kajel | One, Two or ...

I just knew that with our first child, my husband and I were having a boy. We had been trying for nearly a year. In June of 2008, our lives got shaken up as we had a house fire and I decided to quit my job and go back to school. At that point, the thought of a baby went on the back burner as we started to deal with all that we were facing. What we didn't know for several more weeks was I was already pregnant. When discussing children, my husband and I decided on only having two. I come from a bigger family and would not have minded having more. Ned, however, has only ever wanted two. I was good with that.

I was not surprised when the ultrasound tech said we were having a boy that first time. I had expected it. How did I know that our first was going to be a boy? That was the pattern. In my generation, I am the oldest grandchild on my Mom's side of the family. Of the ten grandchildren, there are eight girls and two boys. At the time that I became pregnant, there were seven great-grandchildren. All of them were boys.

Twins were also definitely something that ran in both sides of our families. With that first pregnancy, lots of friends and family wished twins upon me. That first time around I might have been all right with that. I didn't have children yet and if we had twins, I would be done.

Everyone I spoke to told me boys are so much easier than girls. I heard this from nearly everyone I spoke to about my pregnancy. Apparently, I knew a lot of people who had boys, besides all my cousins. This bit of wisdom was one of many ideas that were passed along to me. You know how it is, you're pregnant, having surgery, having a root canal, etc. and you hear all the stories from everyone else. You hear the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Nine months after the fire, we had Nicholas. The builders gave us the keys to our rebuilt home five days before he was born. We had a new house and a new baby.

In 2010, I became pregnant with our second child. I secretly decided if it was a boy, I was talking Ned into a third. I wanted a girl. If it was a girl, well then, he was off the hook. I say secretly, but when friends asked, I would joke that if it was a boy, we were having number three in a couple more years. Ned is one of those few people who can arch a single eyebrow. I got that look plenty of times when I made that joke.

During that second pregnancy, it seemed like the twin curse became more prevalent. I started making a list. If you mentioned twins to me, your name went down on my hit list. I had a son who wouldn't be quite two when the next baby was born. I didn't really need three at that point. I still have that list.

At the time my second child was on the way, there were nine great-grandsons. I waited very impatiently for the ultrasound that would let us know whether it was a boy or girl. If we were only having two, I wanted desperately for us to have a boy and girl. Besides, I wanted to have the first great-granddaughter.

I was so worked up over the ultrasound I couldn't sleep the night before. I lay there with my husband waiting for the little wiggle worm to hold still long enough to get a good look at the gender. The baby was not cooperating with us at all. The ultrasound tech had nearly given up, but luckily for us she took one last look before we were done. It was a girl. I felt like I was literally bouncing off the walls with excitement. I think I called everyone I knew while we drove home. We were moving away from blue and into pink.

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This is my entry for LJ Idol: Exhibit B. This week's topic was one of four. I chose Out of the Blue.

The tally so far is ten great-grandsons and three great-granddaughters. Our little Katey Rose was the first by a few weeks. I didn't need to talk Ned into another. ;)

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

belleweather.livejournal.com

This is so interesting... We have three boys, and I've always wanted a girl. Now we're trying to decide whether to have another baby and what, if anything, we should do to try to tilt the odds into our favor. On one hand, I think I'd regret not having a daughter forever. On the other hand, I kind of like having three kids and IVF is expensive and results are not guaranteed.

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