Am I Having a Boy or a Girl: How to Tell
When I was pregnant, I didn’t want to find out the baby’s sex. I think it’s the most wonderful experience to be completely surprised when the doctor pulls out the baby!
Everyone jabs, “But when you find out in advance, it’s still a surprise!” However I liken that to opening up your presents before your birthday. Gifts are going to be a surprise no matter when you open them, but of course you wait until your birthday! Cmon now! You don’t open up your birthday gifts 20 weeks before your birth date!
I respect people who want to find out and plan every last detail, but waiting until the birth was always how I imagined it for me personally.
Dean would have been genuinely happy with either sex. He still asks if we should try for a daughter and I shake my head. We both work and travel a lot for our jobs, and more importantly, we are too old. I used to feel young, but now I feel old. I think that’s due to parenting!
I really wanted a boy and got him!
My dad wanted another grandson. In his words, “I spent my life surrounded by women (my mom, my sister, and me), I want boys!”
My mom, like Dean, was happy either way. She did say it would have been nice to have a granddaughter, but she would have been happy with either.
Healthy is all that matters!
All that said, the technician (who was aware that we did not want to know the sex) twice said “he” during the ultrasound tonight. I don’t know if that was a slip or whether she did that to play with our minds or whether “he” is just the standard when talking generally.
According to the 700-year-old Chinese Gender Calendar where you enter the baby’s due date and the mother’s birth date, we were supposed to have a girl. Ha!
What about you? Did you find out? Is there a predictor you used that got it right?
Catherine,
I’m so happy for you! This is exciting considering the journey. God bless you and your bundle of baby.
thank you yvonne, i’m excited too! can’t wait for this little monkey to come out. happy 2014. it’s going to be a great year!
Loved your sonogram picture and seriously remember my sonograms being filled with excitement for me, because I couldn’t get enough of seeing my babies on that little screen. However, I just couldn’t wait to find out, but that was just me. But I do agree all that matters is that the baby is healthy. Seriously so excited for you and now bring on May!! 🙂
janine, i agree, i can spend all day just staring at the ultrasound of my baby. every movement is such joy. i’m really excited for 2014 and looking forward to all the fun blogging we’ll be doing.
So exciting!! We did find out, because I am terrible about surprises…but we kept our last one a surprise to everyone but us and we lied and said we didn’t find out. But we did. But I am with you…all that really matters is that the little one is healthy! Happy New Year!!
michelle, i love being surprised. i especially love jokes and pranks, so i can’t wait for this super insane human surprise that awaits me in may.
I totally love to open my gifts 20 weeks early!! Guilty here! However if there were a third, I wouldn’t find out. Mainly because I have a boy and a girl so really..anything goes. We’d be prepared either way! Unless it was a winter baby. I have two summers here so only summer newborn clothes..
tamara, that’s probably the one disadvantage of waiting to to be surprised. no one wants to give me their hand-me-down clothing because i don’t know what i’m having. i’m like, don’t people have gender-neutral clothing that i can get my hands on?
Aww…I have to share this story with you. I did not want to know the sex of my baby, but somehow my grandmother let it slip out after having been told by my mother that I was having a girl. I literally mourned the son I thought I was going to have. I cried for a few days and cried more when I had to shelve the Polo sweater and hat I bought for the son I just KNEW I was destined to have. Initially I was upset, but I was so happy that I learned the sex of my child earlier than expected. What if I would have been surprised in the birthing room and reacted the way I had upon hearing the news? I really think that would have made it a little difficult to connect with my baby. I don’t particularly like all the combing and braiding, but I LOOOVE my baby girl. After having suffered a miscarriage after our first born, all I really want is a healthy baby. All will be well with you, your baby, and your family. (secretly hoping you have a healthy little girl!)
oh andrea, i hope i don’t start bawling when i’m in the hospital and find out it’s a girl. i kinda think that we are one and done, but i told my hubby the other night that if we do have a girl, maybe we can try for a second so that we can have a boy. i’m so awful!
Props to you for waiting to find out. I wanted to, but hubby couldn’t wait. I’m glad that we did find out though. You mentioned everyone’s preferences, but never mentioned if you had a feeling one way or another. Are you sensing a boy or a girl?
~ Ferly
Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}
ferly, i am sensing a boy! the birth announcements with his name are ready to go to the post office!
