Not-so-last minute superstitions

As I am made to realize that I am on the last month of my 2nd trimester, I feel a bit of a panic (I like to prepare in advance most of the times, hence though I am not on my last trimester, I feel the urge to prepare in advance and exhibit my slightly panicked state).

And no, I do not mean panic overall. Rather, I realize that this is almost my last chance to subscribe to some pregnancy superstitions, just for fun and with a bit of precaution as well. First is the belief that listening to music  while pregnant will make your baby smarter. Hence, beginning tonight, I have:

1.) Attempted (as of writing have not succeeded yet) to download cute baby photos under the yet another cliche search phrase " cute baby boy". If what I have read is true, that babies take after their mothers' IQ, then ours will be smart in a very practical, obvious way.

2.) Downloaded at least 10, (or I could have omitted one "0" there) baby versions of classical masterpieces

3.) Downloaded two very blatantly labelled albums, the first being " Classical Music for Pregnant Mothers to Enhance a Smart Baby", and the second album aptly titled,  "Baby Loves Chopin: Sleep for the Intelligent Baby".

Somehow, the album producer for the first aforementioned album thought that the songs "My Heart Will Go On (Made famous by Titanic), and "Crush" by David Archuleta will make our baby smarter. Also, I am quite sure that the true great musical geniuses of Strauss, Mozart, Tchaikovsky, Debussy, Wagner, Vivaldi, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, etc. also included in the album and pitted side by side with the above-mentioned "popular" songs will turn in their graves and spit gutter oil*.

*Those who have read about the gutter oil scandal in China's street food will get what I am talking about.

Here are some photos I have narrowed down for my phone wallpaper. There is a superstition that moms need to keep looking at cute babies so that the baby will come out cute. I can't decide which is the cutest! Any thoughts?

These are my top 3 choices. Well, top 2. As I was saving the first photo, the file name "cute baby girl.jpg" popped up, even though I clearly Googled "cute baby boys". I guess even Google is confused with these cute little ones , them starting out being predominantly bald and round face and all, irregardless of gender.

The third one, I feel, ranks pretty high on the reality/possibility scale of what Oliver may look like, as I am a big-almond-eyed Chinese gal, while my husband is blonde haired and blue eyed. And yes, needless to say, he is not chinky-eyed. The third baby does kind of look a bit mixed race, doesn't he? :)

Here are my other 2 pickings. You probably can understand now why it has been so difficult for me to choose the right...cellphone and laptop wallpaper, right? (P.S. I am also a Virgo)

By way of these photos, you might have already guessed the result of today's ultrasound test... you guessed it... I won the bet...it's a boy! :D

Here are his ultrasound photos from today's visit... baby Oliver Markus is 24 weeks, 3 days old today :D

Oops. Sorry this had to be the first photo here, as it was the first to have been transferred successfully to my drive. It is, though a bit too blunt...the most important determinant of our baby's gender after al! :D My Ob Gyne Dra. Lagman has made it a point to take a screenshot of our baby's package.

Here are the rest:

Our baby's head

Our baby's stomach and bladder (I didn't understand why this was hand-picked by our doctor to be photographed...for some reason she thought this was more important than the torso and face). I guess, it kind of figures when you really think about it... without the stomach holding the food, how can the body even afford to feed a face?

I have a slightly huge mass of myoma on my right uterus, but doctors in Shanghai and Manila told me not to worry. On the right of the photo is another emphasis on the all important determining factor for a male baby, and if that "thumbs up" wasn't clear enough, three bold letters "B-O-Y" are likewise spelled out clearly for the visually challenged.

This is what our doctor's office's waiting room looks like. You can tell she loves anything that portrays a mom and her child.

You can also pretty much guess her age by subtracting the dates of the newspaper features about her on her wall and the current year :) She still looks very beautiful and elegant though. One more thing, when my mom found out that it was a boy, she slapped my doctor silly several times, and litterally did small jumps of joy. It was quite funny :D

This is such good news to us, we are all looking forward to buying little Oliver some new clothes and stuff in shades of baby blue :) No more purple or yellow this time! (see previous post)