Daddy Diaries: Gendergate 2.0!

Baby’s sex has finally been revealed… just not to us! The gendergate saga continues.

I have not been pushing, just waiting until the birth to find out whether it’s a boy or girl and apparently keeping my mouth shut seems to be working (I’m sure there is an important lesson in here somewhere…). B has gone from “must know now!” to being much more chilled-out about the whole thing. The sense of urgency to find out she had a few weeks ago has subsided.

We went for a routine ultrasound this week to check for anomalies and make sure all the baby’s organs and physical structures are in good shape, which thankfully they are. It was a special experience because B had the previous two scans solo and although I saw the stills afterwards this was my first live-action show. The hospital had installed a 52-inch flat screen at the end of the bed; all that was missing was a bucket of popcorn.

It was amazing to get a glimpse inside the bump in real-time but to be completely honest, with the exception of a few moments when the doctor managed to get a clear shot of the baby’s mouth, hands and feet, I had absolutely no idea what I was seeing most of the time. As she moved the scanner around B’s belly, the on-screen image shape-shifted between something that resembled a small human skeleton and a Picasso painting in grayscale. Every now and then she would highlight an area on the screen with her pointer and proclaim it to be a healthy looking kidney, liver or stomach… I will have to take her word for it because they all looked like the same gray blob to me! One thing that was clear was that the baby was moving around like a little maniac; possibly due to the sugar-rush from the chocolate B had beforehand but more likely because the amniotic fluid it floats around in was being blasted with ultrasonic sound waves – it must have sounded like a freight train in there!

Then came the moment of truth; “Do you want to know the baby’s sex?” the doctor asked. I kept quiet, partly not to put any pressure on B, but also in the interest of self-preservation (the wrath of pregnancy-induced hormonal imbalance has been merciless lately). B thought it over for a few seconds and then responded, “Not right now.” What?! Was this victory for the “keep-it-a-surprise” lobby? Not quite. On the way out of the room she stayed behind and asked the doctor to write the sex on a card and put it in an envelope.

B had mentioned this sealed-envelope idea (possibly inspired by X Factor?) to me recently, and said it was so she could continue to mull it over and ultimately decide when and where we would find out the baby’s sex. We’re moving soon and she was thinking of celebrating the move by having a romantic “reveal dinner” at the new pad once we are all unpacked. The envelope is now in the hands of one of her close friends and colleagues, M, who has already looked.

I’m grateful for the opportunity and time to continue very subtly lobbying for us to wait. Who knows – if B mulls it over a while longer maybe she will come around and see the value of waiting too. She is getting a 4D scan in a couple of weeks though, so M might end up with another sealed envelope, hopefully containing the same information as the one already in her possession!

There’s more from the Daddy Diaries plus plenty of gorgeous gift inspiration on the BaoBae Blog!