Many of you already know this from Facebook but I thought that I would make a post about it anyway because it is pretty big news in our family: we will be having a boy!

We went to the doctor on Thursday with Emma, Grammy, and Mimi in tow, to find out what the next little Robinson would be.  Grammy and Mimi were both fully expecting a girl, and Emma, when asked what the baby was, she responded “Gurl!”

After all the checking and measuring of the important baby stats, the technician had Kip call in the rest of the family to have the gender of the baby finally announced.  Once everyone was in the room, the Tech announced, “Well, it’s a boy.”  Her inflection showed no excitement or interest.  It sounded like she was telling us that “Well, it’s going to rain today.”  The reactions that followed though were more interesting.  Kip, according to my mother, beamed with a big goofy grin.  Mimi was so excited she teared up and exclaimed, “I know what to do with a boy!”  Grammy was all smiles, and asked me if I was ok.  (You have to understand that Kip and I really wanted another little girl, much like my sister Emily really wanted a little boy.)  I was in a state of shock and surprise for a few seconds, and then I just thought, “God is giving us a little boy, and he is healthy, moving, and going to be very precious when he gets here in less than 20 weeks.”  I was a little disappointed at first, and terrified because I figured out what to do with a baby girl with Emma, but I have no experience with little boys on an extended basis.  There are little boys in the nursery at church, but I usually let them be on their own and when they need a diaper change, I let the other worker handle that.  I am happy that we are going to have a little boy, and I am looking forward to buying him his own new wardrobe now that I know I need to have clothes for a little boy.

For those of you that have been living under a rock or don’t keep up with our lives like a stalker or super-fan, the plan as of now is to have the baby on July 19, via c-section, and name him Grayson Matthew Robinson.  No, the name isn’t a family name, it is just a name that Kip and I picked out when I was pregnant with Emma (in the event that she turned out to be a boy) and we still like it, so it will be the name of this baby.  And if you’re wondering, we are not naming him “Kip Robinson, III” because Kip says having the same name as your dad makes things too confusing. He figures maybe someday he might have a grandson named Kip. And I’m OK with that.

So, I’ve now had two visits to the doctor since I learned that I was expecting again.  I’m coming to the end of the first trimester, and I was just curious if anyone who reads out blog knows any old wives tales as to how to figure out the gender of the baby before the ultra sound.  I want to go ahead and state that I put no faith in these hypotheses, I just enjoy hearing them, and seeing how they apply to my current situation.  I will go ahead and give you a couple of statistics from the first 13 weeks.  I have had some morning sickness, but have thus far, not thrown up.  The heart beat at the ultra sound was 168 beats/minute.  Then at the second visit when you get to hear it, the heart beat was at 160 beats/minute.  (I would like to interject here that Emma’s heart beat went from 181 beats/minute to ~165 beats/minute between the first and second doctors visits respectively.)

I have heard a few crazy theories so far:

1. Since I haven’t thrown up, it must be a boy.  (This I have a hard time believing since Elysabeth had a boy when I had Emma, and she was sick the whole way through her pregnancy.  And Anna never threw up when she was pregnant with Abigail.)

2. The heart beat started low so it must be a boy.  (I had hear that heart beats between 160 and 180 beats/minute are girls, and heart beats between 140 and 160 beats/minute are boys. Again, the baby’s heart beat falls very close to the middle range that makes it hard to tell.)

3. I have heard a tale that holding the mother’s-to-be wedding ring over her belly, and seeing which way it swings will tell you what it will be, but I don’t remember all the specifics of this wives tale.

Please feel free to share the crazy and not so crazy theories and tales, I look forward to reading them all!!!