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Tomorrow morning (Wednesday), Jeremy and I will head up to the hospital for our 18 week ultrasound! We'll get to see our baby on screen! We are at the maternal-fetal specialist's office for our ultrasound (he works with our family doctor) and they have a 3D/4D machine. I wonder if they'll do a 3D for us? They have only once in the past, when Noah was in utero (see picture at left).****
So do we find out whether Baby Five is a boy or a girl? It seems that every couple has different feelings on it and everyone does it differently. Here's what we've done in the past.
Morgan: we did not find out. I wanted to know but Jeremy wanted to be surprised. We had only one ultrasound.
Madeleine: I found out but Jeremy did not. Again, he wanted the surprise but I wanted to know. We had only one ultrasound.
Noah: Jeremy wanted the surprise. I agreed. We had the initial ultrasound and we did not find out. The doctor wanted to see Noah again in five weeks. During the second ultrasound, I knew that the cord was up over his shoulder. They switched the view of him and showed him laying on his back. There was a little something peeking out between his legs and I knew that was my boy. We also had a third ultrasound (pictured) but never officially asked whether he was a boy or a girl.
Isaiah: Finally Jeremy caved to me and said that we could find out. The ultrasound was in mid-December. We had the technician seal her note in an envelope. Jeremy gave it to me on Christmas morning to open. A boy! A brother for Noah!
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What do you do? Do you prefer the surprise? Do you like to plan? Do you need the incentive halfway through pregnancy? Do you find out but keep it a secret? Do you change your mind every time?
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We'll find out. More tomorrow....
13 comments:
Our general mode of operandi is to find out... but not tell anyone else!! Pops and I like to keep the secret to ourselves!! A few things there for us - we like to be able to have the help narrowing down the name choices, we like to have something to tell our peeps when the precious babe arrives, we don't want any name suggestions in earnest from caring folks who think they know what is best. So, we enjoy keeping our secret together for the last 20 weeks!!
PS - 30 weeks down... 10 to go!!! Keeping the secret this time has been easier than in the past!! Other than my big girl wants to know so bad that tears will form on the edges of her eyes!!
Sooo, you sort of made it sound like it's NOT a surprise at 18 or 20 weeks! :-) We have always found out and felt it was a surprise each time, just 18 or 19 weeks earlier than those who wait until delivery :)
One reason we love to find out is because we always have names picked out and it's a simple pleasure in our day (not in our grandmother's or mother's for some of us) to know ahead of time and start saying "NAME" instead of "baby" :) We love being able to do that. It's such a personal preference.
I LOVE those 3D/4D photos. We have some with 2, I believe, of the boys. They are amazing!
We are going to find out again :) and are so excited. We will know Monday the 5th! Everyone is betting it's a girl this time, I just laugh; I have no sense whatsoever and never do :)
I'm excited to hear how yours goes. Have fun!!!
GOOD POINT, Sandra!!! I forget to think of it that way. I am so excited that I could barely sleep last night. I hope I sleep better tonight! Can't wait to hear your news, too! :)
I have done it both ways, and really prefer the surprise! Can't wait to see what you decide.
I've never found out, but don't have a strong preference... so if Nathaniel ever wanted to find out, I suppose we would. I'm SO EXCITED to hear what you're having! How fun!
I've never found out before the baby's birth. I was really tempted the first time, but held out, and LOVED the surprise at birth.
I'm not an easy person to surprise AND I really thought it was going to be a girl, so I was really super surprised and it was really fun.
So because of that with the second and third babies I wasn't even tempted at all to find out!
Plus, I think, for me, having that to look forward to is definitely what gets me through the last weeks of pregnancy and the labor/delivery.
And it makes it easy for baby clothes, too, because all of our newborn sizes are gender-neutral colors, so whatever the baby is they're just right.
I'm a bit of a zealot, I admit! I don't even like the 3D ultrasounds they did for us because you're looking right at baby's face and can totally see what they look like beforehand. My husband thinks I'm crazy for not liking those pictures, not looking at them, and for putting them away so nobody else gets to see them either!
Nuts, huh? :) That's the way I like it!
We've done both. I have a hard time with surprises though. I'll be checking your blog from the road tomorrow!
This time was only the second time we found out the sex.
The other time I found out was with Brigette. I only found out because we had a second scan at 34 weeks and the sonographer said she had a good shot of the sex if I wanted to know. I said yes because we were so close.
I like doing both. It was exciting finding out this one was a boy. I feel like I am getting to know him in a more personal way than I have ever known the other children in utero.
I've had it both ways, and I can't decide which I prefer -- or what I'm going to do this time around!
With the fist three, we waited to find out. Rob wanted the surprise, and I knew I wouldn't be able to keep it from him if I knew, so I went along with it as well. I ended up liking the surprise "moment" very much.
With Bun, our fourth, we knew but not because we were trying to find out. I had some problems during my pregnancy, and I ended up having serial ultrasounds. I had one every two weeks for the last couple months of my pregnancy. There was no way we would be able to not know when we saw him that much on the screen -- esp. since Rob delivers babies and is VERY familiar with ultrasounds. (In fact, he often looks away from the screen when we have our 20 wk u/s just in case he would see something)
We didn't tell anyone else, not even the other kids that we knew the gender. We liked having it be our secret. I also liked knowing that Bun was a boy because it helped us choose a name and I bought a little gender-specific outfit for his homecoming (can't fight the shopping urge!).
Now we can't decide what we will do with this baby. But we still have a couple weeks before we have to really make a decision!
Can't wait to hear the results of your u/s :)
i've always found out every time.
for me, just getting pg is a surprise enough. its like--please no more surprises!
and when we do find out the sex its exciting and to me does not take away from the birth...it adds to it for me since i feel i know and can identify more and personalize the baby. call the baby she or he etc...
I ended up losing my second baby late in the pregnancy. I always have that in the back of my mind each time so i wnat to learn about each baby as much as i can. and get a chance to know the baby each time.
for me it would be too much stress to not know anything about the baby until he/she is born since I lost one. I would just want to make sure everything is ok as much as possible.
we found out with our second. we had a late ultrasound (around 36 weeks) and decided last minute while in there to find out. once we were told both tug and i felt a bit of a let down. not because of the gender but because (for us) it was more fun the first time, finding out in delivery. needless to say we haven't found out with any other pregnancies and don't plan to ever again.
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We always find out. I have such a hard time with surprises anyway, but we love being able to call the baby by his/her name. Our kids are able to relate more and the first couple times, it was a matter of necessity in my book, as it was really hard to find neutral clothes, bedding, blankets, etc.
With Grace, our second, it was almost a surprise. I went in for three different ultrasounds and every time, she kept her legs crossed. (She still does cross her legs often now! :) It drove me nuts! Only the 4th time, a month before my due date, were we able to officially find out her gender :)
Number one was a surprise for us and that was fun and appropriate, I think. Numbers two and three, being twins were hard to keep a secret, so we didn't. After that, we kinda liked knowing what color baby clothes to buy (or roll out of storage). Except #5. Our OB, a dear Catholic and friend refused to tell us -- and that baby turned out to be our first girl. (The old stinker; we should've guessed...) Surprises after the first five or six babies were not high on the list of priorities for us, though -- just in general, so we preferred knowing, and pretty much told the whole world. It's always fun calling the baby by name as soon as we know which gender we're carrying.
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