It’s a Girl! …or maybe not

That’s pure Sunshine!

For all you guys out there who liked the name GuitarGreg, and for those who really, really loved CoolAssMojo, tough luck. It’s a girl, per the ultrasound, which isn’t 100% but is more reliable than dowsing or casting lots.

Our younger daughter seemed pretty convinced it would be a girl when she was here and the boys were only thinking up boy names. I thought she looked like she was pregnant with a girl too, so we’re happy with the confirmation. Another friend anxiously expecting their first baby wanted to know how you can guess the sex of a baby before having that semi-definitive ultrasound. Fact is, I don’t really know. Women’s intuition? I guessed correctly with both of mine, and now with both daughters. Maybe I’m just a good guesser.

There was no ultrasound when I was having babies. You juggled your lacy pink desires with the tons of boring blue stuff other people always buy for baby showers, then when they hand you the baby and tell you whether it’s a boy or girl, you start planning who you’re going to give away all the no longer apropos stuff to at their baby showers. It generally works out in the end for both parents and baby stuff manufacturers - while slightly more boy babies are born than girl babies, things even out in the first year or two by attrition. Just statistics, nothing against boys.

Since there haven’t always been ultrasounds that tell you a baby’s sex months before they’re born - and not everyone trusts the technology to be as harmless as it’s claimed to be - I thought I’d go looking to see what’s out there as folklore or old wives’ tales about knowing the sex of your baby well before he or she is born.

For those fond of ‘Oriental Wisdom’, there’s Chinese Gender Chart, which purports to tell you if it’s a boy or girl based on the age of the mother at the time of conception and the month during which Mom conceived. I’ve seen no statistical analysis of whether or not it works, but if you’re wondering and won’t get the ultrasound for a few more weeks, do let us know!

I also found a rundown of your basic folk wisdom based on indicators such as morning sickness, weight gain and general appearance, which I know to be unreliable because none of it applies to me or other Moms I’ve known. Still, here it is:

It’s a girl if…

• You had morning sickness early in pregnancy [Ha! I was sick all nine months with both a girl and a boy]

• Your baby’s heart rate is at least 140 beats per minute [This is standard for both girls and boys]

• You are “carrying high” [This one does apply, at least it did for me]

• You are carrying the weight in your hips and rear [How does that jive with "carrying high?"]

• Your left breast is larger than your right breast [Before or after?]

• Your hair develops red highlights [Um... I'm a redhead...]

• Your belly looks like a watermelon [ALL pregnant bellies look like watermelons before it's over!]

• You crave fruit and sweets [Does the ice cream that goes with the pickles count?]

• You don’t look quite as good as normal during pregnancy [Try losing 30 pounds before ever gaining an ounce and see how good you look]

• Your face breaks out [Duh]

• You are moodier than usual [Double Duh]

• You refuse to eat the heel of a loaf of bread [Those are edible?]

• Your breasts have really blossomed [On the left?]

• Your pillow faces south when you sleep [Hahahaha!]

• Your urine is yellow [Whose isn't?]

• You hang your wedding ring over your belly and it moves side to side[Dowsing?]

• You add your age at the time of conception and the number of the month you conceived, and the sum is an odd number [Is that how the Chinese worked it out?]

Well, you can guess how the indications go opposite of this if you’re going to have a boy baby. To which I’d supply the same sarcastic remarks. To tell you the truth, I knew my younger daughter was pregnant before she did, just by looking at her when they visited in mid-June. I kept my own counsel about that, but I sure as heck wasn’t surprised when we got the news officially. I didn’t have any inkling at that time whether it was a boy or a girl, but at that stage, who cares?

When they were here weekend before last and we got to play such fun name games, I knew from her reaction that she’d already intuited it’s a girl. She rolled her eyes at Elvis, Guitar Greg and Cool Ass Mojo, but gave us just the one girl’s name - Sunshine. She had that smug little self-smile on her face when her eyes were downcast (communing within herself, I guess you could call that), and I knew it’s a girl because she knew it.

I’m completely delighted, of course. There’s too many boys among the grandchildren in my family, not nearly enough girls. When I got the ultrasounds in my email I wrote back to ask how “girlie” we’re going to let Sunshine be. My daughter was Miss Prissy all-girl, all-pink, all the time when she was little, turned out to be quite the womanly woman too.

Just want to know what to make for the occasion when I go up there to help when the baby’s born. I was the world’s worst tree-climbing, ditch-digging Tomboy when I was growing up with my four sisters. Hated the color pink and those silly pink girlie dresses Dad always made us dress in for dinner - with the big sashes he’d tie for us as we lined up, making perfect bows (as if I cared one bit for how perfect the derned bow was!). Yet for my own daughters I went hog wild on lace and frilly girlie stuff, in every shade of pink imaginable. Go figure.

I think a nice soft-weave baby basket with lace and ribbons and soft pink satin lining, a pretty flowery pad and a pink-pink-pink quilt with pink buttons and a pink satin binding…

This is going to be so much fun!

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Filed under Family Life, Guessing Baby Sex, Old Wives' Tales, Pregnancy, Ultrasound |