Boy Number 5 or Girl Number 1?

We’re expecting our fifth child this summer. With four boys already there’s a lot of interest from family and friends about what the sex of the newest addition will be. 

We just had the ultrasound and some people are dying for me to tell them what we’re having. I’ve gotten everything from “blink twice if it’s a girl” to “if you don’t say anything I’ll assume it’s a boy.”

Most people, it turns out, don’t enjoy suspense. 

Despite there being a multitude of creative ways to do so, we hadn’t planned to reveal the sex of the baby before he or she was born. It’s a throwback thrill to wait, and let the baby’s birth double as their gender reveal party. 

But then I thought about how exciting it would be to spill the beans in a Daddy Days column. So much of our parenting lives has been cataloged here after all. I mean, what more appropriate place to announce that — we’re having a girl! 

Or a boy. 

Either way, the announcement is sure to provide excitement and surprise. But how to do this the best way...

Ok, ok, I know I’m killing you here. Out with it already. Boy or girl? 

Boy -- you’re right, this is getting suspenseful. But enough of this, it’s time for me reveal everything we know. 

You see, even though we’ve had the ultrasound and an unidentified sonographer has medically documented the sex of baby number 5, we don’t know. We decided not to find out so your guess is as good as mine. 

Tom Petty said, “the wait is the hardest part,” and if you’re dying to know if we’re having a boy or a girl that song is going to ring true for the next few months.

We don’t know and aren’t going to find out. But there’s a chance this baby’s sex is a secret even nature couldn’t keep. You see, at one point in the ultrasound the sonographer asked us to close our eyes to make sure we didn’t spoil our own surprise. I didn’t peek, but as I waited I noticed a small radio in the office was playing a song: Stevie Wonder’s “Isn’t She Lovely?”

Stevie Wonder is singing about the birth of his daughter in that song. Was he singing about the future birth of mine too?

I guess we’ll find out soon.