Ultrasound Day. James and I had been thinking about this day for a long time. In fact, as soon as I found out I was pregnant, I was immediately wondering if I was having a boy or a girl. I had only had one ultrasound before this one, and all that had been determined was the fact that I was just carrying one baby, not two or three.

Now, at long last, our day had come. I was seated rather impatiently on the examination table, perched on the edge. James looked uncomfortable in the hard plastic chair. We both looked anxious.

"So," James began, eager to start up a conversation while we waited for the doctor. "You never really told me how your first day of teaching went."

"Well, I think things are off to a nice start..."

I told him about my two classes, the remedial science class in the morning and the Chemistry class in the afternoon. Both classes were two and a half hours long (9:00-11:30, thirty minutes for lunch, and then 12:00-2:30), and it was already proving to be an enormous task to hold my students' attention for such a large expanse of time. Especially in the morning when I knew my students would be tempted to fall asleep. James agreed. Then I told him about meeting all of my students and getting to know some of the teachers. He laughed when I told him how I had been mistaken for one of the students, and I shook my head at him.

"It isn't funny," I complained. "I don't like having people mistaking me for a pregnant teenager."

He stopped laughing. "Oh, I see. Sorry, Janine." He paused. "Most women would see looking younger as a blessing. Maybe in a twenty years, you'll be able to enjoy it."

"Maybe." I stared at my feet, thinking about something else. "A girl in my afternoon chemistry class is pregnant. She looks like she's pretty far along, too. She seems really ashamed and scared. I could see it in her eyes when she first walked in my classroom."

James sighed. "That's such a hard thing for a teenage girl to go through. I hope she's not going through it alone. I mean, I hope someone is there for her."

"I really want to be there for her," I said. Then I jumped a little bit when I felt that strange sensation of movement way down inside of me. I put a hand to my belly and smiled contentedly.

"Is it moving, again?" He put his hand on my stomach and got his answer. That goofy smile spread across his face. I adjusted his hand to the spot where the activity could really be felt.

"There," I said. "Feel him or her moving around? Isn't that neat?"

"Wow," was all he said. We both stared at my belly for a moment.

"There's some old wives' tale," I began. "About being able to tell the baby's sex just by how I'm carrying him or her. They say girls look more like watermelons, sort of wide. And boys look like basketballs, forward and out. I'd say... watermelon."

"Basketball," James said at the same time. I gave him a puzzled look.

But before we could further discuss the shape of my belly, Dr. Caldwell entered the room. He's been my doctor from the beginning, and I felt pretty comfortable with him already. I was already getting a little sick of being poked and prodded, but I was beginning to get used to it, and consequently, I looked forward to my appointments with great anticipation. And I had been looking forward to this appointment, as you know, for quite some time.

He greeted us both, made some small talk, asked some questions... and then came the good part.

"Just lay back and try to relax," Dr. Caldwell told me. Relax? Easier said than done. First of all, I needed to pee. I had been told to drink plenty of water and fill up my bladder. Supposedly, this would get us better results on the ultrasound. Secondly, the room was dim and chilled to a rather frigid temperature; this also was done in order to get good results. Needless to say, being cold and needing badly to use the restroom had put me on edge. And it had made the baby restless, too; he or she was moving around non-stop.

I raised up my shirt, and the doctor smeared that conductive jelly on my bare skin. It was cold, too, and I shivered a little at this. He then did something to the machine; I guess he was turning it on. He also put in the blank tape that James and I had brought to record everything. As soon as he placed the transducer on my belly, an image of our baby appeared on the screen.

"Instant baby!" Dr. Caldwell announced. He then gestured to the screen. "There's the head. And a little hand. Looks like we've got a thumb-sucker." James and I laughed a little, and Dr. Caldwell continued to move the transducer around. "Two arms, two legs, ten fingers, ten toes. And I'm going to give you a rough estimate of the baby's weight... roughly 14 oz."

"That seems a little big, doesn't it?" James commented. I silently agreed.

"Not necessarily," Dr. Caldwell reassured us. "Babies hit growth spurts at different times."

And for the next fifteen minutes or so, the doctor spent some time letting us listen to the baby's heartbeat and checking things like the amount of amniotic fluid in the uterus. (It was fine.) Basically, he checked to ensure that our baby was still growing safely inside of me. This was all necessary information; however...

"Would you like to know the gender?" Dr. Caldwell asked finally.

"Yes, please--"

"Alright. Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Yamakawa, it's a--"

"Wait!"

"What?" The interruption had come from James, who was looking at the image of our baby just as anxiously as I was. What could explain his sudden outburst of hesitation?

"Janine," James spoke directly to me. "Do we really want to know yet? I mean, from what I've heard, it can be more exciting to wait it out and then see what you get when the baby is born."

"Well, perhaps so," I began. "But it would be more practical to go ahead and find out. Then we could tell everyone, and they would know what kind of things to buy for when I have a baby shower. And we would know what kind of things we should buy and what names to look at..."

"But the fun of waiting would be over," James argued. "Besides, not knowing the sex might give you an incentive to push when you're in labor."

"I think the contractions would be a pretty good incentive on their own, Mr. Yamakawa," Dr. Caldwell gently reminded my husband.

"But don't you want it to be a surprise?" James suddenly seemed very gung-ho about not finding out the baby's sex, and he was beginning to make ME uncertain as to whether I really wanted to know at this exact minute.

"I don't know," I huffed. "Now I'm totally confused."

At this, Dr. Caldwell spoke up. "I may have a solution to this problem if either of you are interested."

We both nodded vigorously.

The doctor smiled. "Well, I am able to tell you the sex of your baby. The test results are about 95% accurate in most cases. But in your case, I can be fairly sure. (He chuckled.) Luckily for you both, you seem to have a very active little one today." He paused a moment to let this sink in with us and went on. "Now, here's what I propose we do. I can simply write down on a piece of paper whether you are expecting a boy or a girl. I can slip that paper in an envelope and send you home with that. This way, it is up to both of you to decide whether or not you want to find out."

I looked at James. He looked at me.

Then I smiled. "That sounds good to me."

"Me too." James agreed.

We headed out the door, down the hallway, and into the waiting room with a video tape of the ultrasound, a prescription for more prenatal vitamins, and the envelope containing the answer to our question...

And do you think that for one second that two inquiring, curious minds like ours could actually let this question go unanswered? Hell, no!

James tore the envelope out of my hands.

I squealed, "Open it! Open it!" while bobbing up and down impatiently.

He ripped it open, pulled out the piece of paper, unfolded it...

"IT'S A GIRL!"

The entire waiting room starting applauding. No kidding. It was one of those unforgettable moments that we would tell our grandchildren about. James held me tightly in his arms, and I'm pretty sure both of us were crying tears of joy.