Who Does a Gender Reveal on a Blog Post?
Hinds Family Update
We have good news!
The goodness of the news transcends the specifics, but here we go anyway…
Hinds Baby #4 arrives in October. We find out if our babies are boys or girls at the 20-week mark and spend the remaining months coming up with name options to discuss in the hospital. Any name determinations are hereby subject to change and reversal at will throughout the pregnancy and can always be overturned by feast days, moments of inspiration, and/or acts of God. I’ve never called to request another birth certificate to change a baby’s name, but I would not put it past us.1
In addition to the naming fiasco, we like finding out because it keeps us on the same page. Little known fact: the other option besides “finding out the gender” and “waiting until birth” is “one parent finds out the gender and the other does not.” We tested out the third option during our first pregnancy, and… well, we now advocate of either of the other options. In a nutshell: my husband found out the gender of our first baby (a boy!) and I did not. He wanted to know. I didn’t want to know. I thought this was the kind of situation where everyone could get what they wanted – I was wrong.
He kept the secret admirably, even though he didn’t want to, but every now and again he’d burst out “IT’S A BOY! IT’S A GIRL! IT’S A BOY! IT’SABOYIT’SAGIRLIT’SAGIRLIT’SABOY” so he could feel like he had told me, but it was still technically a “secret.” Why the secrecy? I didn’t want to know because I wanted some extra motivation for labor. A story for another time, but, like many of my “first baby” non-negotiables, that plan did not work the way I thought it would.
So, now we stick to a different plan with one very simple rule: we stay on the same page. I resolved not to even guess when it comes to gender anymore. I’m zero for three on that count anyway. It’s a not-so-subtle sign that I need to stop guessing and start living in the reality that I am not the ultimate authority on what’s best for my family.
We brought two pieces of paper to the ultrasound, one marked “Girl,” the other, “Boy,” and an envelope. We asked the ultrasound technician to put the piece of paper that matched the scan in the envelope, and then planned to open it together at breakfast. Apparently, we didn’t need to bring our own. She keeps a bunch of extra envelopes in the room for this purpose, but she commended us for our measures of preparation.
At breakfast, I handed my husband the envelope and asked him to open it. He tore it open, read the piece of paper inside, laughed, and threw his hands up. The paper flew across the table and landed where I could read it.
“Boy.”
Before we left that morning, our son said something to the effect of, “If it’s not a brother, I’ll be sad.” When we told him, he gave us his best “I told you so” look. He’s chatted about his little brother happily since then – “I’m going to teach him how to do EVERYTHING.”
picture found at: ultrasound-with-pregnancy-obstetric-of-fetus-medical-images-pregnant-picture-id1131185828 (612×455) (istockphoto.com).