9 responses so far ↓

• 1 Melissa // Jul 8, 2008 at 6:36 pm

  Yep, we knew he was a he at 15/16 weeks along. Because of a high-risk pregnancy, I had sonograms and a doctor’s appointment every week during my pregnancy, so it was going to be too hard to avoid a slip, either from my doctor saying something or from us seeing something.

  At the time we had been hoping for a girl, but from the second we found out, I can’t imagine having anything else.

  I’d love to have another one, and if given a choice, I’d want another boy. But of course I’d be happy regardless…

• 2 Rachel // Jul 9, 2008 at 4:41 pm

  We did a CVS at 10 weeks and the biology geek in me couldn’t not check out the laminated karotype. Her first picture. Kind of hard to ignore those XX chromosomes! Like Melissa, I was a high risk pregnancy with lots of sonograms so it would have been tough to not see.

• 3 Kristin // Jul 10, 2008 at 7:59 am

  I asked the first 2 times and wanted a ’surprise’ the third. I guessed right, boy, but honestly I forgot to check for a minute there… it didn’t matter!!!! The 3rd time I also did it natural, and seriously, it’s all good either way, but if I could do it over I’d dull that pain at least a little!

• 4 jdL // Jul 10, 2008 at 1:25 pm

  we found out prior.
  i think we were both on the same page ’cause i don’t really remember it being a big discussion.
  then again i don’t seem to remember much of what happened before the kid.

• 5 Cassandra B // Jul 10, 2008 at 8:39 pm

  We found out with both, but it was fairly casual for us. It seemed like it would have been a lot of work to keep it a secret. I don’t remember if we kept our daughter’s name a secret but for our son, it seemed wrong to tell everyone else his name before we’d even met or shared it with him. We gave a fake name to everyone designed to shock to everyone that asked. :>

• 6 jdL // Jul 11, 2008 at 6:56 am

  oh, yeah - the name.
  we didn’t tell a soul. we let everyone guess on that.
  we told everyone we had a “short list” of names but we had her name picked out before we knew if we were even gonna have kids.

• 7 Heidi // Jul 11, 2008 at 12:47 pm

  I was much too curious not to find out. I really wanted a girl. Once I saw that little being on the screen moving around, healthy and active, I knew it didn’t matter if it was a boy or girl. I was excited to find out it was a baby boy and now I cannot imagine any different, like you said Melissa. This time finding out the sex doesn’t seem as important to me, but I am still curious and will probably find out early. I also think waiting for the surprise in the delivery room is pretty amazing too. If you are a more patient person than I am!

• 8 Julie // Jul 11, 2008 at 4:09 pm

  We didn’t find out with our first child–my husband felt very strongly that he wanted it to be a surprise, and I could have gone either way–had he wanted to find out, I could have been convinced to do so, but it was pretty fun not knowing, wondering, and listening to all the random people telling us what sex the baby was and how they knew…Everyone was SURE it was a boy (they were right, it turns out). I had absolutely no hunches either way, nor did my husband (a lot of people seem to “just know”, but I sure didn’t). I liked the mystery. On the other hand, it’s not THAT big of a surprise–it’s not like it’s a boy, girl, giraffe, lamp, or a pudding, you know? The options are limited, you know?

  It was a little annoying having to avert our eyes during the ultrasounds…but b/c our OB’s office didn’t do the u/s right there, even our OBs didn’t know the sex–which helped a lot. I think if they knew, it’d have been weird for us not to know.

  We had names picked out, one for each sex, and did share them far and wide, but not the middle names.

  I assumed with this pregnancy my husband wouldn’t want to find out, and I felt like I did want to know. But turns out he definitely wanted to know–he thought that it would be helpful to tell our son if he was having a little brother or a little sister, make it more real for him. (At this point, telling him he was going to be having a little baby giraffe or pudding would make about as much sense to him as anything, so I don’t think knowing the sex helps with that aspect at all.)

  Plus, like Rachel, we did a CVS test (I’ll be 40 next month, due in November), and I hated the idea that the xx/xy info was out there, on paper, laminated even, yes, and I would have to avoid knowing.

  And since this will be our last child, I wanted to know if I’d ever have a daughter or not. (I’d feel the same if our first child were a girl…I’d want to know if I’d ever have a son or not.) I realize that a child’s sex is only a tiny piece of who s/he is, and that two children of the same sex would be at least as different as two children of the opposite sex….

  Names–we are open about names. We are using the name that we would have used if our first child were a girl. So it’s no secret. Again, we will keep the middle name to ourselves until birth (if we can ever figure out what we’re going to use!)

  Fun to read people’s thoughts on this.

• 9 Leigh // Aug 4, 2008 at 9:57 am

  With my first child, I REALLY wanted to know. No idea why, but I had my heart set on having a boy and a boy I got!

  With my second child, I wanted to be surprised. My husband probably could have gone either way, but he went along with me. It was so much fun not knowing. I especially enjoyed picking out both names. (Spike Spencer was in the running, but man, if that poor kid had a lisp. )

  I also had MANY ultrasounds (darn AMA), but I prefaced every single one with “We don’t want to know the gender.” Everyone was convinced we were having a girl. We even got baby girl gifts. I don’t think it was a hunch so much as we already had a boy and you’re “supposed” to have one of each, right?

  I told everyone I didn’t have a gender preference this time. But I was a big fat liar. I not-so-secretly wanted another boy. Which is funny since my husband and son (especially my son) wanted a girl.

  But I won again. I adore my little boys - six years apart, born on the same day.

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