One of the most special experiences during a pregnancy is finding out if your baby is going to be a boy or a girl, don’t you think? There are preferences among the parents-to-be and among relatives and friends (although at the end the latter don’t really count). And there are all sorts of beliefs and theories among different cultures that allegedly foretell the gender of the baby relating to cravings, the mom-to-be’s skin or beauty (“girls rob the mother’s beauty”) or the form of your belly. And there are also the couples who can’t way for that ultrasound appointment that would face them with the facts and those couples who simply wait for the baby to be born because a healthy baby comes before gender preferences.
Preferences
I’d be lying if I’d say that Hubs and I didn’t have gender preferences of our own. And we definitely wanted to know the baby’s gender early enough, not only out of curiosity but also because we couldn’t wait to make the first baby shopping.
Hubs definitely preferred a boy. He wanted someone to share his affinity for sports, especially soccer. He dreamed of teaching his boy how to play football and of having proper conversations on it with someone he would be proud about it instead of with… me? And he saw himself buying lots of carritos (toy cars). He wished for a real mate, a cool one to chill out and play.
Me, well, I wished for a girl. I’ve always been a mommy’s girl! I love it, I don’t know anything else. My mom had always been my best friend. I love to spend time with her, I love her advice, I love to go shopping with her, I love her style, I love to accompany her to buy decorative stuff for our house. Being with her is one of my most beloved treasures. I have lots of female cousins and we love to do stuff together, paint our nails, do our hair (although in this I only look around), and, again, go shopping. I preferred to have a daughter because I wanted to do with her all what I have done with mom and to give her all what my mom has given to me. You girls probably know what I mean. And needless to say, I wanted to play dolls with my daughter and share my love for fashion.
So, one day, still before the first big ultrasound check of the first trimester, my husband started to ask me about my pregnancy cravings. He had heard that when pregnant women crave sweets it would point out to a girl and savory cravings to boys. I did actually not have too much cravings apart from pretzels with butter during the first trimester. I told him that I actually tended to savory food. But I also told him that my instinct was telling me that it would be a boy and that I was so sure about that because life is ironic – when you wish for a girl. I really felt it, so there was for him nothing to worry about. We only had to wait until the second big ultrasound appointment in January – and November only had started.
Our very own singular gender reveal
On the other hand, this pregnancy had me in such a party mood, that I just wanted to celebrate every single stage of it. Then, again, I came across gender reveal videos on YouTube, where couples gathered with family and friends to find out together if the baby would be a boy or a girl. What a big surprise and a beautiful family-and-friend-moment, I thought! There were plenty of ideas, from a cake with dough in gender color to releasing balloons from a sealed box in the gender color. I wanted it too (as in the case of the failed pregnancy announcement, remember?). But, again, fate would teach me otherwise! We would know the gender of the baby earlier than we thought.
At the end, the only thing you wish for, and we did it really faithfully, is that your child is very healthy. We thought we would find out about the gender in the twentieth pregnancy week, as usual, but then, during the first ultrasound control, my obgyn worried about a possible anomaly when measuring the nuchal translucency (as you know, when it looks bigger than usual it could be an indicative of a possible syndrome). As I already told in an earlier post, she inmediately sent to specialists. I underwent several ultrasound checks and blood tests until any disorder was discarded. It took us about three weeks but thank God everything was fine and the baby was doing great.
During one of those ultrasound checks at the end of November, the doctor asked each of us what we thought the gender of the baby would be. Hubs said that he was sure it was going to be a girl but I said I felt it was a boy. Then she asked us if we wanted to know about the gender because according to the image on the screen she could tell with a certainty of ninety percent! We just looked at each other for a moment and said yes! And then she showed us something quite clear between the baby’s legs! In that moment, I knew that my mother instinct was developed enough. But we had to wait until the last (ridiculously expensive) blood test to discard any anomaly, which would tell for sure! So, I didn’t have any gender reveal party but was more than thankful for the certainty that my baby boy was completely healthy. There is nothing more precious!
Not a party but quite a family celebration
However, we wanted my family to take part on the gender news (until now no one knew about the anomaly episode, only my parents). When I finally got the blood test results including the gender of the baby, joy and gratefulness about my healthy baby boy invaded me. I immediately discarded the thoughts about not having a daughter (by now I definitely looooove being the mother of these boys!). My first reaction was to go shopping but only one piece! At H&M, I found the sweetest baby outfit, in tuxedo look, the perfect requisite to inform the family!
We waited until the night before Christmas Eve, which this time we would have to celebrate in Germany. We were already at the house of my husband’s parents. As I knew that most of my relatives were gathering at my grandpa’s house for the Christmas novena (a very Colombian Christmas tradition), I asked all to be there at a certain hour. Luckily, they all attended, just because they were too curious. We met on Skype and we started asking them about their gender preferences. We literally wouldn’t understand much because everyone was discussing so lively. It was a funny moment. Then I told everyone to be quiet because I was about to show them what it was. As soon as I held the tiny tuxedo in front of the camera, they all cheered in unison, just because at the end no one really cared about the gender but about the baby itself! And that was what it was all about – a very happy family moment! We finished the conversation at about three in the morning with the request of giving us some name ideas, another very funny story…
So, how was your gender reveal experience? Did you believe in empiric theories? Did you have a preference? And how did you find out: before or after the baby’s birth?