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Pregnancy Week 20: Boy OR Girl?

05 May, 2015

They say that oftentimes, moms-to-be can tell from their instincts whether they are carrying a boy or a girl.

Yeah, not-so-much for me!

For most of us, the anticipation leading up to the 18-20 week ultrasound is intense. Not only are we anxious to get a progress update on the health of our babies, but we are also faced with the decision as to whether or not we want to know the gender.

Many choose to “wait it out” so that they can be surprised the day their baby arrives. I find that sort of patience astonishing and admirable! I, however, would go crazy not knowing whether we are going to have a little boy or a little girl and HAD to find out.

I felt for weeks that I just “knew” that it was a girl. I was convinced. And I even had my mom convinced!

Boy, was I wrong (pun intended)!

And as soon as the ultrasound technician said, “Do you see that body part there?” I knew it was a boy.

Scott was pretty happy that he was right and I was wrong, as men generally are when they are right!

I used my instincts. He used the Chinese Gender Chart (http://www.thebump.com/chinese-gender-chart). Technically, we each had a 50/50 chance of being correct, so at the end of the day, you really cannot make any conclusions from this except that Scott’s method was accurate in this case!

Either way, whether we were told boy or girl, our main concern going in to the ultrasound was whether or not the baby was healthy. We had a difficult enough time conceiving, and combined that with getting sick with the flu a few weeks ago, I was a bit worried.

So the relief came in knowing that our baby is healthy. And the excitement came in knowing that we are going to have a little boy!

PREPARING FOR THE WORST AND THE BEST

This may sound somewhat pessimistic, but after enduring some difficult times and my fair share of adversity throughout my hockey career, no matter what I face now, I always prepare myself for the worst-case scenario and the best-case scenario. It is a sport psychology technique that I was taught years ago. I also figure that this way, I am preparing myself mentally for any and all scenarios that might be thrown my way. Good or bad.

I did the same leading up to our ultrasound. I asked myself: What if there is something wrong? How will we handle that? What would we do?

I guess everyone deals with stress and anxiety differently, but this is how I dealt with mine in this case.

In some ways, asking those questions actually made me feel more at ease heading into the ultrasound. I felt prepared, and obviously still anxious, but prepared. Would I actually have been prepared if we had received different news? Probably not. I don’t think anything in the world can prepare you for that. But I found comfort in knowing that I had at least attempted.

PREPARED? WHAT IS THAT!

From what I have heard about motherhood, this is probably going to be the first and only time I will feel somewhat prepared when it comes to this little boy!

This experience has been full of ups and downs so far, especially since my hormones decided to recently take me on a rollercoaster, and I am sure there is going to be PLENTY more of that ahead.

And if our little boy is anything like his dad, I am going to have my hands full with the two of them combined!

Please share your comments, stories and your own ultrasound and gender reveal experiences with me on Twitter and Instagram using @Mikkelson12 and #hockeymom.

Next week on Hockey Mom, I talk about travelling during pregnancy as my best friend and teammate, Natalie Spooner, and I head to ITALY!