Be positive!

Be positive. Not just a slogan- it is my blood type (B+). Apparently, this is "a great blood type for having babies." Being Rh + is good because it means that my immune system won't decide to attack the baby's blood (if I was negative, and baby positive, this would be an issue and I'd need a RhoGAM shot- not a big deal).

Only 9% of USA residents are B+. I am so special!

But what about the B?

According to the blood type diet theory (thank you wikipedia) "Blood group B is, according to D'Adamo, the nomad, associated with a strong immune system and a flexible digestive system. The blood type diet claims that people of blood type B are the only ones who can thrive on dairy products."

Hmmm... I do love cheese!

According to the Japanese theory of blood type and personality (thanks again, wikipedia) "B's Best Traits: Wild, active, cheerful. Worst Traits: Selfish, irresponsible." Interesting.

Here is what I do know... my mom is an O type; whether she is O- or O+ I forget. But she has to be OO. This means that my dad could be a variety of types... AB, BB, or BO. Any of these can make a type BO kid (me) if combined with an OO mom. He can't be AO or AA because then he couldn't have a kid with a B type. For now, I'll disregard the +/- because I don't have enough info to even think about it.

If I knew my sister's type we could maybe narrow down the possibilities. And of course, I could ask my dad (Hi Dad!) and my mom (Hi Mom!) for more details.

What is neat is that with the limited knowledge here, I can say for sure that my kid has a nearly complete palette of possibilities for blood type. Without knowing Matt's type off the top of my head, I can generate offspring (depending on Matt)... AB, BB, BO, AO, OO. Essentially, anything but AA (which is the same immunologically at AO, so who cares).

Interestingly, this decreases the chances that my kid will develop jaundice. One cause of jaundice is a kid with a A or B or AB blood type, and a mom with OO. Not a problem here. Even if our kid ends up AO or AB or OO, because the A's and B's are big fat molecules, the chances that they cross the placenta is pretty much nil. Excellent, thanks Dad!