Male Circumcision

[Carolyn 1]

Carrie,

Don't worry, you're not being nosy! As far as not finding out the sex of our baby: Simo REALLY didn't want to know and I could have gone either way. He is wary of over-medicalizing things, and prefers pregnancy/birth to be as natural as possible. I agree with him on this point, and my midwife office is very supportive of women making their own choices about medical interventions/testing, etc. We did have several ultrasounds, but did not find out the sex--it has been really exciting NOT knowing, though I'm sure it would be really exciting knowing, too! I would happily do it this way again (if there is a next time).

That said, there are times when not knowing is a bit inconvenient--coming up with names, buying stuff for the baby, contemplating decisions like circumcision, etc.

[doodlebugg 10]

Carrie,

Don't worry, you're not being nosy! As far as not finding out the sex of our baby: Simo REALLY didn't want to know and I could have gone either way. He is wary of over-medicalizing things, and prefers pregnancy/birth to be as natural as possible. I agree with him on this point, and my midwife office is very supportive of women making their own choices about medical interventions/testing, etc. We did have several ultrasounds, but did not find out the sex--it has been really exciting NOT knowing, though I'm sure it would be really exciting knowing, too! I would happily do it this way again (if there is a next time).

That said, there are times when not knowing is a bit inconvenient--coming up with names, buying stuff for the baby, contemplating decisions like circumcision, etc.

So do you just buy everything in yellow and green? That would KILL me!! LOL. I have the patience of a gnat and needed to know as soon as they could tell me.

[Carolyn 1]

I'm not a big fan of things that scream BOY or GIRL anyway, so it hasn't been that hard. Yes, we have a lot of yellow and green and white clothes (and some orange), but they are mostly onesies and sleepers. We can wait on the "cute" outfits for a little while.

The baby's room is staying a nice shade of Terra Cotta that reminds me of Marrakech . We are going to try to paint a couple of cool wood pieces (a dresser and changing table) in a Moroccan style--hopefully they will turn out!

Here's a picture of our inspiration piece: a door from this beautiful Berber-decorated restaurant in Agadir, Morocco:

[caybee 21]

I'm not a big fan of things that scream BOY or GIRL anyway, so it hasn't been that hard. Yes, we have a lot of yellow and green and white clothes (and some orange), but they are mostly onesies and sleepers. We can wait on the "cute" outfits for a little while.

The baby's room is staying a nice shade of Terra Cotta that reminds me of Marrakech . We are going to try to paint a couple of cool wood pieces (a dresser and changing table) in a Moroccan style--hopefully they will turn out!

Here's a picture of our inspiration piece: a door from this beautiful Berber-decorated restaurant in Agadir, Morocco:

Beautiful, soft colors. It looks like your baby will have a lovely room for napping.

[Nasturtium 500]

Really nice colors! I am also not a fan of things which scream boy or girl, although I do have some cute clothes I like. I love your inspiration door! Are you going to do a glaze on the walls with sponges? i did that once with varying yellows and painted grape vines/leaves on it.. and it looked like stucco.

We'll do ours at 8 days. Basically, he isn't caring about it and I am saying no less or no more than 8 days. So, the choice is fairly simple for us.

We're not sure if we want to know the sex before birth either. We've expanded our name list again, and so at this point we're definately set if we have like 5 girls and a boy...

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

Im with bridget on the boy or girl thing... I would have to know... or it would drive me nuts!

[Carolyn 1]

I'm not going to do any funky paint techniques on the walls in the baby room--my mom and I painted it a solid color last summer and it looks great. We'll save the fancy stuff for the furniture .

[sara535 15]

I think IF (and that is a HUGE IF) I have another I will not find out ahead of time. both of my pregnancies I just *knew* before I found out. I would love to put my intuition to the real test

Carolyn I love that theme for the room. Wouldnt it be nice to find a Maghreb lullaby CD? but anyway, I still stand by my prediction that you are having a girl

[♥JP♥ 5]

Im with bridget on the boy or girl thing... I would have to know... or it would drive me nuts!

LOL....I also HAD to know. When we went to our ultrasound appt, we were looking at the baby on the screen and the sonographer was about to tell us the sex. So she says "ok you see these 3 dots right here" which at that point my husband jumps up and screams "YES"....she continues..."Congratulations....It's a girl". He sat down dazed and confused for a few momemts trying to think of why a girl would have 3 dots because he surely thought those were the "goods".

