The Chinese Calendar

Have you seen it? If you are pregnant or have a baby, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The lovely, ancient graph that supposedly – with 99% accuracy – tells you the sex of your unborn child. Just cross-refernce the month of conception and the age of the mother at that time, and WHALA! the mystery of your baby’s gender is solved.

For some CRAZY reason, someone forwarded this calendar to me AGES ago . . . when I was working at News America, so clearly it was long before I had a baby. (I would say long before I was THINKING about having a baby, but let’s not kid ourselves. Most of you know that I was thinking about having a baby well before I even got married!)

The magic calendar may not be 99% accurate, but it’s close. Based on my age of 27 and a conception month of October, it did say that Meg would be a SHE. And, for my friend Kristy, both of her girls were predicted correctly by this mysterious charm. I think it got Tricia’s wrong for her first (guessing girl but she had a boy) but was right for her second (boy).

So – the question is, what does it predict for New Baby?

BOY.

Boy, oh boy . . . does Jim want a BOY. When I remembered I had this calendar, found it, and figured out it’s prediction, I certainly told Jim right away. He beamed his super-smiley Jim beam. He wants a boy SO badly.

My dad dreamed we were having a boy on the very night that I looked up our destiny (according to Chinese myth, anyway). That was a funny coincidence to me because my dad so badly hopes we have another granddaughter for him. (He’s picking out girl names already . . . but he does assure me that he would be just as excited about a boy.) Me? I haven’t had any dreams or anything to tell me one way or the other. With Meg, I had 2 dreams girl, one dream boy. And – when I’m pregnant – I have CRAZY dreams, so I find myself very tuned in to them. This time, no sex-determination dreams to date.

What do I want? I can honestly say that I’ll be happy with either. I know – it sounds cliché – and saying it sounds cliché is cliché – but I don’t care. I’m being cliché. (If you can tell me where that ‘cliché’ line came from, I’ll acknowledge your brilliance in my next blog!!)

I really AM going to be delighted if we decorate in pink OR blue. A girl would be fantastic – bunk beds, matching dresses, tea parties – all the fun that TWO girls would bring. Sisters growing up so close in age would be awesome. I love girls, as you know. If it’s a boy, I will be so incredibly happy for Jim. Sporting events, Tonka trucks, and lots and lots of blue. I got what I really hoped for the first time around – my GIRL – and he would be getting what he’s hoping for this time around. Either way, I’m delirious. Like I’ve said many times, I have my girl, so the next baby is icing on the cake!

But sersiously . . . what do I think it’s going to be? Originally I thought girl. I SWORE girl, and I was sorry for Jim. Now, I really don’t know. I do think I’m destined to have another girl . . . but something tells me this might be a boy . . .who knows? (Incidentally – I thought Meg was a BOY – and was totally convinced. I just didn’t think I could be lucky enough to get pregnant AND have a girl.)

We’ll find out how accurate that trusty Chinese Calendar is Friday, February 1st. Jim and I can’t wait . . . we are looking forward to moving forward with a nursery and a big-girl room for each of our kids, and we are excited to really start planning for New Baby’s arrival.

Will Chinese folklore hold true? 12 days till we find out, grasshopper.