To Find Out or Not Find Out

Boy or Girl?

This isn't a post about finding out if anything is "wrong" with our new little one.  My husband and I have never had prenatal screenings performed with any of our pregnancies.  We believe that God is in control and knits each one of our children together in His own way.  We would never consider terminating a pregnancy. So why would we waste time, money and emotional energy (must less put a baby at risk with an amnio.) to satisfy our anxious curiosity?  We have, however, for the last 5 pregnancies had a level 2 sonogram.  Being over 35, it was kind of expected of us and we thought since it wasn't invasive it would be neat to see a long, clear picture of our little one.  But with this pregnancy, we have even opted out of that.  With Matthew, who has Down Syndrome, they told us everything was "perfect" with him. He had no DS markers.  But with Caroline, baby #6, they told us that she had club feet and possibly a heart defect.  We kept this to ourselves and prayed a lot, but she was born with no problems at all.  Also, with the level two sonograms performed at Duke, medical staff made a big deal about my risk of having a child with "problems" due to my age.  Their attempt at heightening our anxiety (whether intentional of not) made me mad and I really don't want to give them any more money.  So with this baby, we will just have a regular sonogram performed at my Christian, very pro-life doctor's office.  We will have this sometime around 20 weeks, so we could find out the gender.  We actually have not known the sex with 5 of our children and have known with 4.  I'm kind of up in the air about finding out, but my husband really wants to know.  With Mattie, he was the tie-breaker so we didn't find out.  There are advantages to both.  I tell all Moms that it's really fun not knowing, especially with your first.  If you do know with your first and get all, or mostly all, boy or girl stuff, then you have to get so much more with the next baby if it's the opposite sex.  We were surprised with our first 4 children and I was able to use the same bedding, nursery stuff and newborn clothes with all of them (3 boys and one girl).  There is just something about the suspense of waiting and I think it helps labor because you are so excited to know the gender of the baby.  There is nothing like hearing, "It's a boy!" or "It's a gir!l" for the first time as the little precious body leaves your own.  But, all that to say, we will probably find out the gender this time. Logistically speaking, we would like to know who this baby will room with and my older kids are very anxious to find out this time.  So, I think we will find out whether we will tie things up this time or if the boys will really win!