My feelings and experience was very similar to Michelle's: DH and I had a strong preference for another girl (2nd pregnancy) and were a bit shocked to hear that it was a boy (we wanted to know). I remember us sitting in the car afterward the u/s saying "so, it's a boy..." and feeling very outside our comfort zone. You see after working in an Early Learning centre for 5 years I kinda realised that girls were often "easier" and that boys had more "issues" but how wrong I was! Daily DH and I marvel at why we were worried about having a boy! We just love him soooo much and in fact he is more settled than our daughter ever was! (probably because we're more settled the second time around!) Now I realise too that yes, boys do take longer to adjust to structured care outside the home and yes, my son does take more time to separate from me but that's so normal. I'm just so surprised at my total turn about and how much I've learnt in being placed outside my comfort zone. For our third we have absolutely no preference and I personally even think that if put outside my comfort zone by some other issue such as special needs I'd probably do more than cope: I'd once again learn a lot about myself! My advice would be to not always assume you know what you want!