Is It a Boy or a Girl?

As a new mom, I'm constantly checking out other babies to see how mine compares. Yes, I check out other women too - mostly for fashion reasons, but when it comes to babies I look at their strollers, toys they have been provided and how they are reacting to the same situation Hannah is in (especially if Hannah is irritable and the other babies seem fine).

More than once, I wasn't able to tell if these other babies were boys or girls. Like most people, Chris and I chose to buy gender neutral big ticket items. Hannah has a brown stroller and a green car seat. She has a brown diaper bag to go with her brown stroller. Her warmer coat is yellow. Many of her first outfits are also gender neutral as people didn't want to buy us girl clothes in case our ultrasound technician was wrong about her sex.

So I can understand why sometimes people can't tell right away if whether my baby, or ANY baby, is male or female just by looking.

A few times people have been wrong and I kindly tell them I have a daughter not a son (even when she is completely decked out in pink and has a barrette in her hair that day...). Most of these people have thanked me for being understanding and not jumping down their throats as other parents have done when they guessed incorrectly. What I take away from these encounters is that Hannah is so sweet she makes people she doesn't even know smile. And babies make people smile regardless of their sex. 

However, if said people are sick of getting in to constant hot water, perhaps just saying "What a gorgeous baby!" and leaving it at that would be better for all involved. And if one really must know, you can ask "How old is your baby?" as MOST people will respond he or she is x months old.

It's the plan I use with dogs - try to keep it neutral until the owner reveals the sex. Although dog owners seem to care a lot less about this issue than parents do.