It's (Almost Certainly) A Girl

Yup, the psychic stoner Hawaiian mystics that Jason and I met when we stayed in a treehouse on the Big Island were right all along, as were the bartender at the LAX Hilton, and the many others who said "Hmmm...I think it's a girl." I was right, too, it seems, as I have sensed, in some strange and inexplicable way, that this tiny creature (current length from head to toe: banana) is indeed a wee lady. Now, let it be known that this is not for sure, as it's often hard to tell with girls; when it's a boy, it's generally pretty obvious, but girls are (ahem) more nuanced and challenging to detect. Basically the ultrasound technician looks for the absence of penis and scrotum, and then for signs of labia. In our ultrasound we saw no penis or scrotum, and two lines that are most likely labia. So it is certainly possible that we could get a sweet surprise when this baby comes out and we have a little penis and scrotum, but we're all pretty sure that we'll be getting vagina. To put it all delicately. Our ultrasound also revealed a total and complete baby with arms and legs and hands and feet and heart and liver and kidney and stomach and bones and she moves all over and is very active and awesome!

It's so interesting how divided people are on the do-you-want-to-find-out-the-sex-or-not question. For us it was a no-brainer; hell yeah we wanna know! Why not? Some have asked whether we "want to be surprised", and my response has been a) This is already so freaking surprising and mysterious and crazy. I am certainly not lacking for 'surprises' these days. And b) It's still a surprise. It's just you are surprised earlier than you would be otherwise. And now we can call her by her name and give her a pronoun instead of 'it' and we can buy clothes and when I write her letters with girl-specific advice and information...In general, it feels more real now that I can name her and imagine her and say her. And as I said the other night, "gender's a total myth until you're done with grad school and you get pregnant. Then it's super real." And I'm super into it.

And yes, we do have a name for her. We've had the name for years, in fact. You can ask me, and I might tell you.


And here we are getting ultrasounded!