In this pregnancy, like the first, we opted to not find out the gender (I think the first time around it was mainly me who made that decision and David went along, but this time he seems to be as into it as I am, because he got to be the first one to say "It's a boy!" 28 months ago and I think he digs that).
When I get The Inevitable Three ("When are you due?" "Boy or girl?" "Is this your first?") and the asker finds out that we don't know the gender, the responses seem to be completely polar - either "Oh my, I could never have waited to find out, I just had to know!" or "Good for you - we didn't either! Seems like nobody waits anymore...".
It's interesting to me that of those who choose not to find out the gender until birth, there's a sort of "pat myself on the back" feeling to it. It seems like a faint shadow of the feeling of someone talking about giving birth without drugs. Not intentionally or necessarily judgemental, but the person considers their accomplishment something to be proud about. In both cases, I'd agree - it takes a lot of will power not to find out the gender, and it takes a whole lotta cojones to go through labor and birth without drugs that are so easily available. Since I have absolutely no will power in other arenas of my life such as those involving ice cream, it's a small matter of pride to me personally that I have been able to not find out.
As we round the corner towards the end (due one month from today), I've started to get a little antsy about it, wanting to know, but looking forward to the surprise. I imagine this is probably what moms who do find out in an ultrasound feel like in the weeks leading up to the ultrasound. So I started googling around, looking for a list of old wives' tales about gender guessing as I thought it'd be fun to go through them and put together a list of what gave me which result.
That's when I stumbled on this page on childbirth.org. It starts out all sciency-n-stuff, talking about what the various ways are to determine gender for sure. Then it lists reasons to find out (with a very smart "Why not?" on the list, I like that they include that as it is a perfectly valid reason) and then there's my favorite part: under the "Reasons to wait" is:
To annoy relatives.
Bahahahaa.
OK, that one hit close to home.
Sorry guys, you'll find out in a month.
Love you all. :-)
P.S. I also need to point out the irony in that my decision to not find out is partly a result of my mother's influence, she who taught me the value in delayed gratification. Yes, that's the same woman who has thrown a couple of "Well, if only I knew the gender, I could..." my way.
