Friday, December 07, 2007

The Other Oven: Halfway Through Baking Baby #2

Outward Appearances:
19 weeks gestation

The Inside Scoop:
19 weeks gestation
Why is that ultrasound technicians consistently print the worst pictures even when presented with more than thirty minutes of beautifully rendered fetal photo ops? I used to chalk it up to bad taste, but with this pregnancy I admit there is an extenuating circumstance.
Since we've decided not to find out the gender of this baby in-utero, I think that the pressure not to expose any secrets left the technician with a limited body of work from which to choose.
Back when The Boss was still sucking in amniotic fluid on the ultrasound screen, we got whole body shots. Head to toe. Since we wanted to find out the sex, nothing was held back. This time around, the tech was careful to make her measurements in careful segments that would not allow any genitalia to creep in unannounced. In one screen, there was a femur. In another, the balloon of a mid-section. The head. The neck. The heart (133 bpm, by the way). But nothing that put it all together. When the doctor came in to check up on the tech's work at the end of the session, he even asked me to turn my head away for about five seconds while he made sure everything looked good you-know-where.
"Don't make any inferences based on how quickly I did that," he said. "At this point, one is just as obvious as the other."
"Hmm." I nodded thoughtfully.
Obviously I wanted and still want to be surprised. Now that I made it past the first hurdle, however, I am not above a little unscientific speculation. What do you think? Boy or girl? I gave you all the clues I have. Give me your guess!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy or a girl? Based on picture #2, I'd have to say it's a squid.

Boz

Binkytowne said...

Id have to see you to be sure but you look high (your belly does, I should clarify.) I say boy.

Wildefrost said...

Holy cow! Is that a hand?! Crazy! I'd say boy, just because I know the boss would love to bully a little brother twelve years from now. I can see the look on her face in the other instance... like, "Maaahm, another GIRL?"

Jene said...

alien!

Maggie said...

Only because I like to guess (and I want to be different) I say girl!

Girlplustwo said...

how adorable are the both of you?

i think boy. i want to say girl though. it's wierd, the confliction.

Wendy said...

BOY! You need to learn about the other side.

Fairly Odd Mother said...

OMG, the first two comments made me snort.

If he (the doctor) only looked quickly, I'd say girl. You'd think there'd be more to see and check out with a boy (although my son was grabbing himself in his ultrasound, so maybe the doc was being polite and looking away).

BTW, you look lovely!

Jerri Ann said...

By how quickly he judged, I'd say boy, but since he said not to judge by how quickly he looked, I'd say girl, but since I own a daycare and my general population, day to day, consists of 24 or 25 boys and 4 o 5 girls, I'm saying boy because it seems they are like bucks (deer), they are taking over the damn world!

Anonymous said...

You look fantastic! Since the bump appears to be higher on your middle, I'm going to guess boy, though I know that's about as unscientific as dangling a pencil on the end of a string and waiting to see if it goes in a line or a circle.

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Miguelita said...

I don't usually use this word, but you look lovely. Really, very pretty and maternal. Lovely.

I think boy. If it's a girl, they look for more stuff inside and it takes longer. With boys they just count parts.

Redneck Mommy said...

YOU look fantastic. Your offspring looks hm, a little alien.

Whichever it is Binky, I hope it's a dreamer like your first and happy and healthy.

Debbie said...

boy, oh, boy - you sure you want to play this game?

mostly, I just wanted to tell you you look awfully cute. shimmery, in fact.

Lawyer Mama said...

I think you're having some sort of grey skeleton like creature. But it clearly has at least one hand!

I'm going with girl.

And you look great, by the way.

Anonymous said...

Oh, these cute pictures are your fist look at your baby that is unforgettable (for me). My child is 3 years old when she is looking at her picture she always asks with distrust: Is it really me?