A few moments passed and we saw her kicking and moving all around and he became so focused on her that he forgot everything.

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

Im with bridget on the boy or girl thing... I would have to know... or it would drive me nuts!

LOL....I also HAD to know. When we went to our ultrasound appt, we were looking at the baby on the screen and the sonographer was about to tell us the sex. So she says "ok you see these 3 dots right here" which at that point my husband jumps up and screams "YES"....she continues..."Congratulations....It's a girl". He sat down dazed and confused for a few momemts trying to think of why a girl would have 3 dots because he surely thought those were the "goods".

A few moments passed and we saw her kicking and moving all around and he became so focused on her that he forgot everything.

awwwwwwwwwwwwww thats sooooooooo sweet ! made your heart melt huh!?

[♥JP♥ 5]

Im with bridget on the boy or girl thing... I would have to know... or it would drive me nuts!

LOL....I also HAD to know. When we went to our ultrasound appt, we were looking at the baby on the screen and the sonographer was about to tell us the sex. So she says "ok you see these 3 dots right here" which at that point my husband jumps up and screams "YES"....she continues..."Congratulations....It's a girl". He sat down dazed and confused for a few momemts trying to think of why a girl would have 3 dots because he surely thought those were the "goods".

A few moments passed and we saw her kicking and moving all around and he became so focused on her that he forgot everything.

awwwwwwwwwwwwww thats sooooooooo sweet ! made your heart melt huh!?

Definitly...the funny thing is what Sara said about intuition is right.

The sonographer asked us both what we thought it was...I said girl...he said boy. She looked at him and said 80% of the time the woman is right. She said...you know that thing about how your mom knows everything about you? Well that's her now. That actually made me cry!

[Carolyn 1]

Strangely, I have NO intuition about the sex of this baby...hmm...

We'll see if your prediction is right soon, Sara! Another friend of mine had a dream that she came to visit me at the hospital and that I was excited to have her come meet my little girl with dark curly hair!

In some ways, having a girl would make it oh so much easier--Simo and I both love several Arabic girl names and no circumcision issue! Arabic boy names can be so problematic--I like many boy names that Simo has vetoed for one reason or another.

[amal 4]

I recently saw a video on exactly how they do it and for those of u who don't know..they stick tweezer type things inside and stretch out the cover/foreskin, which is very painful. Then they stick a clamp inside between the pen!s and foreskin which latches on the outside and pinches it. They leave it like that and continue stretching out the foreskin, again which causes very much pain. They then unclamp the foreskin and cut all the way down and around.

I can honestly say that if I have another boy....I dunno if I'll allow him to be circumcized coz the infant they were performing the procedure on was crying so hard and loud and he couldn't do anything to stop the pain. It was so horrible.....

inside what?

Ok, so u know how the foreskin is like a "cover" for the actual pen!s? Here's a picture to put with what I said.

If u have a male dog. The outer skin is like a cover for his manhood in which the hole at the end is just large enough to fit the head of the manhood thru. The doc would stick tweezers in the hole of the foreskin (not inside the manhood itself) and in a circular motion, they actually stretch the foreskin out to around the size of a quarter. Now, Mind you, the average baby manhood is smaller than a womans pinky finger. .. It was horrible to see and hear that baby screaming as loud as he could when they were doing this to him. They even strap the arms and legs down to a table so the baby can't move.

[Carolyn 1]

JP, your story about the ultrasound reminded me...when we were having our Level II ultrasound, the sonographer asked us if we wanted to know the sex and we said no. So, when it came time to measure something in the lower torso area, she told us to close our eyes. I, of course, did what she told me. Simo did not--he either didn't understand or wasn't paying attention to what she was saying.

So later, I talked to him and he was sure he "saw something," in other words, saw some boy parts. Then I asked him if it could have been the umbilical cord and he was just crestfallen!

That said, he claims he wants a girl (his mom had 7 boys and then finally a girl).

[sara535 15]

well I sat and looked at the US while they were doing it and still couldnt make heads nor tails of what they saw. even when she printed off pics of the 'girl parts' its kinda like finding shapes in the clouds..... its a girl, no wait, its a - giraffe?? micky mouse??