All Wives Tales Pointing to...

It must be exceptionally easy for you to tell what's going on in my life based on what kind of posts I write.  I get hung up on certain topics for chunks of time.  With May's gift of the new popular baby name list from the SSA, I was obsessively writing about baby names (here, here, here and here).  Today I'm going to write about baby gender predictions, which falls right in line with all the gender neutral posts I've been writing lately.

When the baby-to-be's gender is a surprise, it inevitably leads to guesses, hypotheses and even some harmless betting.  Some people just have a hunch that it's one or the other.  Others base their guesses on old wives tales.  For example, according to preggers legend, the appearance of the mother during the pregnancy is linked to the baby's gender - is she carrying high (girl) or low (boy)?  Is she all glowy (boy) or all haggard (girl)?  Is she slender with a basketball bump (boy) or pudgy with a tank ass (girl)?  If you weren't sure, as soon as you read "tank ass" you realized that it's not necessarily a compliment to be pegged as pregnant with a little girl.  I've heard that it's common for people to guess a boy up until about 7.5 months, then suddenly change their mind.  Apparently even slender, glowy ladies can appear haggard and pudgy at the end.

Remember how good Victoria Beckham looked with all of her pregnancies?   There was actually a bit of controversy because she supposedly only gained 15 lbs with her first pregnancy.  I can gain 15 lbs after a big meal.  Anyway, the photo above is from her 4th pregnancy...OR NOT.  It's a couple pretending to be Mr. and Mrs. Becks for the Daily Mail.  How random.  Were you fooled? 

Besides appearance based tales, there are a host of other scientific indicators unproven signs.  I wrote about some of these signs a while back.  What I'm curious to know this time around is whether any of them are remotely accurate.  They're fun to talk about and to use for guesswork, but do they work?  Even a little?  Here are the lists (from the past post):

Signs you're carrying a GIRL

• You're carrying high
• Your pee is dull yellow
• Bad morning sickness
• Sweet food cravings
• Baby's heart rate averages more than 140 beats per minute
• Your left breast becomes noticeably larger than your right breast
• When you hang a ring (wedding band or otherwise) over your belly it swings from side to side
• Your hair develops red highlights
• The sum of your age at the time you conceived and the month in which you conceived is an odd number (example: 28 when conceived, baby due in July. 2+8 = 10 + 7 = 17...girl)
• You are plagued by bad acne

Signs you're carrying a BOY

• You're carrying low
• Your pee is bright yellow
• Baby is kicking a lot
• Salty food cravings
• The hair on your legs is growing like crazy
• Baby's heart rate averages less than 140 beats per minute
• When you hang your ring (wedding band or otherwise) over your belly it swings in a circle
• Your feet are always cold
• The sum of your age at the time you conceived and the month in which you conceived is an even number

Think back to your pregnancy, which of the above signs were accurate, which signs were red herrings?  Do you have a pregnant friend who suddenly appears to have auburn hair?  A pregnant cousin who's constantly complaining about cold feet?

Next, behold the Chinese Gender Predictor (or part of it...it goes up to age 45):

I'm guessing that most of you have heard of the Chinese Gender Predictor and possibly used it.  It's a calendar of sorts that is based on lunar months and time of conception and magic.  It seems to be the most highly regarded gender predictor out there (other than sonograms and the technicians that do them).  I hear it's 50% accurate...badumbum, ching.  Go to Baby Center (here) and plug in your numbers to test it's genius.  Let me know how accurate it was in predicting your baby's gender, your gender, your aunt's gender, whatever.