Patricia Grisafi
When you find out you’re expecting a baby, you might really be interested in finding out its sex. Or you might want to be totally surprised.
But what if you did find out the sex and ALSO ended up being completely surprised—due to confusion with the scan. That’s what happened to one mother of two who found out she was having a girl. She ended up throwing away all of the boys’ clothing and spending money on pink only to discover the mix-up.
Don’t fret, Mom, boys look adorable in pink! It’s just a color!
Laura Keen, 26, from Bradford, West Yorkshire thinks of herself as a “boy mom.” So when she discovered her third child was going to be a daughter, she was excited.
However, she and her partner Karl Nunn were surprised when Keen delivered a boy.
After living with the expectation that she would have a daughter for the duration of her pregnancy, Keen was shocked. While she was filled with love for her son, she also felt grief for the daughter she would not have.
“I felt dumbfounded, I didn’t know what to say. I had a rush of love, but I had so many questions and so much confusion, it was such a mix of emotions,” Keen said.
“I was expecting to hold my first daughter, our final child and we knew our family would be complete. I was numb, I didn’t know how to process everything that was happening.”
To make matters more complicated, Keen had agreed to be sterilized because another pregnancy would have been too risky for her.
“I had to decide on the spot, if I was still going ahead with the procedure. I was trying to process that the daughter I had dreamt of didn’t exist on top of the realization that if I went ahead with the operation, I would never have a daughter.”
Lauren and Karl, who have been together for seven years, have two boys together: Abel, five, and Opie, three. After giving birth to two boys, Lauren was extremely excited to welcome a baby girl and had picked the name Marilyn.
She had also bought tons of pink clothes and accessories.
“We bought pink blankets, and girly clothes with frills and flowers. We spent hundreds of pounds on dresses, cardigans and outfits.”
“I thought after two boys, our third baby had to be a girl and I was told I was right. As I was being examined the lady said ‘she looks fine,’ and ‘I’m going to take her measurements.'”
Keen never thought the scan might have been interpreted incorrectly.
On her Instagram page Lauren wrote: “EVENTUALLY! June 2019 I will be welcoming a baby girl into the world, everyone who knows me knows I cannot explain how happy I am. Roll on June to meet my precious dolly. Love you baby girl.”
Instead of Marilyn, though, Dexter was born weighing 7lbs and 3oz.
“I kept asking myself, ‘Do we try again?’ Would I be having another baby just in the hope of having a girl? I didn’t want to have another baby for the sake of trying for a girl, that wouldn’t be fair on me or that child.'”
“I felt like I had lost a child that never really existed. We had already named her. It was like we had twins, but only got to meet one — and however much I love Dexter, that doesn’t mean I’m not allowed to miss the girl I thought I was carrying,” Keen added.
Featured Image: Facebook
