"Its a boy, right?"

In the past few weeks I have come into contact with many people who truly believe in the old wives tales of pregnancy. While I think they are fun and amusing I do not specifically believe in them. One particular tale has become more apparent as I now have a unmistakable giant pregnant belly, that the size and shape of a pregnant belly somehow represents the sex of the child. Since getting pregnant I have not gotten much wider, the belly just very prominently sticks straight out. Apparently an old wives tale says that this belly shape means I am having a boy, while having a girl would have made me wider. This assumes that every woman and every pregnancy is the same, which we all know is far from the truth. My pregnancy differs extremely from that of my friends and acquaintances. I have come into casual contact with four woman who, in passing, gaze at my belly and say "Its a boy, right?" Um, no she is a girl. One woman even had the nerve to tell me I was wrong. Thankfully I have some control over my Third Trimester Rage otherwise this woman would have gotten a piece of my mind.

All of these comments started to get to me. As part of our Birthing Center experience only one ultrasound is offered, at 20 weeks.  During our one and only ultrasound Penelope was moving around like a mad woman and every time we got close to seeing her female parts she would put her hand between her legs so we couldn't see anything. My modest little girl. But the inability to get a clear photo of her made us feel slightly unsure, even though the ultrasound technician assured us with a 90% accuracy rate.  Recently, I was considering going to an independent 3-D imaging facility and paying extra for the photos, DVDs, etc. just to verify that I was having a Penelope and not a Gael (Ga-el). Although, because we signed up for a natural pregnancy and birth process I felt as though getting that extra procedure was cheating ourselves. But as with most things, Aaron's calm and reassuring nature, made me decide against it. We cannot control the outcome either way so there is no need to spend extra mental energy or money on it.

Besides, having a Penelope themed baby shower for Gael would make for a lifetime of good stories and laughs.