Boy or Girl? Part One.

If I had a pound every time someone asked me ‘Do you know if you're having a boy or a girl?’ during my pregnancy, then I would never need to go back to work. Surprisingly, most people have been really irritated when I tell them I don’t know. Their initial response is disbelief, so they ask again. When they realize that you really don’t know, then they ask ‘Did you not find out at your 20 week scan?’. Erm, still no!

Anyway, if I had found out at the 20 week scan then I would have missed out on the constant speculation by random people as to whether it is a boy or a girl. If I had a pound every time someone told me ‘It is definitely a girl’ or ‘It’s definitely a boy’ then my husband and I would both be able to give up work.

Still, I love hearing all the different old wives tales that are apparent indicators as to whether you’re having a boy or a girl. Some of my faves are:

Shape of your bump. If your bump is all at the front and high, it’s a boy. If you have gone lardy all around, including not just your belly but also your back and arse, it’s a girl. Hmm, not sure about this one! What if you were lardy to start off with? What if your baby engages early and so sits low? My bump is all at the front and quite high, so this means boy, but then my baby is currently in breech position and hasn’t engaged. Surely that is a more credible reason for the bump being all front and high!

The Mayan Method. The Mayans determined the sex of the baby by taking the mother's age at conception, and the year of conception. If both are even or both are odd, it's a girl. If one is even and one odd it's a boy. I’m 34 and conceived in 2007. So this one says it’s a boy.

Heartbeat of the baby. The fetal heart beat, as taken by your midwife in your antenatal appointments, is apparently a great indicator of the sex of the baby. 140 beats per minute and below means it’s a boy and 140 and above means it’s a girl. According to my midwife, there is some mileage in this! So get checking your antenatal book! My baby’s heart rate has been in both the 130 and 140+ range so he/she isn’t giving much away!

The swinging wedding ring. A wedding ring suspended on a chain over your stomach will swing either side to side or in a circle to indicate boy or girl. A few of my friends have done this on me. One couldn’t remember if circle meant boy or girl, the other said circle for boy and side to side for girl and the last one side circle for girl and side to side for boy! So, in the face of such utter confusion, I turned to Google to find the answer.
Now, I assumed that this confusion spoke volumes about by friends rather than the test but apparently not! This confusion has been validated by Google! I found three separate articles about this, two of which said side to side meant boy and one of which said it meant girl. Best we ignore this one then!

But!!!! More importantly, when I was having a scoot on Google for boy –v- girl tests, I did find the IntelliGender Gender Prediction Test.

How good is this?? Pee on a stick and in less than 10 minutes, you’ll find out if it’s a boy or a girl! It’s witchcraft!

Apparently, yellow/orange means girls and smoky green means boy (that’s smoky green, not just green, mind!). I can’t help thinking that if they were REALLY clever, it’d be pink for a girl and blue for a boy, but maybe I’m going a bit too far there.

Unfortunately, I’m passed the 33 week time scale but for all you ladies that aren’t – order it, have a go and let me know once you’re baby arrives if it worked!

Photo taken from 2002ttory's photostream on Flickr