Today is the final visit with the OBGYN before my wife Teresa is induced tomorrow morning. Wow! Dominic is going to be here soon.
Early in the pregnancy when the questions arose of “Do we want to find out the sex of the baby?”, I was initially very ambivalent, leaning toward not knowing, if anything. Somehow it just felt more “traditional” or “natural” (or something). I’m not exactly sure why.
My wife’s practicality won out however: she didn’t want to not be able to know and tell people the sex of the baby and end up with a bunch of green, orange and brown baby items. : ) This made sense to me (as much sense as such things can make to a guy) and I happily agreed.
Now here I am, a definite matter of hours before labor begins. As I look back, I am very glad that we found out the sex of the baby and named him: Dominic.
Teresa and I have played with him, sang to him, joked with him, and particularly toward the end, we even began to pick up on his reactions to touch and sound. Giving him a name – Dominic – made the new life – a real person – feel much more like the reality that it is.
I feel that it helped me to get to know my son spiritually and to bring him to God even in the womb. As a father, the times during the pregnancy I actually felt closest to my pre-born son were when I would pray for him and with him. It was a deeply profound spiritual experience to pray for Dominic while recalling some of the Old Testament scriptures such as Isaiah 49:
1 Listen to me, you islands;
hear this, you distant nations:
Before I was born the LORD called me;
from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.
Wow!From the moment of conception, God knew Dominic and spoke his name. From the womb, God had already started him on his path. With this in mind, I prayed not just for safety and health but for the spiritual journey that Dominic had already started.
I make no assertion as to what is “proper” one way or another, but I personally am very glad we were able to get to know Dominic a little more, before he was ever born, by finding out his sex and giving him his name.
Keep Dominic and his mama in your thoughts and prayers as we prepare to meet him face-to-face.
JM
This last tuesday my wife and I concluded – based on a second positive pregnancy test – that we were “with child”.
Thank you Jesus!
We made the announcement to friends and family on december 8th, the feast of the immaculate conception. Teresa quipped that we’d still need to get the baby baptized. (get it?)
We think that she ought to be due sometime in August. Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for parenthood!
Happy Advent!