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Let's talk about gender

2K views 19 replies 6 participants last post by  FyerFly 
#1 ·
I have a lot of fun with gender guessing and like to hear about other mamas too.
Who is finding out before birth?
Anyone have any strong feelings, dreams, or toddlers who insist the baby is a certain gender?
Anyone have any prediction methods that have worked well in the past?

We will find out. A 20 week ultrasound makes us feel more comfortable with an out of hospital birth. Might as well peek at the gender while we're there.
But I have NO intuition this time. I had a very strong girl feeling at first but we had a dating ultrasound (I've charted successfully for years but lost track in December with the holidays, 2 birthdays, and a whole family vomiting illness. Only had 3 irregular periods since my 2nd son was born so I couldn't guess well either) at 9 weeks and it just looked like a boy to me. So then I had a really strong boy feeling. Now I flip back and forth.
My midwife told me she trusts young siblings more than anything except an ultrasound. But my boys change their prediction a few times every day . Once, my 3 year old predicted 7 babies. So I'm just going to discount everything he says.
The only thing is- and I am not mystic at all. I'm actually kind of embarrassed to talk about these- but I had a few dreams at the time of conception. They were of a baby girl and her when she was older. They gave me a really strong birth type feeling, if you know what i mean. Obviously, I didn't know I was pregnant yet and neither did my body so I don't know where the dreams can from.They were very different than the pregnant dreams I normally have of babies. So I don't know what to make of them.
 
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#2 ·
We're finding out as well -- I was on the fence about it last time, but I also had a strong feeling from the get-to that we were having a boy, and was right.

My toddler has consistently said the baby is a girl or that he wants/is getting a sister. DH is thinking girl this time around too since I don't have a tallgrass prairie sprouting on my legs every three days this go around. :grin:
 
#4 ·
With our first we were torn, were going to have a gender reveal baby shower, then ended up opening the envelope the night of the ultrasound! I didn't really have a strong feeling as it was our first. I just wanted a healthy baby :) However, everyone was guessing boy! and they were right ;).

DH really wants to find out this time as well, I have been torn, but we most likely will. He says there are enough changes the day baby is born, we don't need a big surprise too!

I am thinking/hoping for a girl since we have a boy and this will be our last pregnancy. However, I will be happy either way! DH would be ok either way, but is nervous about a girl ;). DS is 20 months and while he has a pretty good vocabulary, this is a foreign concept to him. He understands big brother, but when asked about a sister or brother he just repeats the last option we said :D

I do think I am going to carry completely different from DS. For his pregnancy I just carried like a little basket ball in front. This time it seems everything under the boobs is starting to stick out!

I am a little nervous bc everyone seems to be having girls this year that I know!! What are the odds?

According to the Chinese calendar we will have a girl, it was accurate for DS but who knows!
 
#5 ·
@Turner58800 -- I totally carry how my mom does, and it's not the cute basketball belly. I wish I did though.

Oh! I forgot about the Chinese calendar -- it was accurate for DS too. Looking at it it looks like we're having another boy. I guess we'll find out in roughly a month!
 
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#6 ·
The chinese calendar has 50% accuracy for me in the past so I don't trust it much. I think it says girl this time.
My whole life, I said I'd have 2 boys, then 2 girls. Oddly, my husband said the same even as a little boy. He says he has twin suspicious that he can't shake this time. But I've had an ultrasound and there was just 1!
I'm just not sure how much our bodies are affected by the baby's gender. I've never researched it much.
 
#7 ·
@TealCandy those dreams sound really interesting!! I had a similar experience with DS's pregnancy - not a dream per se, or a vision, but just a strong sense. Before I knew I was pregnant, DH's friend randomly gave him this tiny keychain of a brown Keen sandal and when he brought it home and showed it to me, it flashed across my mind: we're having a boy. There was also a moment a few weeks before we even got pregnant when this mom walked by me on the opposite side of the street carrying a little boy. He looked over at me and pointed straight at me. I remember thinking "he's telling me its my turn!" (we had been TTC many months). Anyway for some reason that moment also made me think DS would be a boy and he was.

This time around I am MUCH less sure. I'm having boy feelings, but I also had a similar encounter a few weeks before getting pregnant this time, with a little girl in DS's music class. She just sort of came over to me and silently stood there, being with me. I think about that sometimes and wonder if she was the same type of "sign" as the boy who pointed at me...meaning we're having a girl. I just mentioned in our August DDC though that I had a STRONG negative feeling while looking at baby girl clothes and the completely opposite feeling looking at baby boy clothes yesterday, making me think there's something deep in me that intuitively knows the baby is a boy...

We aren't going to find out this time. We did with DS, but this time we're going to skip ultrasounds altogether (unless needed for some reason). Before we even thought about having another, DH asked that we not find out this time. Not necessarily my preference, but DH feels really strongly about keeping it a surprise, and I'm happy to do it with him. There is something fun about not knowing :)
 
#8 ·
I always end up with more girl signs based on the wives tales and have 2 boys so far! Using only my untrained eye, I think this placenta was on the boy side according to the ramzi method- but that's the biggest joke of all the methods.
I just read something pretty unscientific that said something like 60% of moms pregnant with girls complained on exhaustion while it was only 40% on moms pregnant with boys.
 
#9 ·
We didn't find out with my first two (both girls), but I wanted to know this time around since it will probably be our last and since all we have are girls' clothes I would want to get at least some boy clothing for later.

