What flavor?

So, the big question on everyone’s minds seems to be: boy or girl. Unlike a lot of people nowdays, David & I elected to not find out the gender of our baby. Mostly out of a sense of wanting to maintain a bit of surprise or mystery, and for me personally, I’d like some motivating factor to sort of help get me through labor.

But yes, it does seem pretty arbitrary that we didn’t find out. We got the ultrasound at 20 weeks, and saw the baby’s hands and feet and brain and heart and profile and on and on, and the tech told us to look away during the moments where we might have seen the Stuff. And after that point, I did think to myself that maybe we were being a little silly in not finding out—after all, then you can confirm a name, decorate the nursery, buy gender-appropriate clothes, etc. But, I’m still liking the element of surprise and think the anticipation is kind of a kick. Imagine, you’re about to meet this wonderful person who will change your life. . . and you don’t even know their name. Pretty cool.

Anyway, popular sentiment is running about 60%/40% in favor of boy. I tend to think boy. David *says* girl, but I think actually believe it’s a boy. Family trends indicate boy — this will be the sixth grandchild on the Nolan side, and there’s only one girl. And this will make number three on the Dickinson side, with two boys already.

Here’s how the other key players are voting. Feel free to add your voice in the comments! And, if I don’t have you listed below it’s only because you haven’t told me what you think, or you’ve said you can’t decide.

Grandma Nolan: wants a girl, is dreaming girl, but in the “don’t jinx it” school has bet Grandpa $100 that it’s a boy.

Grandpa Nolan: has $100 riding on a girl, but doesn’t seem strongly convinced in either direction.

Grandma Dickinson: boy. boy. boy.

Aunt Mindy: siding with her mom on this one—boy all the way.

Great-Aunt Tami: girl! and wore the pink to prove it.

Second-cousin Aimee: another check in the girl column.

Rita: was a very early and very firm “boy” predictor, but has recently changed her mind to girl.

Katie: in the boy camp, thanks to Rita.

Laura: also thinks boy, and gave me all of the Packers and Badgers outfits that her little girl didn’t get a lot of use out of. . .

Gwen: boy. made us an awesome blue quilt with a fishing motif (that of course would be great for a girl as well.)

Kari J: girl. Says she just has a feeling.

Chinese birth calendar: girl! I’m not giving specifics on this but you can check the chart yourself.

Baby’s heart rate: boy (it’s been running in the 130s the entire pregnancy)

Other indicators: i swear i heard the ultrasound tech say “his” at one point during our ultrasound, which is really my primary reason for thinking this baby is a boy. People have since told me that the techs are in fact trained to use one gender-specific pronoun rather than the impersonal “its” when discussing the baby during the ultrasound, regardless of whether the pronoun is correct. For example, my friend Laura’s ultrasound tech referred to the baby as “he” throughout Laura’s ultrasound, and Laura ended up with the lovely Elyse Grace.

On the other hand, at my 37 week exam, my doctor–who had up until that point only referred to the baby as “the baby”–was doing an exam and suddenly was using female pronouns, as in “Her head’s way down, and she’s got her feet over here, . . .” etc. Which made me so curious I asked the nurse at my next appointment if they could tell from my chart what gender I was having. She checked the chart and said nothing was written but that if the doctor had gone through my ultrasound pics (attached to the chart) the doc would know what gender.

By now you’re saying, jeeeezus if you’re that curious just find out. i know , i know, but we’ve waited this long, i can wait a few days longer.