Let’s play Guess the Hatcher Hatchling…

by Lorenia

I am full term this week (37+ weeks) and exhausted. AND super cranky. Oh, man, SO cranky. I still have a million things to do before the baby is born, but most of them involve organizing and cleaning… so I need a distraction. A fun one. This is where YOU come in!

I think pretty much everyone knows that we haven’t found out the baby’s sex. We thought it would be fun to have it be a surprise (who knows what we’ll decide for subsequent baby-havings) and we also knew it would keep me from buying pink tutus if it’s a girl (or, you know, blue tutus if it’s a boy) and from having the bedroom next to ours end up looking like Strawberry Shortcake horked in there. So, there’s that. There’s also the fact that in spite of my due date being June 12th, the doctor shakes her head every time I have an appointment and just says it’ll be born any time between NOW and the end of June. (How I am surviving with this much suspense when I like knowing everything in advance baffles even me. George, on the other hand, adoooores surprises.)

And this is where the game-playing comes in. Let’s play guess the delivery date and sex! Just a few rules…

YOU CAN ONLY “PARTICIPATE” ONCE. YOU GET ONE VOTE… and it must be in the comments section of this post. Not on our statuses. Not via text message. And please, be really clear. “May 29th, girl” is fine. “Tuesday, boy” is not. WHICH TUESDAY?! And you really can guess any date in the next four to five weeks. We’re not going to induce labor unless I go over 42 weeks, much to my OB’s chagrin.

Any given date only has two options. Like, June 12th can be “June 12th, girl” or “June 12th, boy”. Once someone uses a date and a sex, you can ONLY pick that same date for the opposite sex. And a “June 12th” vote counts as any time between 12:00:00am EST and 11:59:59pm EST on that date. (Eastern Standard Time since that’s OUR time zone and therefore, the baby’s birth date time zone.)

You cannot change your guess once you post it… and you cannot post more than one vote. If the date comes and goes… sorry, Charlie.

Once the first email, text message, or phone call goes out that I’m in labor, voting is closed.

Check the comments before yours: if someone already picked the date and sex combination, you can’t pick the same one. If you are too lazy to check and thereby end up posting the same combo someone else already posted, the first person to have posted the correct one wins.

If no one guesses correctly, we will just give ourselves a prize! Just kidding.

If no one guesses correctly, the person with the closest guess wins. If someone guesses May 27th and someone else the 29th, and the baby is born May 28th, the winner will be determined by whether the baby was born before or after noon.

The prize: It will probably take a couple weeks to get to you (especially if you don’t live locally). Also, if you don’t live locally, you’ll obviously have to provide us with your address so we can send it to you. We have some ideas on what the prize/gift will be, but it’ll definitely end up being something personalized and tailored to the person who wins (for example, we’re not going to give one of our sisters the same thing we would give a guy friend). No matter what it ends up being, we’ll try to make it something we think the specific person would like and appreciate.

May the person with the creepiest capacity of foreseeing the future win!

Edited to add: OK… there are a ton of guesses being repeated despite half the calendar being totally empty. Remember, guys, your vote does NOT count if someone else has already taken it. Below is a calendar image with all the votes up until 10:30am EST on June 12th. If your choice is taken, PICK ANOTHER! (I know that calendar is small, click to enlarge.)

Edit #2: If your guess has come and gone, you’re allowed to make a new guess. 😀