This time I really strongly felt it was a boy. My four year old kept talking about a baby brother, my morning sickness was totally different than either of my first two, and I didn't have nearly as strong food aversions or anything like that this time around. I also, now that you all have mentioned it, feel like I have to shave every single day, which is a bit unusual.

At any rate, we found out last week when we got the genetic test results back that it's a third girl. Sooooo, I was wrong across the board. The good news is that we can just keep all our girl stuff and not have to worry about anything. I do feel a little sad that I probably won't ever raise a son now, but the thought of three sisters is also really fun, so I'm fine with it. I do think my husband is a tiny bit disappointed, but I think he'll be a great father to three girls. Anyway, long story short: my intuitions have been totally 100% wrong this time around.
 
#11 ·
Mystery Baby

I'm not finding out- and strangely I feel more strongly about waiting until birth to see than whether or not intuition is telling me it's a boy or girl. My mom (very spiritual) insists, however, that it will be a boy. DH and I are pretty on board with raising children mostly gender-neutral, at least as far as toys and clothing go, so I don't feel any immediate rush to find out the sex.
 
#13 ·
The Big Scan is on the 19th for us. Like @LilyTiger I want to know partly for wardrobe planning purposes, we're moving three weeks before the EDD so I'm in purge mode right now and I kept MOST of DS's clothes. Also we want to know so we can lay down the no glitter and sequins law with my MIL if we have a girl. The woman is a shopper... Also because my name lists keep getting bigger, and I want to know how hard I need to push DH for some names I love that he isn't 100% on board with... yet ;) I *may* have to play the card of he picked DS's first name, so it's my turn this time ;) That said, we didin't decide on a name until we met DS.
 
#14 ·
The 19th is pretty soon!! We won't find out until May. The place my midwives refer us to for ultrasounds wants to do them the exact day the mom is 20 weeks haha. That day didn't work for my husband's schedule so I asked if we could do 2 days before and the reception got very uncomfortable! We found a time that works on 19 weeks, 6 days but she was uncomfortable with even that!
So glad they're not my full time providers, but if they're this detail oriented, I'll probably get a great scan!
 
#15 ·
@TealCandy thats so interesting about the ultrasound people's date preferences - my midwife was just telling me pretty much the same about the group she refers to. Only they want you to be 22 weeks. I guess it has something to do with being able to make comparisons using large ultrasound data sets (measurements, etc.) that all happen at the exact same point in each woman's pregnancy? But dates are so fuzzy for so many of us, it seems funny to me that they would fuss over the exact day!
 
#16 ·
That's really interesting about the preference for timing. I'll be 20+3 for the U/S, and I woke up kind of wishing it was this week. Little miss/mister has been a wiggly little one and I really cannot wait to see the sweet little profile <3 I do know more or less within three days of when this baby was made -- one advantage of NFP/charting, but at the same time the downside of being hyper-aware is that there is no "oops, did I have my period last month or not" shock.
 
#17 ·
I've never been to the same place twice for an anatomy scan and was always told anytime between 18 and 22 weeks but I guess some places have a preference. I thought it was strange that 1 day mattered to this receptionist. Its not like my body says "its midnight on thursday! Time to switch to 20 weeks!" haha. I hope I didn't get her in trouble for scheduling me early.
I had a terrifying triplet dream last night (2 transverse babies hanging out and a 3rd suddenly sat up behind them haha). They were all 3 boys and I woke up in a bad mood from it. I wouldn't mind 5 boys but I'd prefer to not have them all in 3.5 years. And that would probably mean no girls. I've mostly shook it off now, but man, pregnant dreams!
 
#18 ·
Awww @TealCandy pregnant dreams can be so intense!!! DH was laying on with twin jokes a lot earlier on in our pregnancy, and I had very similar thinking - if its twins, he will put the kabosh on any more kids in the future, which makes me sad!! I have a solid vision of three, and have been feeling a really strong sense that now (about 20 weeks) I'm "exactly" halfway through my journey as a pregnant woman (both halfway through the pregnancy, but more importantly halfway through my desired total of three pregnancies). Already feels kind of bittersweet!! As lovely as I'm sure it will be to move on to a new phase of life, I can't even contemplate not being pregnant or having a pregnancy (and a newborn!!) in my future. But that day will come all too soon (hopefully not TOO soon!!! I'm measuring pretty solidly for a singleton pregnancy :))

Do you have a sense of what might have provoked your dream?
 
#19 ·
I think it came from trying to come to terms with this baby being a boy (we don't know yet). Triplets = 3 sons. I must want a girl more than I realize. The weird thing is, in the past, it was like "I'll be happy either way" with a tiny bit of disappointment either way because I get so excited over the idea of either gender. This time, I feel bad but I think I'll mostly be disappointed either way with a little excitement! I don't exactly want a girl because it will change our world sooooo much and I love our life! I don't exactly want a boy because I have 2 boys and would love to have 2 girls. I'm a bit embarrassed to say this.
 
#20 ·
Oooh interesting @TealCandy! That makes sense about triplets = 3 sons. I think its a great thing to be in touch with feelings around these issues, even if they seem embarassing or feel weird. For me, its often less an intellectual, logical thought and more like an intuitive gut-guided sense or feeling (whether that is a preference or guess or something in between or both...who knows). Anyway, just saying I think its great to acknowledge and work through whatever comes to mind and body around these things :)
 
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