Our big 20-week ultrasound is just two weeks away (yep, couldn't get an appointment till them!) That's when we'd probably find out the sex of our baby. If we wanted to.

My personal feeling is that it's a boy. I feel that way for many reasons, including:

• A lot of people I know are having or recently had girls. It seems only logical that we'd have a boy. Unless it's like that trick math question about flipping a coin, where each time the odds of getting heads or tails is 50-50?
• I tell myself it's a boy because I need to prepare myself for that possibility. I know it sounds stupid but I am kind of scared of boys! As a female, it's like the great unknown to me. Plus apparently they pee on you a lot and they, um, are into self-exploration at an early age. Also their clothes are not as cute as girl clothes.
• Intuition? I don't know if that plays a role at all, or if the first two reasons have convinced me. People here ask if I've dreamed about the baby because they believe that is an accurate gender predictor. I have dreamed about our baby — the first time it was a boy and he was a few weeks old and I realized we had never changed his diaper. We just forgot. But he didn't smell bad or anything. The second time I dreamed about a toddler and it was a girl. So now that just confused me!

So although I am not interested in actually scientifically finding out the gender, it's fun to play around with those old wives' tales.



The famous Chinese gender prediction tool (this cute one came from The Bump) agrees with me. I entered my age at conception and the month of conception and check it out. There's my little boy saying hi! And he doesn't look too scary there. I guess I can live with that!

Around the time we got married I tried the pendulum trick, where you put a ring (or something) on a necklace (or something else) and let it move over your hand. According to the pendulum, not only will our firstborn be a boy, but we'll also have a second and a third boy. A whole litter. Come on pendulum, give me a break!

So I know all this is total silliness — both the prediction methods and my qualms about a baby boy. I will be happy and blessed with whatever we get and of course my most fervent prayer is that the baby will be born healthy, grow up to a ripe old age and be a man or woman after God's heart. And as someone recently pointed out to me, having a boy would be a great learning experience. So please don't make fun of me. I admit it! I would just like to put a bow on my baby's head, even if it's not this first one! Is that a crime??