19 weeks

I’ve been getting “the question” a lot lately, so for anyone else who might be wondering…no, Tom and I are not finding out the gender of our baby before it's born. Since there are many pros & cons for both finding out and waiting, we decided that it mostly comes down to when you want the surprise: before or after the baby is born. For us, we think it will be more exciting to find out in the delivery room, as our beautiful baby boy or girl is being handed to us for the very first time; the same way it is more thrilling to open up a Christmas or birthday present when you don't know what's inside. Having said that, I totally believe that each expectant couple must make the decision that's right for them and them alone, and that their personal choice should not be judged or ridiculed by others. (Can you tell I’ve met some very opinionated people on both sides of the aisle?!)

After making our decision to wait, we also decided to switch off referring to the baby as "he" or "she" every week. That way we avoid having to refer to the baby as the inhuman/impersonal "it" and I bypass the annoyance of typing s/he and him/her in every blog entry. The weekly fetal development updates I get use the same strategy, and this week they are referring to the baby as a female – and so shall we! So from here on out, odd weeks are ‘girl’ and even weeks are ‘boy’. Tom’s dad (who has a strong hunch he’s getting a grandson) pointed out that Baby will be born on a “boy week” at week 40. I was just about to consider it an omen when Tom pointed out that the baby could come at 39 weeks or even 41 weeks, making the point moot. And then I just about cried at the thought of going 41 weeks…

Anyway, Baby is hard at work this week developing her senses. She can even hear now! Tom has prepared for this step by talking to my belly every day. He even told it a made up story entitled The Princess and the Schlub, which suspiciously resembled the story of how the two of us met. What a funny schlub. I mean guy ;)

Overall, it was a pretty fun week. We spent some relaxing time at the cottage with the Leschkes, watched the first regular season Packer game with the Vandenbergs, and celebrated our friend Jackie’s birthday with burgers and froyo downtown. Speaking of Jackie, remember back in week 10 when I mentioned knowing another couple that is also expecting? The secret is out…it’s Danny and Jackie Knabel: our first medical school acquaintances, the first people we shared our pregnancy news with, and our best friends here in Milwaukee. Now I can finally post a picture of the adorable onesie they gave our baby to announce theirs. We love you already, Baby K!