Nowadays when ladies get pregnant and find themselves wondering “Am I having a boy or a girl?” it is common practice to find out the gender of the baby before the birth instead of waiting, with those who opt for a surprise at delivery being in the minority. It is also becoming increasingly common for these that don’t opt to find out the gender to instead find themselves on the receiving end of lots of comments that indicate they “must be mad to wait” and being asked questions like “how can you possibly sort anything out if you don’t know if it’s a boy or girl?”.
In fact “Am I having a boy or a girl?” is such an important question to so many parents-to-be that you can even opt for early gender scans now so that you don’t even have to wait till the 5 month mark. And of course most of us are familiar with the gender reveal parties that are taking the world by storm because obviously it isn’t enough that you know what your baby will be but the excitement seeping out of you means the whole world needs to know too and what better way to reveal the news than with some over elaborate game of, well anything is possible to be honest!
I, however, am very much in the minority. With both my boys I waited to find out their gender till the day they were born, I of course knew in my heart of hearts they were both boys, but then I would say that wouldn’t I? So when it came to our third (and most definitely) final baby, I naturally wanted to wait again. However this time everyone and his dog seems to have had a change of heart and is desperate for me to find out and reveal the gender of our newest baby, including my husband and our two sons.
I haven’t. I stayed strong, endured many an argument with the kids and with only 8 weeks to go we still do not know what we are having, although I do have my suspicions.
As I get bigger and bigger and closer to my due date I am hearing a lot more comments from friends that I MUST be having a boy or a girl because of X,Y and Z.
My initial reaction to these comments is always – “what a load of old rubbish” although I normally just smile and nod and try and be polite. But despite not believing most of these justifications I do find some of them interesting, some hilarious and some simply barking but I also thought it would be interesting to see if we can predict the gender of baby number 3 by using some of these old wives tales, so here goes….
Am I having a boy or a girl?
1.Cravings
Apparently if you are craving sweet treats your are having a girl where as if you are craving savory or protein based snacks your carrying a boy.
I have eaten more sweets in the last 7 months than I have in the last 7 years so according to this I’m having a girl.
2. Moody or mellow
If you are moodier than normal it’s a girl if you’re more mellow it’s a boy.
I am one Moody Margret these days so according to this it’s a another girl.
3. Excessive morning sickness
If you are suffering from excessive morning sickness it’s a girl and if you have none or “average” (what ever that means) you’re having a boy.
My morning sickness was bad enough for the first 3.5 months but it certainly didn’t cross the lines in to excessive and did stop completely by 4 months so if we believe this one it looks like this is baby boy number 3 after all.
4. High or low bump
If you are carrying high it’s a girl and low it’s a boy.
I think I am carrying low so according to this it’s a boy. Awesome, so far we have two votes for a girl and two votes for a boy.
As it is two all I figured a 5th “test” was needed so for the decider I opted for …
5. Chinese predictor chart
I had to use an online tool for this that involved me finding the month of conception on a chart and matching that with my age at conception which then determined I should be having a ……BOY.
Well with only 8 weeks left till my due date I wont have long to find out which of these old wives tales were correct. Instead I will spend my time reading stories about where your waters broke and hope mine don’t pop anywhere embarrassing.