IT'S A ... (part 1)

If you want to see your friends and family go crazy, and feel as if you are in control of their future sanity, you should put an ultrasound gender reveal in an envelope on your fridge and just leave it there for a few days. All sorts of fun abounds. Then you should write a long blog to keep the suspense just a little longer...

First the background. As a big planner and very detailed Type A personality, I surprised no one more than myself when I wanted to wait until the birth to find out the Pancake's gender. Most people thought I was nuts (including the hubs), and I truly couldn't give reason(s) for wanting it to be that way. I knew that room decorations and clothing would be easier if we knew, but I really felt like I could appropriately compensate with neutral items. Bob, also a big planner a very detailed Type A personality, struggled to see my logic. So we had one of our rare differences of opinion, and neither of us was moving much toward a compromise.

I heard the odd stories of one parent finding out and the other not knowing, but that didn't make sense. And I figured I am making many of the decisions regarding this child (i.e. talked Bob into using a birthing center), and there wasn't really a middle ground compromise, so I agreed to support him in his decision. Which I assumed would mean we would go to the ultrasound and get the news and try to see for ourselves the presence or absence of the whoo-ha on the screen.

But two days away from the ultrasound, Bob starts to waver. Maybe it would be better to keep it secret, he tells me. Wow, I thought, I'm good. I'm going to get what I wanted all along but make him think it's his idea. Isn't that the mark of a great manipulator woman? But he wasn't completely sure either way. And that's how we ended up with an envelope on our fridge where the ultrasound tech had written the Pancake's gender.

Side note - the ultrasound was AMAZING! We could see a precious profile and heart chambers and spine and feet and fingers and toes. Beautiful miracle in there!

So, on Tuesday we got the envelope and had no idea what we would do with it. And all the backlash began. Bob especially found great amusement in watching our friends and family try to convince us to open it. Or threaten to break into our house. Or, for the live-in nurse, to hold it up to the light and try to read it (which apparently was successful). We eventually decided we would open it this past weekend when my mom and sister were visiting.

So come Saturday, Mom and Laura and Matthew arrived, Lisa home from work, and I ask the Daddy Bear if we were going to open the envelope. No, not today, he says. Wow. Mama Bear had to lay down the law. It either had to be a yes or no, because this unknown thing was the worst. So I asked either to open it Sunday or burn the envelope. Time to fish or cut bait. So Sunday comes around, and after church we're all hanging out, and Bob goes to get the envelope off the fridge...

...and this blog is becoming entirely too long....and my lunch break is nearly over...and there is still a lot of story to tell! So I guess you'll have to stay tuned until next time. Don't hate me (this really wasn't my intention)!