Dear Thursday: The 70% Gender

So I’ve been told that a lot of mothers-to-be instinctively know whether they’re carrying a boy or a girl. My best friend Monique insisted that she was carrying a boy despite her husband, mother, and me thinking otherwise. Then a few months later, lo and behold, it’s a boy. Supposedly the mother’s instincts are right over %50 of the time. In my case, I had logic on my side. Lots of morning sickness, which was inconvenient — must be a boy. CH’s father had a few kids — only one of which (the very last) was a girl. And my small pregnancy belly is sagging, which might mean I’m carrying low. Classic sign of a boy. Also, much like Monique, I just had a feeling that it was a boy. But of course there’s only one way to know for sure, and that’s with an ultrasound or in my case the first trimester screening, which test for Downs Syndrome and Trisomy 18. And even then, you don’t know for sure-sure for a few more week. I had to go to a specialist for this, b/c apparently, most regular OB’s don’t handle screenings and refer them out — at least in Los Angeles. I don’t know how it works in other places. Now I had found looking at the baby on my IVF doctor’s screen nice but challenging. You could make out the basic frame, but I had to trust her when she said she could see the hands and feet. However that wasn’t an issue on the specialist’s machine, which was like an ultrasound on steroids. Not only could you see everything clearly, but she also gave you a pair of glasses that magnified the screen right in front of you, so that you...