My sneaky dad worked out our baby's gender before we did - he betrayed us

"My husband was furious that we'd tried so hard to keep it a secret, but my dad knew all along."

I’ve always loved surprises, so when I fell pregnant for the first time, we decided not to find out the baby’s gender. We ended up welcoming a beautiful baby boy.

When I was pregnant with baby #2, my husband and I asked the sonographer to write the gender on a piece of paper and put it in an envelope. We weren’t sure whether we would open it, but we wanted to have the information, just in case we changed our minds. 

When I was six months pregnant, we went on a family holiday to Europe... and took the envelope with us.

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"Is today the day?"

Before we left, I said to my husband, “Let’s open the envelope on top of the Eiffel Tower and make one of those gender reveal videos.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” he replied.

I packed the envelope in our suitcase and off we went. We travelled through France, down to Andorra, over to England, then back to Paris, with the envelope safely tucked in my suitcase the whole way.

Close to the end of the holiday, we were walking along the Seine towards the Eiffel Tower and my husband said, “What do you think? Is today the day? Shall we open it?”

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Image: Melissa and her husband. Image: supplied

I smiled and shook my head. It just didn’t feel right. I felt like we’d be cheating and spoiling one of life’s greatest surprises.

When we returned home to Melbourne, the envelope remained unopened, the baby’s gender still secretly inside. I was so impressed with our restraint!

A few weeks later, my parents were staying with us and I mentioned the envelope to them.

My dad asked if he could see it, so I handed it over and then continued getting my three-year-old son ready for the day, thinking nothing more about it.

Image: supplied

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"He had a guilty grin on his face"

When I came back into the dining room, my dad had a guilty grin on his face. I wondered what he’d been up to, but when he handed me back the envelope it was still unopened, so I let it go.

But from then on, whenever the discussion about whether it was a boy or a girl came up, my dad had a look on his face like he knew something we didn’t.

When the big day finally arrived and I went into labour, we were so excited when I delivered a baby girl. She was perfect and just what we’d been hoping for.

We called my parents to share the happy news. “It’s a girl,” I said.

“I know!” replied my dad. 

He admitted he had known the gender all along. He had held up the envelope to the light and had seen the letter ‘G’ for girl.

My husband was pretty annoyed that my dad knew our baby’s gender before we did. And to find that out on the day of the birth!

On a positive note, he never did let on that it was a girl, so at least we can give him that. Maybe.

Originally published as My sneaky dad worked out our baby's gender before we did - he betrayed us