It’s a girl! Or is it a boy?
AdventureDad | July 21
We’re about to have our second child any day now and are of course excited. Hard to imagine that we ten years ago hated kids and had no plans to become parents. I grew up in the modern world and don’t have any preference for boy or girl. I can see advantages with both but find it sad to see families in some countries, like Middle East and Asia, favor boys so strongly. It’s not uncommon to see families throw party of the year if it’s a boy and be ashamed for life (or make an abortion) if it’s a girl. I really dislike that mentality. Perhaps I’m thinking more about this since we already have a boy and are expecting a baby girl this time. But our son was actually confirmed to be a girl during the pregnancy. Which makes us wonder, can we be sure of our doctor this time or should we be prepared for another surprise?
During our last pregnancy my wife spent a month with her family in Mexico around week 18 and was therefore unable to perform the regular in depth ultra sound we perform here in Sweden. This is usually when the doctor can tell you if you’re having a boy or a girl. She went to a nice and highly qualified doctor in Mexico City based on recommendations and had a checkup to make sure everything was alright. The doctor performed a detailed ultrasound and asked my wife if she wanted to know the sex of the baby. “Yes of course!” was the excited answer. We were having a girl! My wife was like me and had no preference but she was really looking forward to pamper our little baby girl and of course dress her in pink from head to toe. A week later she headed to our old hometown NYC with her mom to do some serious baby shopping. Since we lived there for many years she knew just the right places to go and went a bit crazy with the baby shopping. She returned back in Mexico a week later with a few suitcases full of baby clothing. And not just any kind of clothing. There seem to be some unwritten rule all over the world that a baby girl must be equipped with ridiculous amounts of pink clothing. Our girl would be no exception. We had an seemingly endless assortment of pink outfits in different sizes. A few months to go and all set with clothing!
Another appointment was scheduled on the return to Mexico and the doctor once again examined my wife. My wife realized something was wrong when the doctor looked uncomfortable, smiled, and said: “You’re going to kill me! You are definitely going to kill me.” He explained that he must have made a mistake the last time and was now 100% sure we were having a boy. A boy who would apparently be wearing pink dresses his first year. We were relieved the doctor didn’t give us any bad news regarding the pregnancy (we did have a miscarriage the year before) and were not too upset about the mix-up. But we did have a slight problem, a wardrobe full of pink girl clothing and a boy on the way. As it turns out, my wife’s sister was also pregnant with a due date three weeks ahead of us. I can’t say we prayed for a girl but we were happy when the doctor confirmed she was having a girl. Problem solved!
The official due date for our girl (?) is just a few days away. This time we’ve only checked once with the doctor regarding the sex of the baby and leave the rest up to higher powers. But an endless amount of pink outfits are once again in our closets after another shopping trip to NYC. I’ll be ready with the pink receiving blanket in the delivery room but I’m definitely packing another neutral color for backup….
Has anyone else gotten the surprising news, in the delivery room or ahead of time, that your child had an apparent sex change? What was your reaction?
Congrats and good luck on the big imminent event!!!
I have five girls, and only ‘knew’ via ultrasound that the last two were girl. The first three were delivery room surprises. I was glad to find out ahead of time. I had hoped to log a son in there among the daughters, and finding out ahead allowed me to deal with not having a son so I could get that out of the way and be in the right frame of mind to welcome my daughters on their birthdays…
Ad, Be prepared with one boy outfit and a boy name just in case. With my youngest, they were completly off and she came out a girl with no name and all train and car stuff. I was just as happy though, because I hadn’t really cared either way. And clothes are returnable. Most of the time though, doctors are right. I can’t wait to hear what you guys have. Congradulations in advance.
Nice blog. I like it.
[…] ‘Oh, Maria has balls,’ said one of my wife’s friends from her September mothers’ discussion board. Medical staff certainly is not infallible. In this case, it turned out slightly worse than here. Since most of her baby clothes were bought at a reduced price, returns were out of the question (and there was no one with a lil’ girl around). When I read AdventureDad’s entry, I rushed to my wife and asked her once again: ‘Uh… honey, did you double check if our son is a son, or a daughter really?’ Her reply didn’t leave much space for doubt. I certainly won’t return to that issue. […]
no surprises for us. During the ultrasound, my son made it perfectly clear he was boy. before the doctor even pointed out his
parts, my sister was jumping up and down pointing at it yelling excitedly “its a boy!! theres his wee-wee!!!!!” loud enough for the whole office to hear. The pictures were very clear. ;)
I did have a girlfriend who was told she was having a girl and got a nice surprise in the delivery room when she had a son. They were able to return only some of the clothes and items because they had unpackaged everything and thrown out all the tags. They went to a consignment shop and sold everythign there for very little and bought a few new things and we all chipped in with some hand-me-downs. Even tho it wasnt what she expected, she was pleased to have a healthy kid no matter what it was.
We never knew what we were going to have - and didn’t want to. We asked the ultrasound techs to turn us away at the appropriate moments, so it was a surprise to both of us when the doc said “it’s a girl” We’d chosen a name - Alex - that would work (more or less) with any gender, and the ‘layette’ was yellow and green. We’ve given up on the pink and blue thing, though of late we’re going for pink, because she looks like daddy. Few things more disconcerting than “what a cute little boy” as you’re showing off the 10 month old daughter.
I guess I don’t see anything wrong with girls dressed in blue and boys dressed in pink. What are you afraid of, really? And why is it something to be afraid of? They grow out of the clothes lightning-fast. (Unless god-forbid, they are lacking in some aspect.)
Is it really so hard to buy gender-neutral clothing in the meantime? Or to, you know, not adhere to the gender stereotypes altogther? What’s wrong with little girls playing with cars and trains and baseballs, anyway?
at the first seven month pregnancy, the doctor said that we will have she baby, and I was very happy to hear that. because for me, having she baby looks more sweet and cute.. but I didn’t prepare only pink clothes.. we just buy cute clothes whatever the colors..
trust me, after she start to walk, you will notice that she baby is more sweet, whatever clothes she wear…
We just found out that we are having a girl, I wes wishing for a boy. Question is it that awful to feal not that excited???? The family tree is nothing but girls so I have some experience with little girls and I know that I will love mine but darn I could have used some man help around here. What do you guys think?