Is it human or is it dancer?

[j4]

Tomorrow we'll hopefully find out whether the baby is an alien or a predator a boy or a girl. So far I have been told that:

* it'll be a girl because everybody I know has had girls recently
* it'll be a boy because everybody I know has had girls recently
* it'll be a girl because you get more morning sickness with girls
* it'll be a boy because of the position of the bump
* it'll be a girl because of the position of the bump
* it'll be a boy because 'boy' scores more in Scrabble

So that's two answers from people who don't understand probability, three answers which sound to me more like superstition than something which is backed up by any actual research (though I'm happy to be proved wrong), and invisiblechoir being silly. :-)

Two of my colleagues have a bet with each other about which it will be. I don't stand to gain any money from this bet myself, unfortunately. On the other hand, since earlier today one of them couldn't remember which way he'd bet (he'd decided at the time by tossing a coin) I don't think he's taking it that seriously. The other one asked me if I'd tried putting a toad on the bump to predict the baby's sex (I'm not sure quite what one is meant to do with the toad, or wait for the toad to do...?), so I guess he's not wholly serious either. I hope.

I confess I'm keen to know the answer, not least because referring to it as "it" feels awkward. Yes, I may get flamed for Gender Fail, but I'm afraid we're just not progressive enough to try to bring the child up without any awareness of the existence of sex or gender, and let's face it, there's a staggeringly high chance that it will be biologically male or female. Also, I'm going to have at least one more scan after tomorrow's, and I don't want to have to "look away from the screen now" for fear of spoiling the result -- I want to see what's going on! Basically, in most cases I will generally choose the path of More Information.

We also want to start thinking more seriously about names, and it'd be useful to narrow down the choices a bit. Other tactics for narrowing-down include: avoiding names with ambiguous spellings; avoiding extremely long names; avoiding alliteration; and summarily rejecting every single name that appears on this site. So that's a big 'no' to Breckin, Maxigan, Skyler Alexander, Cam'ron, and Kaytaquana. Suddenly, my silly suggestion of naming my child Badger doesn't seem all that ridiculous...

Comments

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I'm sure I heard a birth announcement of a Badger not long ago, and there were 9 Brocks in England and Wales last year.

I didn't find out with either, partly because the chances of getting it wrong first time round were much higher, partly to avoid the all-pink or all-blue[*], and partly out of a weird idea that if I found out it would be because I preferred one way or the other (but I don't assume that's why other people find out). Also, Americans have their gender scan earlier and I was bored of announcements by the time I had Judith's scan. Neither father had strong feelings that they wanted to know, at least in Jon's case the chance of getting it wrong probably put him off.

Scans are so much better now though, in terms of detail. I loved being able to count Judith's toes (one foot only - the other she tucked behind the opposite thigh so we couldn't see). The difference between the two was basically that with Benedict's we could see the whole heart but with Judith we could clearly see all four chambers.


[*]I'm such a hypocrite - Judith woremostly blue until Colin called me on it.

[j4.livejournal.com]

partly out of a weird idea that if I found out it would be because I preferred one way or the other

I think I know what you mean -- I did worry about whether I was subconsciously preferring one to the other, but I decided it'd be better to have the information & stop wondering/worrying -- though yes, if it turns out they did get it wrong (yes, I do know now, will post later with new alien/predator pics ;-) it will be a bit strange!

But as far as I could tell from lots of navel-gazing I didn't really have a strong preference for one or the other, apart from a vague & probably irrational sense that a girl would be easier for me to bring up because I already know more about Girl Stuff. (OTOH obviously Owen knows more about Boy Stuff, and anyway there exist books and the internet, so, eh.)

Scans are so much better now though, in terms of detail.

It's awesome isn't it! :-) The four chambers of the heart! The stomach! Every bone of the spine!

[aendr.livejournal.com]

Scans are awesome.

With Alex I was surprised I was so disappointed when I found it he was a boy. I was glad I found out because by the time he was born I was looking forward to having a son. With Heather I was surprised I wasn't thrilled she was a girl, because I had expected to be thrilled due to the disappointment - but then I would have been happy with 2 boys, having got used to having a boy.

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

the chances of getting it wrong

The plural of anecdote is not data, I know, but one reason we didn't find out with #1 is because friends of ours had a girl after expecting a boy and the father was in shock for days. He's got 3 sons now, mind!

With #2 and the present one, we hadn't found out because we hadn't before, however we've got another scan tomorrow (due to #2 being breech before ECV, and wanting to be 100% sure before trying for a home birth with #3) so we'll probably see then.

[j4.livejournal.com]

friends of ours had a girl after expecting a boy and the father was in shock for days

Goodness -- I can't imagine a slight difference in genitals being more of a shock than the enormous shock to the system of Actually Having A Baby! :-}

I can't actually think of anything that we'll do differently before birth as a result of knowing its sex, except choosing a name (& I'd more or less decided on a boy's name anyway so we'll have one in reserve if it turns out they did get it wrong). To be honest I can't think of many things where sex/gender will make a big difference for a good few years yet, but maybe that's just a failure of imagination on my part.

we'll probably see then

I certainly wouldn't've worked it out from just looking without someone else telling me what the different blobs were. :-} That was 20wks though -- maybe it's more obvious later?

Good luck with the scan tomorrow -- hope everything's going well whatever it turns out to be!

[scat0324.livejournal.com]

Yeah well. It wasn't that we thought we would be in shock ourselves, just the (singular of data isn't) anecdote that the guesses could be wrong - the scans have improved in 4 years anyway!