Gender Reveal: Baby Roman is a…. !!!!

You’ve all been waiting (somewhat) patiently. I’ve been posting teasers on social media, making you crazy with anticipation. I know that you are BEYOND READY to find out the gender of Baby Roman!

Drumroll, please…….

Baby Roman is an……..XX!!!!!!!

Sorry – couldn’t resist one last teaser!! If it’s been a hot minute since your last biology class, your brain might not have immediately linked XX to chromosomes. XY means boy, so XX means….

……

……………

…………………………

BABY GIRL!!!!!!!

As some of you may know, we had originally planned to wait until Baby Roman was born to find out the gender; however, our gender ultrasound threw a curveball into our plans! We are planning to have the baby at home, so I’m going to my midwife for prenatal care, but I’m still visiting the doctor for scans and check-ups. Come on now- I’m a photographer- I wanted that freaking ultrasound picture!! 😉

We went to the hospital for our gender ultrasound, checked in, and got situated with our technician. She started doing her thing, and we explained up front that we DID NOT want to know the gender! She was totally supportive of that and she started the scan. Everything was going great- she’s asking questions, we are excitedly ogling the little baby pics we are seeing on the screen- life is GREAT!! We were making small talk about the pregnancy, and we mentioned that we were planning a home birth. Cue the judgy comments and total attitude shift. But Andrew and I just sailed right past it, because every pregnancy and birth is different. Healthy mommas and healthy babies are what is most important!!

We stayed glued to the screen to savor every glimpse of our sweet little baby, but the technician told us to close our eyes, as the vital bits were the next part of the scan. So we closed our eyes, and we can hear her typing notes into the computer. Not gonna lie- I was super tempted to peek! But I stayed the course and kept my eyes closed- yay self-control!!! She finished up the scan and told us we could open our eyes again.

Overall, she took about 50 photos of the baby, but she printed out the 10 ‘best’ photos and gave them to us in a little strip. She told us to hang out in the waiting room and the doctor would call us back in to talk about the details of the scan.  Andrew and I immediately started analyzing the adorable, black and white portraits of our baby. There was one of the baby sucking their thumb, and my heart was literally melting because it was soooo stinking cute!!

As we got to the last of the photos, we notice that she had included the photo from the bit where we had closed our eyes. Written on the photo were the letters XX typed on the image.

Andrew and I just looked at one another. I mean, it’s been a few years since 9th-grade biology, but it’s pretty obvious when a baby is a girl or a boy. Plus, the gender chromosomes are one of the few things I retained from my 9th-grade bio class. I looked at Andrew and said, “Doesn’t XY mean boy and XX mean girl?” He looked back at me and said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure…”  But neither of us were 100% sure, and we kept second-guessing ourselves. What if she had taken the photo of this specific angle, and typed X’s over the gender to keep it a surprise?? I knew I was reaching for conclusions, but she KNEW that we wanted to be surprised!! So why would she have included this photo?!? Does she not realize that most people know what gender chromosomes are?

The doctor finally called us back and told us that Baby Roman looks great!! After talking about general check-up type things, Andrew finally broke and asked the doctor, “Ok sir, I just have to know. XX on this photo is referring to chromosomes, right?”  And the doctor looked back at us with a slightly horrified look and said, “Oh wait, you didn’t want to know the gender?!” We replied that we told our technician specifically that we wanted to keep it a surprise AND she had us close our eyes during the important bit, but she included this photo in the printouts so we were just super confused.

He looked back at us and said, “Well, if you don’t understand chromosomes, that’s perfect; I won’t tell you,” which absolutely clarified that we were right about XX meaning chromosomes and we are having a GIRL!!!!! Thanks, doc…

Instead of being bummed about the surprise being gone, Andrew and I are ecstatic to know that we are having a sweet little girl. While all we want is a healthy baby, we were both really excited about the idea of having a girl when I first found out I was pregnant, so to have our hopes confirmed is the best news! God clearly has great plans, and we can hardly wait to meet our baby girl in a few short months!

Did you remember what the gender chromosomes were?? Would you have put 2+2 together faster than Andrew and I?? Or do you have a fun reveal story to share? Drop them in the comments!!

Custom Baby Onesie: Cheerily

---

Lindsey Roman is an adventurous destination wedding and intimate elopement photographer based out of Oahu, Hawaii, but she travels worldwide. She lives for outdoor adventures, intimate moments, and candid images. Her style is raw, passionate, and authentic. She believes in chasing sunsets, laughing too hard, and most importantly: capturing genuine moments that evoke feeling over perfectly posed photographs.