It's Pat!

I wrote a blog entry before about the reasons why Em and I will be finding out the sex of our baby prior to the delivery date.  I thought of another reason, and this reason is probably the biggest reason of all (except for Em's patience.  jk) 

Back in the early 90's, I would stay up late on Saturday nights to watch Saturday Night Live on my 13" black & white tv in my bedroom.  My friends and I would discuss that episode the entire following week at lunch.  It was a major conversation piece. 

One of my favorite SNL characters from that era was Pat.  The whole gag with the character Pat was that you couldn't tell whether Pat was a male (Patrick) or female (Patricia).  Pat would interact with a different person each time he/she had an episode.  They would inevitably try asking Pat questions to try to figure out his/her sex.  For example, one time a person just flat out asked in exasperation, "What is your name short for?"  Pat answered back, "Paaaaaaaaatttttttt".   Another time, Pat (whose last name was Riley) made the statement, "Yes, my name is Pat Riley.....the same as the coach of the Lakers.....except for one MAJOR difference...."  At this time, the person Pat is talking to thinks they figured it out, but can't help themselves and asks Pat, "What is the difference?"  To which Pat replies, "I'm not a coach of a professional basketball team!" 

I say all that to say this......I'm really getting tired of using 2 pronouns every time I am talking about my unborn child.  I don't know how people do it for 9 months.  It's killing me at week 14. 

I have been yelled at in the past (not necessarily by Em) when I have innocently referred to an unborn baby who we do not know the sex yet as "it".  I realize now that that is completely unacceptable language.  (You would think that if I said "it" about something that has not actually grown sexual organs that I might actually be accurate, but instead I would get looks like I threw out a slew of racial slurs.)  Clearly, that is not socially permissable. 

The only other option was to continue to use dual pronouns.  For example:  "Em & I are heading to the doctor's office to see if we can hear his/her heartbeat", or "This bedroom set is so adorable.  He/she is gonna love it!".  (How annoying is that?) 

I think to save time and energy, and also as a nod to my early SNL watching days I should just refer my unborn child as "Pat" until we find out the sex.   It's only about another month to 5 weeks before we find out the sex.  He/she should be able to live with the name Pat for that long.