Gender Predictor

Joe and I decided early on that we didn’t want to know the gender of our baby before it was born.  We want to be surprised.  I really wanted to get all unisex things anyway because I eventually want two children and would like to be able to reuse things and not have to buy a whole bunch of new stuff if our second child is a different gender.  Also, I really don’t care much for pink and I actually really like aqua blue and green so I’d want all our baby things in those colors anyway.  I’m going to do the nursery in sea turtles which is gender neutral and what I wanted to do anyway.  I am secretly hoping for a girl.  I really want a girl so badly.  Always have.  I even have two names picked out if I end up with two girls.  But if it’s a boy I don’t want to say or admit that I’d be disappointed.  A healthy baby is the most anyone could ever really hope for.  I did kind of try the Shettles method when we were trying to conceive but not really.  We just started earlier before I thought I was ovulating.  According to the method, female sperm live longer and male sperm swim faster.  So if you try before ovulation the female sperm will outlive the male sperm and wait around for the egg but if you try right when you ovulate the faster male sperm will make it there first.  We were basically trying to hit all around the target date (before, during and after).  However, our doctor basically told me my pregnancy was a week later than their predictor based on my last menstrual cycle, which means I ovulated a week later than I originally counted.  So it really could go either way.  When we were trying I counted fourteen days from my period and then we tried 3 days before, on that exact day and 3 days after.  So it could still go any way.  I know that when we have our baby and the delivery doctor tells us the gender and lets us hold our baby, there is no way I’d be disappointed. 

I took one of those online gender predictor quizzes just out of curiosity and it predicted a boy.  Though I’m not sure how it came to that conclusion.  I looked up some other predictor signs (all just guesses and based on old wives tales, not much basis for reality) and those signs kind of point to a girl.  Of course any of it could go either way because every woman’s pregnancy is different.  I had a lot of nausea for the first trimester.  Basically all day every day for 3 months straight (never threw up though, just felt like I was going to).  They say nausea is more common with girls because of the hormones they release.  Bad skin is associated with girls and clear skin with boys.  Craving sweets is associated with girls and craving meat is associated with boys.  Clearly I’ve had an aversion to meat my whole pregnancy so far.  I still have no interest or desire for hamburger meat or steaks at all.  Red meat is still really unappealing to me.  I have been craving chocolate and ice cream though.  They say if your bump is higher it’s a girl and if it’s lower a boy.  My baby bump so far looks kind of low.  Joe’s kind of been gaining weight too and they say if the father gains weight it’s a girl.  They say if the baby’s heart rate is above 140bpm it’s a girl and if below a boy.  Our baby’s is around 160bpm.  Most people seem to swear by the Chinese Gender Chart which bases gender on the mother’s age and the month of conception.  According to that I’m having a girl.  It’s all really just a guess so who knows but I can't help but be curious.