My Pregnancy Story, Part 2: Other Surprises

To be honest with you, gender reveal parties in Tbilisi and Georgia are something that mostly bloggers do for pictures. The countryside people have probably never heard of such a thing, and regular pregnant couples just don’t usually go for it - at least, I never attended one or saw a friend doing it.

I also didn’t see it coming, but a friend of mine that organizes weddings, engagements and other family events, offered me to have a gender reveal party, and I agreed. Just for the sake of a small family party in a pretty place! Gatherings in the covid time were rare, and I didn’t want to miss a chance to gather the closest ones.

Wine of Truth

We scheduled the date and went to my doctor two days in advance. After checking all the necessary things, she went on to check the private parts of the baby. I held my breath, my eyes closed (only Slava, my friend, had to know first).

“You know, I’m not sure what I see”, finally said Shorena, my doctor. “The kid has its legs crossed. I don’t want to give you the wrong idea, so I better don’t tell you”.

“But we have a party arranged the day after tomorrow!”, we pleaded. “Please look again and write it on the paper for Slava. If it will be wrong in the end, it’s going to become a funny family story”.

Two days after, Zviad and I found ourselves in front of the table with pink and blue wine in the glasses for the guests to make a bet, and a covered vial with wine for us to pour into the glass and discover the gender of our future child.

We have never been a patriarchal Georgian family that wanted a boy, an heir, a male, a specimen to be their first born. Actually, we even wanted a girl. I had a dream about her: a curly girl with chestnut-coloured hair and dark eyes. Zviad daydreamed about a ginger one with blue eyes.

Everyone held their breath, I took an empty glass, Zviad tipped the covered vial, and the bright pink liquid gushed down the glass walls.

It was a girl! Now we could feast and celebrate.

Surprises You Never Want To Experience

Months later, on week 29, we had a baby shower combined with my birthday almost in the same company. There were no stupid competitions like drinking from a diaper (I found even worse ideas online!). We had a ceramic class, shared wine and I’ve got showered with plenty of relevant presents - some cute clothes, all white, beige and green, and some really fancy dresses for a newborn that would cost like a dress for an adult and look even better.

Two days later my doctor informed me that sometimes in case of placenta previa (remember, that unpleasant position, when placenta covers the cervix), not only C-section can happen to a woman. In especially bad cases placenta can grow in, and in this case a woman is losing certain organs. Mostly the reproductive ones. Sometimes the bladder. Depends where it decides to grow in.

“I don’t want to scare you, but I have to warn you, so that you’ll be fully informed. Usually the women who had an abortion, cesarean or other surgery are in the risk group, but previa is such a rare and unpleasant case that you better be prepared for anything”.

Despite the fact that I wasn’t in the risk group, I cried for a couple of days, and agnostically prayed too. Someone over there might still have heard me.

Why Women With Balls Is Nonsense

On week 32 I found an obstetrician I wanted to give birth with, and made up my mind about the maternity hospital. The placenta was still sitting on the cervix and laughing at my efforts to keep calm and carry on.

We scheduled the C-section on January 14. My due date was February 12, but it ought to be kind of safer to meet the baby (Zoe, we stopped on the version Zoe) earlier.

The last check-up was on January 11. I looked at the faces of the doctor who did the ultrasound and my obstetrician, and felt that something weird was happening.

“So how is the placenta doing?” I finally asked.

“It doesn’t cover the cervix anymore. It moved. Usually it doesn’t move from the back wall of the uterus, because it doesn’t stretch as much as the front wall. Seems like a real miracle happened within the last two weeks”.

“And how is the girl doing?” I asked, completely shocked.

“A girl?” The ultrasound guy raised his eyebrows.

“Who else then?!”

The ultrasound guy started looking for the baby’s back and legs again.

“Never seen a girl with such prominent balls”, he finally said, demonstrating to us something definitely prominent. Our humble baby who was sitting as a little shy buddha for the whole term, decided to do a manspread.

Here comes my explanation of why I think that the expression “woman with balls” is nonsense :) First, there is no such thing, and our Zoe ended up being Daniel. Second, if you ask me, balls are a very vulnerable part, while vaginas can do crazy, unbelievable stuff.

Talking about crazy stuff - follow me to the birth story, as pregnancy is almost over. After the C-section on January 14 was canceled, Zviad, I, my mother who came to help me, and the baby doing manspread had to wait for exactly one month till we met each other.