Check out this awesome advice to new mothers. I especially like the way that she acknowledges you may not actually perceive these differences, so you should look for them:
Boy or girl? That’s the first question people ask when they hear you are having a baby. And according to child psychologist Dr Pat Spungin, the answer makes a huge difference to your baby’s personality and progress, from the very moment he or she arrives in the delivery room. ‘Gender affects everything – from how well babies make eye contact in the first week of life, to whether they’re easy to potty train at 18 months,’ she says. The differences are very important for parents to be aware of, yet it’s so easily overlooked.’
The amazing thing is that the full article actually acknowledges the ways that parents’ reactions shape the children, and the ways that parents differentially classify the same behaviour in boys and girls.
I particularly liked the closing line (after explaining the boys are unsociable, slow to potty train, slower to talk, etc).
Does it all seem weighed in favour of girls? Not in the long term. Your son is likely to earn up to 25% more than most women, be bigger and stronger, and has better odds of becoming Prime Minister. Plus he is less likely to have to worry about domestic chores (apparently, there is no society where men are the primary caregivers). Oh, one more thing about a boy. He never stops loving his mummy.
Feminist Philosophers 
I guess I’m not a proper boy. There’s something wrong with me. I’m not physically strong; I’m neurotically concerned about domestic chores; and I feel very uncomfortable around my mother and avoid her as much as possible. Then again, I avoid most people.
my mother believes this. it’s essentially the ‘wisdom’ she shared with me when i was pregnant with my first. (the consolation for boys being “difficult”, apparently, is that they dote on their mothers. …strangely similar to her beliefs about husbands…) she takes this as explanation for my being an easier baby than my brother was and as explanation for my not getting on as well as my brother does with her as an adult. self-fulfilling stereotypes are fun!
Hmm Jender, do I detect a hint of sarcasm? :P
“Action point – Girls Be aware that their hearing is more sensitive, even when they are this small. So, according to Steve, dads need to be aware that they may be perceived as “shouting” at girl babies.”
I’m not sure why, but this has made my day. I’m still chuckling now…
gross
Lovely. Just lovely.
Could this study possibly suggest new hope for little girls like the one I was? Fewer trips to the Principal’s office for shouting back at the perceived shouters because that’s “just how we’re wired”?
Nah… that excuse only works for male aggression…