Week 16

Scott and I went to see our favorite person on Monday - Dr. Sodoma!  She's our loving and very sarcastic OB-GYN.  She told us that the baby seems to be doing fine, I am growing appropriately and that we will be able to have our ultrasound in about a month (when I'm 20/21 weeks).  She took the doppler, placed it on the right side of my belly and clear as an Arizona day, there it was..."woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh woosh."  Probably one of the best sounds that I have ever heard in my entire life.  It solidified the fact that there was something inside of my belly and the melon shaped protrusion coming out of my abdomen was really growing a tiny little person in there (or, at least something with a heartbeat).  Dr. Sodoma then asked us if we wanted to know the sex of the baby when we went to get the ultrasound next month and Scott promptly stated "NO!"  Dr. Sodoma looked at him, then she looked at me, and then she looked at him again and said, "Really?  You are going to make me wait another 25 weeks to find out what you guys are having?  You're crazy!"  I then explained to her about this blog and she said, you'll probably come out 50/50 - but it's going to be interesting.  And then she looked at both of us with our giant smiles on our face and said "You're crazy."  With that being said, Scott pulled out his magic phone and googled this week's OWT.

A heart rate of under 140 beats per minute signals that a boy is to arrive and a heart rate of over 140 signals a girl is to arrive.

Since the baby's heart rate was a high 150 (but still completely normal), this tells us that we are having a GIRL.

Boy - 4
Girl  - 4

Week 15

So, my book of OWT's finally arrived!  You can find it here if you are interested in seeing it and ordering it for yourself.  From now on, we'll concentrate on the OWTs in this book.  And for the record, the chinese calendar in the back of this book states that we are having a GIRL.  I'll add one to the girl column for this matter, but I won't take one away from the boys, since the bump.com and this book are equal in my eyes.

This week, I'm worried about a few things.  We have a doctor's appointment on Monday (which I'm not worried about, I just am my usual cautious self) and My puppies continuously jump on my belly - and am looking for some tips to stop this.  I'm quite afraid that they might give our baby a traumatic brain injury.  I'm finally starting to feel human, given the fact that I haven't thrown up for almost 3 weeks time and I can stay up past my first trimester bedtime of 6pm.  It's pretty rad if you ask me.  This week, I'll be doing 2 OWTs for you, seeing as they both have to do with my eyes.

#1 - OWT comes from the Germans and they recommend staring into a mirror for at least one minute, but not more than three minutes.

If the Mother's eyes dilate, it's a boy and if they don't it's a girl.  Upon staring into the mirror for 90 seconds, my eyes do not dilate, so this OWTs predicts a GIRL.

#2 - OWT states that if the Mother pulls down her lower eyelid and looks at the whites of the eyes to see if there is a broken blood vessel in the shape of a "V."

If the "V" is in the lower half of the right eye, you can count on a boy and if it is in the left eye, you are expecting a girl.

My broken blood vessel is smack dab on the bottom half of my right eye, which means we are expecting a BOY.

So, adding to the columns, we have the running total of...

Boy - 3
Girl - 2

Week 14

I've discovered a lot of things this week.  I'm starting to look like either:

1.  I have to constantly poop

2.  I just ate a really big lunch, even if it's 6am

3.  I have a cantaloupe in my lower abdomen

I have also discovered that what I thought was "fatigue" before pregnancy has a whole other meaning to it.  I get very lightheaded, even when I am just walking around (or working with my patients).  I've also rediscovered that I have the sweetest husband ever, who surprisingly did the laundry for me this afternoon, while I was off with the ladies crocheting...despite the fact...he still doesn't know what to dry and what to hang.  All the better reason to start shopping for new clothes.  It's unfortunate that Anthropologie doesn't have a maternity section (even though I found some nice jersey shirts in my size that will fit an ever-expanding belly).

This week, we decided to take a look at the Old Wives' Tale (OWT) based on our parents' babies genders.  So, the OWT is dependent on the position that each new parent is in relation to their siblings and the corresponding sexes.  You look at what position you are in the children that your parents have had...first, second, third..If you are the first born, you will have what your mother had, but starting with the second, then the third, then first.  If you are the middle child, you will have third, second, and then first.   If you are the last child, you will have exactly what your Mother had.

Being that I am the last born, I will have exactly what my Mother had, which was first a BOY (Paul) and then second a GIRL (Me).  If we count my miscarriage (and not knowing the sex of the first baby, I would be technically slotted to have a GIRL). 

Bringing Scott into the picture, he is the first born child of his Mother, so the gender of our child would be based on his Mother's second child, which would be a BOY (Dan), our second child would be a GIRL (Lori), and our third child would resort back to be a BOY (Scott). 

For the purpose of the Old Wives' Tale, we will keep things as even and non-technical as possible and we won't count the miscarriage, we will only count viable pregnancies - therefore this OWT is predicting that we have a BOY.

This OWT was taken from this website:

http://www.storknet.com/cubbies/pregnancy/owt1.htm

BOY - 2

GIRL - 0

A New Wives' Tale

I can't take credit for this blog idea.  I technically started this blog about a year ago when we adopted our two, handsome dachshunds, in the attempts we connect with our family and friends.  I made one post and one post only.  So, in the rekindling of this blog, I have to give credit to my wonderful friend Dana who gave me the idea to track this concept.  So friend, thanks.  Oh, if anyone knows Oprah, she may like this idea, so send my link to her - perhaps she shops at Pottery Barn Kids.

So, the idea.  For those of you who don't know, Scott and I are expecting our first child on July 15th, 2011.  We are very excited to announce this and I must say, through a miscarriage and that type of a loss earlier in the year, I am so very grateful and hopeful for this little blessing.  I'd also like to mention and thank our very supportive cohort of family and friends who have seen us through tears of sadness and now tears of happiness.

Since we found out that we are pregnant, Scott has mentioned to me that finding out the sex of the baby is so "anticlimactic" as he calls it.  I call it being prepared.  I have reluctantly agreed to give him his climactic moment in the delivery room and the opportunity to run out to our family and friends and shout "IT'S A ....."  Now, onto what brings us to this particular blog.  Our friend Dana, who lives in Chicago (and has already sent us Bears onesies (Scott says thank you, Mom says "Bring it")), said that since we have both *agreed* not to find out the sex of the baby, we should go and grab a book of Old Wives Tales or find a website, and do as many of them as we can before the baby is born to see if they are true.  I loved this idea.  So, here we are, embarking on our second trimester and our conquest to see if these old hags are right.  We are due in 27 weeks (from last Friday), so hopefully, we can get in about 50 good tests before the baby is born.

Week 13 -  The Chinese Gender Chart.

On thebump.com, which has become one of my favorite websites lately, you can use their pre-made, gender prediction chart based on the Chinese Calendar.  Now, my friend, Robyn, has sworn by this (it was correct for both of her children) and it was correct for my Mom's babies...but it was only correct for 1/3 of Scott's Mother's children (the one happened to be Scott).  But we're not talking about reliability here.  This is pure Chinese science - and anyone that can make a crab puff is good in my book.  Being 29 when I conceived in the month of October, that means that it's a....BOY!


Now if you have children and would like to try it - or if you are pregnant right now - as some of my friends are - you'll have to try it out and see if it's reliable (especially if you are going to find out the sex of the baby prior to it being born).

www.thebump.com/calculators/ChineseGenderChart.aspx


I'll keep a running total over the course of this experiment to see what we come up with by July 15th!

Boy - 1
Girl - 0