So happy for you!! I always like to be surprised but in this case my sense of organization and control freakishness would trump my desire to be surprised. I’m pretty sure I’d want to know!!! Either way it’s an awesome thing. Just expect a lot of yellow and green which should be fine since it doesn’t seem like you are all that into pink and tutu’s!!
for probably all other parts of my life, i would want to plan and know ahead of time. i just think it would be so cute to be surprised when the baby comes out. yes, lots of green, yellow, and gray!
I don’t even know how to process this, so I’m just going to say Congratulations! Baby looks healthy and content. (I’d SO want to know!)
thank you jean and happy new year! as long as baby is healthy, i’m happy!
Congratulations on another healthy ultrasound! We didn’t find out Calvin’s gender before he arrived and I’m really glad we didn’t – I wouldn’t have wanted to go through my pregnancy already weighed down by the expectations for how a boy (or girl) “should” be raised.
That said, I feel your stress about the possibility of a girl – but I remember thinking that it would be cool to raise a super kick-ass girl in this world of pretty pretty pink princesses. Of course, now I have two boys and I’m done – so what do I know???
michaela, there are definitely benefits of a girl which i didn’t bring up in my post. the main advantage i can think of is that girls tend to be more family-oriented late in life. meaning, they always go back home to their mamas! whereas men (like my husband) leave the nest. i think of all my guy friends and, for the most part, they don’t live near their families. that makes me so sad!
Excited for you and Dean!
thank you so much dennis. happy new year! it’s going to be a great one.
I didn’t find out with my first baby, either. And if it is a girl, you’ll have plenty of time to get used to girly things. You’re going to be an awesome mom no matter what!
thank you dana. i agree, i will adjust either way. i mentioned this is another comment above, that what’s great about girls is that they always stay close to their mamas. whereas men tend to fly the coop. all my guy friends (including my husband), for the most part, don’t live anywhere near their parents.
Aww beautiful! I can’t wait to find out what you are having and so excited for you both!
SOOO incredibly exciting! I love love LOVE that you are waiting to find out the sex. Personally, I’m not sure that I could but I think it’s amazing when parents do. Because you’re right–it’s meant to be a surprise and it’ll make the birth all the more special.
Wishing you and your hubby all the best for a very blessed, happy, and healthy 2014! So very glad we became such good bloggy friends this year, my sweet. XOXO
charlotte, thank you, my bloggy friend! i’m so excited for 2014 and for all that incredible experiences we will be blogging about. it’s going to be a great year!
We had the ultrasound tech write down the sex and waited until our baby shower 2 weeks before I delivered to find out the gender (we had a big co-ed baby shower with all our family and friends who could make it). We didn’t want to find out in the ultrasound room and this way we got to share the excitement with our family and friends (who obviously can’t all be there in the delivery room). We gave the envelope to my friend a few days before the shower and she made a cake. When we cut into it at the shower it had pink frosting, so we were having a girl! A lot of people were shocked that we could have an envelope with the gender sitting in a drawer for so many months and not want to open it, but I was like you and not dying to know right away, so I wasn’t tempted to peek at all.
Also I didn’t want all pink or all blue baby stuff, so this way we received mostly gender-neutral gifts at our baby shower (believe me you’ll get plenty of pink or blue stuff once the baby arrives). Now if we ever have a boy, I’ll have some clothes, blankets, toys, etc. that would be fine for a little boy. I’m also not into the super girly stuff…we have a cool gender-neural tropical ocean theme for our nursery. I love that it’s not pink and girly!
Our decision was perfect for us because we got to wait until the very end of my pregnancy to know the gender but also got to share that big moment with all the important people in our lives. In a way, it was sort of nice to have those 2 weeks to get used to the idea we were having a girl and figure out her name because we were having a rough time agreeing on names before that.
Congrats on your decision to wait! Have been thinking of you often and hoping for the best pregnancy for you!
i love the big gender reveal parties. i do think that’s an amazing way to be surprised and also to share the moment with all your loved ones. if i were to find out prior to the birth, that’s exactly the way i’d want to do it.
Congratulations!!! You have a stronger will than I would to wait for the sex – I’d want to know what kinda clothes to buy and what color to decorate the nursery. 🙂 Best of luck during your pregnancy and enjoy those moments! Happy New Years!!! Enjoy having your baby in your belly since next year he/she will be here with you 🙂 Have a great one! -Iva
thank you so much and happy new year to you too! it’s going to be a great one and i can’t wait to read about all your experiences on your blog.
