-brothers. All of my children survived infancy, so I statistically resemble my mother’s family. She is also quite a bit younger than her brothers, but she has a different father. My mother had two girls and two boys. My sister had two girls and two boys. My brother may have three daughters, or none. My youngest brother has two boys (one from a previous marriage) and three daughters (one set of twins). Obviously, I resemble none of them. If anything, my family has a slight statistical leaning toward a grouping of three and a single opposite sex child. Unfortunately, only myself, my mother, and my paternal grandmother have the same father for all children. Everyone else has at least two partners in reproduction.

I have 22 days until my ultrasound. Until then I have no way of knowing if I should buy/register for girly stuff or boy stuff. Three more weeks of searching for gender neutral items. If I don’t get a definite answer one way or the other on February 1, I am going to be the most frightening person to live with. Who wants to pick out two names? How can I stock up for a baby when everything is either football and trucks or hearts and bows? Even diapers are assigned by gender. Actually, I am using cloth diapers, so only the covers are patterned. Cloth diapers and breastfeeding. I will have an all-white bassinet. My nursery is a    woodland mountain scene with woodland creatures and the colors are spring green (for the aspen trees in May), a chocolate brown (trees and mountains), and white (again, aspens, and the mountains still have snow caps in May. Everything else must wait.Image

Unknown's avatar

May Flowers

I cried at the end of Megamind months before I started getting morning sickness. It’s not my fault, he was always trying to be loved, but he just had the wrong influences. Anyway, it gives me pause to wonder how ridiculous I will be in the coming months with hormones askew. I guess I have another 4 weeks of nausea, then a nice break for 4 weeks before the party begins. I will leave the funny anecdotes of my children’s quickening for the fourth or fifth month.

Now I have to think of a way to let my family in on my little secret. Maybe that’s why I don’t announce like so many (my friend already told everyone and we’re due the same time): I like to enjoy my privacy while I can. When you are expecting, you are public property. Even when you are minutes from having your insides squeezed out of the most ridiculously under-sized opening imaginable, you are not allowed to be modest. My doctor asked me if some students could come in and observe. I figured, “why not?” I’d already had two shifts of nurses and another doctor up there, my body was not my own by a long shot.Having a midwife for the third one made it much more private, at least. I wish I weren’t going to be considered high risk so I could have one again.

I am much older than I was the last time I took this trip. I am not in the best shape I could be. I have not been trying not to get pregnant for awhile, but I was trying to get into shape and hoped I would be further along than I am. That makes it a little scary, but I guess it’s always a little scary. I was kind of hoping for a girl this time, but I don’t think I managed it. I heard that girls make you sicker and give you bigger breasts. I’ve never been one for nausea and bigger than nothing would at least be something. Unfortunately, I don’t see any difference in either realm. I’m now hoping that was all hogwash. I was leaning toward a girl because I don’t have one and I feel a little under-represented in this wilderness. My husband, my three boys, two dogs–all male. It’s just me and the cat. One more girl wouldn’t really even the odds, but it’d be a start. I guess I wouldn’t know what to do with a girl, anyway. I never was much for makeup and gossip. I can’t stand high heels or romance novels. I only see chick flicks when I’m with my sister. Not to say that I would fit in at a rodeo or construction site. I do get a little thrill out of doing something physical that I couldn’t do before, but I hate to sweat. I guess I always thought I was too logical to be girly. Still, if I managed to make it through my childhood without turning into a tomboy or a princess, I guess I can raise a daughter the same way. Of course, with 3 big brothers, she’s going to know how to throw a ball! She will also have no trouble keeping the boys away. Little girl, are you in there? I will have to clear my mind of all this until the ultrasound, but I wish, I wish, I wish…You know this blog will disappear in the event this is a boy, because I would not for a minute want my child to feel unwanted in any way. I love my boys and I’m stronger because of them. I will have no problem loving another boy. Still, the cat does a lousy job of arguing for a Jennifer Garner movie over Clive Owen (like I blame her!) so I’d like one vote on my side.