Aunt Lisa told me that Andrew and Caitlin are waiting for the baby’s arrival to learn whether it’s a boy or a girl. Now that parents can find out gender there seems to be a growing trend to opt out of knowing until the birth. When I was having babies determining sex was still speculation, so, naturally, everyone wanted to know!
Ah, the element of surprise has returned to the delivery room! The anticipation factor for today’s parents is tantamount to the thrill of knowing for parents in my generation. Which is how the pendulum always seems to swing with these kind of things; back and forth.
Ultrasound equipment was still fairly primitive in the 1980’s. My doctors were generally reluctant to venture guesses and would always qualify their prediction with some pithy remark like: “Don’t paint the nursery pink yet.” But even with their caveats, their “opinions” were correct with my last two pregnancies. Although those sonogram pictures fooled me; I thought it all looked like complete mumbo-jumbo. I was astonished that the doctors could make heads, tails, or limbs of anything on the grainy screen.
But now technology brings such state-of-the-art equipment a sonogram can even show 3D images of the fetus. I’ve seen a few of the 3D mug shots and they are wild. Some show enough detail to argue whether the in-utero child resembles mom or dad. The difference in a contemporary sonogram picture to one thirty years ago is like the difference between a 1982 computer to now (light years apart).
So, now that sonograms are accurate for clear gender identification, lots of couples choose the wow factor of surprise. Of course! But I admire these couples. I think waiting is great but I couldn’t do it personally. I’ve never been know for having any patience. Especially when knowledge is power (or, a head start with name selection, nursery decor, prep generally). If there is information available to me, I’m a need-to-know kind of person. Guess I must lack whatever gene gives these new parents the ability to wait it out for a delivery room surprise!