Isn’t it just a miracle that you can “see” your baby before he/she is born? Wishing you health and happiness in 2014 as you welcome your newest family member!
thanks mo. i could just stare at an ultrasound of my baby all day long. so endearing. this mothering thing has really changed me as a person.
I’m with you on preferring a boy. The thought of dealing with a girl in this age of internet bullying, Facebook and Snapchat makes me nervous. However, happy and healthy is the ultimate wish regardless of gender!
yes kate, you and i see eye-to-eye on the challenges of raising a girl during these times. it’s so scary. but healthy is the most important thing!
So happy for you. Wishing you and your family health and blessings in 2014.
I had a girl first and then my son popped out. I am kind of glad of her first as she has her things together and is showing him,
patrick, a balanced family is the way to go. if i had 2 kids, i definitely want one of each gender.
Yay for a healthy baby at 19 weeks! Glad to hear “he” is doing great so far, Mama! You know, in all the baby books, a baby is referred to generally as “she”. But I think you’re right that the technician is just using a general term for any baby. I wanted a girl badly with my first child, and ended up having a boy. I found out that boys are a lot of fun! But now we have twin girls, and I am enjoying them as well. Happy and healthy babies are all that matters.
nikki, i think you’ve made most women jealous with your balanced family. it’s a dream to have babies of both genders! i may be one and done, but if i do end up having two, i want one of each sex.
Ginormous kudos to you for waiting! Honestly, it doesn’t matter…I hoped for a girl, but KNEW he was a boy from the minute I got PG (although I doubted myself, of course). Either way, you will be so amazed and happy. It’s hard to describe. I’m so happy for you, and wish you the best amazing 2014!!!
thank you kristi. honestly, boy or girl, i will be over the moon. i just can’t wait for this little monkey to get here. 4.5 more months. feels like an eternity to me. plus i am counting the days until i can have a glass of vino!
Such a fun loving post! I can’t wait til May to see how it turns out. I’m partial to girls.
joi, i hope your partiality to girls doesn’t rub off on my boy preference. haha, but seriously i am blissful with healthy baby either way! only tears of joi-joi when baby comes out.
My hubby and I did not find out with either of our children, and I can honestly say to this day those of 2 of the best decisions we ever made. It was an AMAZING experience both times! You will love that moment so much! :)-Ashley
ashley, i think it’s so exciting when no one knows the gender and the baby comes out crying and you’re like…WHAT IS IT? i just cannot wait for that moment.
Hmmm…the fact that the technician said “he” certainly leaves room for a couple different interpretations…my parents were convinced I was going to be a boy, on the very logical basis that in both of their families the oldest child was a boy. Random. They were very surprised by me!!
similar to your story rachel, my mom was certain i was a boy. she just knew for a fact that i was. so when i came out, she didn’t have a name picked out for a girl and the nurses were all giving suggestions because my mom was at such a loss. where was her joseph baby?!
I wanted to know immediately. 🙂 The chinese calendar has been right for me BOTH times!
oh nellie, you are too funny. you are the poster mama for the chinese gender calendar!
We thought for sure that we were having a boy even had the name picked out and my mom bought us a boy baby book. I was fine either way but much to our surprise during the ultrasound we found out it was a girl. I just had to know so I could plan everything etc. otherwise I would have been a nervous wreck having to wait until the birth to find out and I didn’t want to be stuck with a ton of yellow/green gender neutral clothes, lol!
hi melissa, yes, one of the negatives of not finding out the gender is that a lot of my friends aren’t giving me hand-me-downs. cmon now, there have to be some gender neutral clothing in those baby closets, right? green and yellow…i’ll take it all.
Yay! Congrats!!! So happy for you. 🙂
thank you cam!
Awww I am excited for you. Nature will take its course and you’ll fall in place with either one. Not that I am a witness to having to play with barbies and tie ribbons. I have a boy. Whew! 😉
thank you kenya. i am going to be tickled pink with a healthy baby regardless of gender. everyone says it goes so quickly, but i am only half-way through my pregnancy and cannot wait for this little monkey to arrive.
I totally agree with you! I think that if we have children I would want to find out when the baby is born. Nothing is TRULY a surprise anymore and I think that it would be a really special experience. This way you can focus on what is most important – that the baby is healthy!
yes, healthy is all that matters to us. and i love surprises so this will be the biggest one of our lives!
That good ol’ Chinese baby calendar was accurate for me both times!
uh-oh, then i’m having a girl. aghhh! it’s funny, i see all the parents hawking girl scout cookies for their daughters and i’m like, ‘oh please i don’t want to have a girl!’