| Dad's Diary |
| Archived Journal |
| Week 16 We're now in week 17 but, I had some e-mail trouble this week. Gender profiling The decision to find out the baby's gender ahead of time is always an interesting one. Some parents want to know, others don't. I always thought I would not want to find out so I could be surprised at birth. Early on, I discovered that Erika wanted to find out the baby's gender. And, her family, especially her sisters, REALLY wanted to find out. Her sister Johanna suggested that I could still stay in the dark while they all found out. While noble, I think this is a little unrealistic. Besides, it's not that big of a deal, so we will be attempting to find out the baby's gender. Of course, no method is guaranteed. I've heard instances of ultrasounds being "wrong" or inconclusive, and parents having to return lots of gender-specific items, so sometimes you never know. At Erika's last doctor's appointment, the midwife found the baby's heartbeat again. The heartbeat was within the "normal" range, but towards the low end of the range. This didn't concern me since Erika's own heartbeat is around 58 beats a minute, down there with marathon runners and triathletes (mine, on the other hand, is closer to that of an elderly chain smoker). The midwife immediately said that this heartbeat rate often represents a boy (although the personal evidence I just provided could show otherwise). Not definitely, but it was more likely, she said. The ultrasound where we may find out the baby's gender. This is the first I've heard of this, so I'm a bit skeptical of this information. All this leads me to wonder...why do we care? Should we? Will we treat the baby differently? This is the first hint we've had as to the child's gender. And, it showed me, in a subtle way, that a number of members of the family, on both sides, are rooting for us to have a girl. I'm not really sure why, but it's interesting. And, which would I prefer? Any guesses? Next week: More on gender and an expectant Christmas |