My husband has teased me for years now that we will be having all boys. He only has brothers, his parents only have brothers, and his cousins are boys. But instead of going by his predictions alone, we decided to check out the accuracy of some old wives tales before seeing what the ultrasound would reveal.
First we took an online old wives tale quiz. I skipped several questions that we couldn't answer yet, and the result was a 58% chance of our baby being a boy.
Next was the Chinese gender predictor calendar, which claims 90% accuracy. By looking at my age and the month we conceived (although I'm not sure I did it right, since it wasn't based on Chinese lunar months?), it said we would be having a boy.
And then we hit up a list of 51 old wives tales about pregnancy...
If the baby's heart rate is faster (above 140 bpm) it's supposed to be a girl, and if slower it's a boy. This points to girl.
Apparently if my face gets fuller and rounder it's a girl, while longer and narrower it's a boy. Now I thought everyone gained some weight in their face by the end, but since I haven't so far: boy.
A Mayan legend says to add the mother's age at conception and the year of conception: if it's an even number it's a girl, an odd number it's a boy: boy.
If you break out with acne while pregnant, it's a girl: girl.
If your cravings are salty it's a boy, if they're sweet it's a girl: boy.
History of parents' kids: I hadn't heard this one before, but here it is: if you're the firstborn, you'll have what your mother had starting with her second child; if you're the middle child, you'll have what your mother had starting with her third child; if you're last, you'll have what your mother had in that order. Now I'm not sure if this goes by mother's family or father's family, and if it only applies to families with three kids, but either way for us it's boy.
If the dad gains "sympathy weight" during pregnancy, it's a girl: boy.
If you don't have morning sickness, it's a boy; if you're extremely nauseous, it's a girl: boy.
If you crave meat and cheese, it's a boy. I was all about cheese in the first trimester, so boy.
If your feet are cold it's a boy, if not it's a girl. Um, it's the middle of summer and it's been darn hot, so I don't know how I could have cold feet! Girl.
If your leg hair is growing faster it's a boy: girl.
If you can only think of baby names for one sex, it's that sex. We've come up with a list for both, but we focus much more on boy names: boy.
Apparently if you mix Drano with your urine, the color will change and tell you which sex it is. We didn't do this (we don't have any Drano in the house), but I really wanted to!
Finally there's the classic prediction based on how you carry. This (like several others that I didn't include) seems to work better when you're further along, and yet I did have two ladies tell me I was carrying like a boy. Last night my husband's 93 year old grandmother guessed it was a girl. Here's how I looked:
With most of the signs pointing to our baby being a boy, you can imagine my surprise at the ultrasound this morning when we discovered...
IT'S A GIRL!!!