You might be wondering why there is a picture of Paddy at the top of this post. After all, we know that he is a boy and announcing that a few years after his birth might be a little late. It’s because today Paddy is four years old. We’ve got some stuff planned but I can’t share it with you until next week. In the meantime I have to say “Happy Birthday, Paddy!”, our lovely, lively, cheeky little boy!
Yesterday I mentioned how we have two scans coming up in the next couple of weeks. The first one scheduled for this weekend is what I call the “fun” scan. It’s the opportunity to see the twins in 4d. We will be able to see their faces and watch their expressions change and I will be in awe. Well, that’s if they’re both in a favourable position and showing their faces.
The second scan is scheduled for next week. It is the anomaly scan which goes into great detail for each baby in order to find out if there are any problems. I’m not looking forward to that one. I always worry.
We will have the opportunity during both scans to find out the twins’ genders. This is one of the questions we are asked most.
For the first four children we knew the sex of the baby before it was born. After that we chose to opt for a delivery surprise. Apart from when I was pregnant with Oliver, when despite telling the sonographer several times that I didn’t want to know the sex of the baby, he still went ahead and told me. That was a fiasco. Then it was made worse by a whole load of worry about Oliver’s health throughout the rest of the pregnancy. You can read the whole story here.
We found we preferred not to find out the sex of the baby beforehand. We like going through pregnancy wondering and guessing. We look through the old wives tales to try and work out what the baby is and then it’s fun seeing the result at the end. I much prefer the excitement and anticipation in the delivery room and those split seconds between the baby being born and the “It’s a….!” announcement.
In a way it would be simpler to find out beforehand. It will allow us to get organised better regarding clothes. We have a stack of boys clothes in different age ranges from birth to 10 years but nothing for girls at all. Our youngest girl is turning 12 in a couple of months. Plus there are two babies. Even if they are both boys we don’t have enough clothes for two boys the same age at once. And if either or one of the is a girl she’s going to have to learn to like blue for a while!
Anyway, we aren’t going to find out. Not intentionally anyway. But what do you do and why? Do you prefer to know what you are having beforehand or do you prefer a surprise? If you find out the sex, do you tell everyone or do you keep it between mum and dad and not tell friends or family?
I chose not to find out with my older two and loved it – I really didn't care what I had as long as it was healthy! It also meant that I didn't have an avalanche of pink when I had my daughter (thank goodness, not very keen on gender specific colours – lucky really as one of my twin boys loves pink :-)). With the twins, the older children were very keen to know, and as they passionately wanted brothers (the boys) and sisters (the girls), we decided it was best to know in advance, so that they could just be happy on the day and have no lingering "I wish" feelings.
I think girls look lovely in blue 🙂 Or green 🙂 and boys look great in red or pink. Who really cares? Good on you!
I got told at my 12 week scan, the sonographer just blurted it out, I guess she never thought I might not want to know as EVERYONE in Spain wants to know the sex of their child it seems.
Oddly enough at my 20 week scan she asked me 3 times if I wanted to know, in the end I had to tell she'd already told me last time…
We're having a little girl.
Babies look cute in any colour don't they?
@Very Bored… It's a bit of a dampener when you've prepared yourself for not knowing and then you're told. Congratulations on your beautiful little girl on the way!
I have found out and have not found out. I think I prefer not to because it helps me personally to get through the c-section surgery. I focus on the anticipation 🙂
We found twice out of six kids. Our 3rd and our 6th, both boys coincidentally. We were young and thought it would be fun to wait when we had our first. Then our second was supposed to be a scheduled c-section, so the gender was going to be the only real surprise. Of course, she came early and let us know right away she was in charge of the surprising. 😉 We had our 3rd 23 months after our first, and it just seemed prudent to find out if it was a boy so we could ask for boy things. And he was. After that we went back to being surprised b/c we had stuff for both when we had our 4th kid. When we had our 5th we didn't have any baby stuff but we just like delivery room surprises. With #6 it was back to being prudent and so we found out. I like delivery room surprises better though.
We have never found out yet – it helps me during labour – the more I push the sooner I get to see if we have a new daughter or son (mainly daughters so far lol) also I think I'd be more likely to be disappointed if I found out I was having another girl while pregnant but once I've given birth I really don't care – just happy to have a healthy baby – and the same for the other children!
I am very organised so this spills over to knowing the gender. I like to have everything prepared and do not enjoy surprises in any shape or form. I guess having had a baby die I like to know the sec so I can bond with the baby and call it a name and get to know it. The feeling that something may go wrong againnever quite leaves. I tell people too, just not the names, u tl they are born . I think it's great to have the choice. Each to their own! With the twins I was aware I was I'll and they could come early and i may not be in the best state afterwards so I wanted everything organised way in advance! I had the whole first six months washed ironed and ready by the time I was 23 weeks!!! In the end it was a good job too!
Whatever you have Tania, I am sure I can send you some stuff. The washing pile goes bonkers!
I never had an option with my first three – I'm so old you see! It wasn't something they did (well, certainly not where I was each time) 16 and 19 years ago and I didn't really care – I kind of anticipated a girl second time round but wasn't at all to find it was a second boy. With third, I was in France till mid-term and the after having 2 boys, I did want to know – but I had my second scan a bit early at about 18 weeks and the sonographer would have loved to tell me but said it was a bit early to be sure, though if she had to go for it, she'd have said boy. Got back to UK, and despite telling them I had been told that, they refused point blank to even suggest anything, and I didn't even get to look at the screen really. But the lovely French sonographer was right.
With the last pregnancy, some 6 years after third son, we were trying everything to sway the odds on gender and both agreed that we HAD to find out ASAP!! And we did, and she's a she (very much so, though a tough one!) and I was glad to be in a country where they have been doing gender spotting very well and for a very long time, though I still didn't quite believe them, so in fact, I still got the delivery thrill – in surgery, they'd asked and I said we'd been told "girl", and they thought it was sweet and funny that I didn't quite believe it – so when she was lifted out, the highly excited nurse delighted in reacting just as much as she would have done to a surprise and dashing round the side to confirm and to show me my daughter and let me snuggle a kiss – it was perfect and just a wonderful as a true surprise, as it wasn't shocking, just magic!