Time for another baby letter! This is the third letter that I have written to our child, debuting this fall. Letter one and two are down the page.
Baby Letter– May
Hello Nemo,
It’s May, we are officially in our second trimester, and I am no longer tempted to mutter hexes at you while I cling to my puke bucket. The clouds parted, the sun is shining on us, and it is wonderful!
My nausea disappeared almost completely around week 14 or 15. While some things still get to me—bumpy car rides, the smell of the detergent aisle in the grocery—my queasiness is now much rarer. Much, much rarer. I am a person again, and fairly competent at getting through an average day.
You are growing wonderfully, getting longer and stronger each day. Your organs are starting to handle more complex functions and you know how to swallow. Mom and Dad recently learned that you regularly swallow your own pee, which is pretty gross, but I guess you have to make do with what you’ve got in there. Mom’s stomach is already sticking out pretty noticeably (strangers have started to congratulate us), so we think you might end up tall like Dad. Your tiny facial features are sorting themselves out, too, and you’re beginning to look kind of cute.
Food wise, this month has been much easier on both of us. You allow me to eat a wider variety of foods, so I am able to enjoy myself more as well as give you a better range of nutrition—other than my multivitamins, which of course I have been taking every day since you made the plus on the stick, even though they are really nasty. I am back to liking vegetables again, the way that Mom always has. You’re still really into fruit, and we enjoy a Caesar salad a few days a week. Technically, Caesar dressing is on the “no-no” list of foods, but it hasn’t ruined you yet. American foods are all processed beyond belief. If it can survive for three years in a refrigerator, I’m confident it won’t bother you. And it’s really, really tasty.
We are about to have an appointment with a third doctor—Mom might be what you’d call “extremely picky”, and the first two just weren’t up to snuff. Not for you. The doctor we choose has to be awesome enough to direct your birth. The first moments of your life. It can’t be just anyone. After trying to find someone closer to our house, Mom and Dad accepted that we probably needed to go to UNC hospital and talk to their doctors. UNC is the best at everything (as you will learn), and maybe we should have started with their doctors to begin with.
At our next appointment, we get to have an ultrasound and see you again. You will be 18 weeks in uterus age, and we haven’t seen you since you were about 9 weeks. Mom and Dad are very, very excited. We love to see you and hear your heartbeat. We’ll also get a little blood work done to make sure that you are healthy and growing normally.
If we wanted, Mom and Dad would likely be able to find out your sex at this ultrasound. 18 weeks is generally far enough to know if you are a boy or a girl. We think we want to be surprised, though, so we don’t plan on finding out.
Just for fun, I thought I would tell you some of the most common wives’ tales that supposedly can predict the sex of your baby. Here are some of the superstitions below, and how you rank according to each one. We’ll see what turns out to be right.
Old wives’ tale: The mother’s stomach can give away what the sex will be. Baby girls are carried high, and baby boys are carried low.
You: Boy. My bump sits very low.
Old wives’ tale: An ancient Chinese calendar can predict the sex of the baby based on the mother’s age and the month of conception.
You: Girl. No explanation here, I typed our information into a form and it said you would be a girl. Definitive, if not very believable.
Old wives’ tale: The first measured heart rate of the baby will let you know the sex. Baby girls have high heart rates, over 140 beats per minute, while baby boys are lower on the scale, below 140 bpm.
You: Girl. The first time we heard your heart beat, you were a runaway freight train. 180 and completely amazing.
Old wives’ tale: The sex of the baby affects mom’s food cravings. Sweet cravings equal a baby girl, but salty or sour cravings mean a baby boy.
You: Boy. While you and I do get the occasional longing for something sweet, we are salty and sour all the way. Pickles, pretzels, goldfish, fries with vinegar, lemons, anything savory with a jolt.
Old wives’ tale: Exceptionally bad morning sickness signals a girl. The idea here is that the elevated hormone levels, especially estrogen, from a baby girl makes the mom sicker than a baby boy would.
You: Girl. My morning sickness was never-ending, can’t climb stairs, hold onto the earth, let’s just sleep on the floor kind of morning sickness. And there was nothing “morning” about it. All time sickness. My secret fear is that you’re a boy, and if you ever get a sister I will simply die from dehydration.
Old wives’ tale: Mom’s appearance is a subtle key to the sex of the baby. If the mom is looking a little haggard, the baby is a girl, who is stealing her beauty. If the mom is looking radiant and lovelier than ever, it’s a boy.
You: Boy. Enough said.
So as you can see, the myths aren’t very helpful, unless you give more weight to one than another. Either way, Mom and Dad don’t care what sex you are. We just want you to be healthy. Whether you’re a boy or a girl, we’re going to raise you pretty much the same. It makes little difference to us.
See you in October,
Mom
Chez Huffman 