Girl or Boy?

Okay, it’s time for a random, fun post. As regular readers know, we’re not finding out the gender of this fourth baby, who is thankfully still staying put although intermittent contractions continue. A lot of family members and friends have their own predictions, but I thought it might be fun to see what you guys are thinking.

I have one uncle who supposedly has a perfect record of guessing babies’ genders. All he has to do is gaze into the eyes of a pregnant woman, and then he just gets a feeling about what the sex of unborn baby is. So when I was around six months pregnant, he stared into my eyes for just a few seconds and then said, “Got it.”

He won’t tell me his prediction because “you want it to be a surprise.” He’s that sure of himself. Hilarious. He’s told my mom his guess (who is amazingly keeping it a secret; she’s terrible with surprises because she just gets so excited) as well as his wife and kids.

I have one friend who’s convinced I’m having a boy this time, another who says it’s most definitely a girl. My older brother thinks it’s a boy. One of Dave’s aunts thinks it’s a boy, too. Rae guesses boy. Madeline goes back and forth. When we ask 2-year-old Mary Elizabeth what we’re having, she wisely says, “A baby.” When we probe further and ask if she thinks it’s a baby girl or a baby boy, she says, “Baby girl.”

What about my own prediction? Well, I had an interesting dream about giving birth the night following my pre-term labor hospitalization. (I definitely had labor on my mind at that point.) After one quick push, something slimy slipped into the world. “It’s a boy!” someone announced. But it wasn’t a boy at all. I’d just given birth to fish-frog hybrid, but we were ready to love the little, green, squirmy and slimy thing anyway.

Before I knew Madeline’s gender, I had a dream I gave birth to a girl with a full head of hair (complete with a pink bow perched on top) and a black, bushy unibrow sort of like this guy’s. Aside from bizarre dreams, I’m not much of an instinctual mama when it comes to my babies’ genders. I never have been. Mostly, depending on my mood, I’m either acutely aware that a miracle is unfolding inside of me OR something in there is making me terribly sick OR there’s a jump and jivin’ little thing, moving around like super-rockin’ breakdancer.

I cherish everyone of my baby’s thumps and kicks right now. Keep on shakin’ it and don’t go anywhere just yet, Baby!

For the record, Dave and I just assume it will be a girl simply because we do sugar and spice so well. It’s what we know. We also only have girls’ names picked out. Go figure.

Anyway, make your personal prediction here! Will Baby Wicker #4 be a girl or a boy?

Before you do, though, here are a few observations:

• At 30 weeks, I’ve gained the most weight with this pregnancy. However, I had a terrible time gaining weight with Mary Elizabeth (my most recent pregnancy before this one) because of suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum (AKA severe morning sickness; it was all-day sickness for me for almost the entire pregnancy).

• Speaking of sickness, I was very, very queasy for about 18 weeks or so, but I didn’t throw up much with this pregnancy. I threw up several times a day almost the entire pregnancy with Mary Elizabeth. I was very sick for 20 weeks with Rae. However, with Madeline’s pregnancy I was only nauseous during the first trimester and never threw up at all.

• Before last Monday when we discovered the baby was already at station 1 (yikes! no wonder there’s a lot of pressure down there), my midwife had been saying that I was carrying this baby higher than I carried Mary E. and Rae (I had a different midwife with Madeline, so I’m not sure how I carried her).

• This baby sleeps a lot during the day but is VERY active whenever I’m trying to sleep.

• At this stage in pregnancy, I’ve always measured two to three weeks behind, but  at 27 weeks (the last time I was measured), I was only measuring one week behind.

• Early on during this pregnancy I craved simple carbs, which might explain the increased weight gain. With Madeline I craved cottage cheese (I know, I’m weird), but I didn’t really have any super crazy cravings while pregnant with Rae or Mary E. (felt too sick to crave anything). I usually love to eat salads, especially when I’m pregnant, but I’ve really had to force myself to eat veggies this time.

• I’ve had a lot more early contractions (obviously) with this pregnancy and lots of crampiness early on but the pressure in my pelvic region didn’t start until last week, and it started earlier with Rae and M.E. I had sciatica pain with only Madeline. None of that this time. Whew.

• Normally I suffer from some pretty painful calf cramps at night, but I’ve only had two with this baby, and it quickly went away.

• Usually I gain weight in my bum and tummy, but I feel like I’ve gotten rounder everywhere this time – even in my arms. Why do my arms need extra baggage to carry a baby?

• Before modified bedrest in which I feel antsy all of the time, I was always tired with this pregnancy. I never got that second trimester burst of energy. I suspect a lot of my lassitude was mostly due to the fact that I’m pregnant with three other little ones.

• According to this chart, parents with three girls have a slightly higher chance of having a boy the fourth go-round.

• That silly Chinese Gender Prediction Chart says I’m having a girl. I believe it was right with two of my previous pregnancies and wrong with one of them.

• My midwife is hopeful this baby is slightly bigger than my other two she delivered (a very good thing since he/she may very well come early). M.E. was 5 pounds 13 ounces at a little over 38 weeks; Rae was 6 pounds 3 ounces at 37 weeks.

That’s about all I can think of right now, so place your bets! :-)