of a baby's gender and hubby's size...

I was having a conversation with a couple of ladies from my department and our department admin the other day and the subject of my baby’s gender came into the topic. They were telling me all these oldwives tales about signs on the baby’s gender.

Then remembered those conversations that I have with those older operators. I used to work as the equipment engineer in the factory production area where most of the operators were ladies. As one would guess, due to my charms *ahem* I get along with most of the operators fairly well. History have taught us well most, if not all wisdoms in the world comes out from the mouths of old ladies in between their free time. Therefore, due to my time spent with this age group of demography, was inevitably schooled on these old wives wisdoms.

From what I know there are various ways of determining the gender of the baby by evaluating a few conditions:

1. the tummy shape method: according to the method, the shape of the mommy’s tummy can be tell if the baby will be a boy or a girl. If the shape is round, then this age old wisdom states that the baby will be a girl, but if the shape is slightly pointed to the front (cone shaped), then the baby will be boy.

2. the face method: then there is this other method that suggest that if the mother’s face is obnoxiously ugly breaks out a lot and all puffed up, then the baby will most probably be a boy but if the mother’s face did not change (still look the same as before pregnant), then the odds are that the baby will be a girl.

3. the look from behind method: there is this other method that says that if you look at the mother from behind, you can basically figure out if she is carrying a boy or a girl. The method states that if the shape of her body does not look like she is pregnant i.e., still curvy etc., then most probably she is carrying a boy and if the from a quick glance, the shape does tells you that she is pregnant, then she might be carrying a girl.

4. then there are those other methods that are a bit more vague, like the baby’s kicking style etc.

Having said all those, I remembered this one conversation I had during lunch with a few female ex-colleagues quite a while ago (before wifey got pregnant). According to one of them, the gender of the baby can be influenced by the husband’s pee pee. The basis of the theory is that the little swimmers that carry the female gene can swim longer distance but is slower while the male swimmers can swim faster but are lazier (therefore don’t swim as far). So the deduction from this is that if the hubby got a long peepee, then the male swimmers will win as they are faster, but if the hubby got a short peepee, then the female swimmers will win because they can swim longer distance.
But I guess I have proven this theory wrong by having a baby girl right? ;)

but all in all I think these are all based on the individual’s experiences and there is no real conclusive evidence to prove if the methods are true or not. For us I think, it really does not matter much, as we do not have a strong preferance for either boy or girl as long as she grows up to be a successful multi trillionaire and lavish her parents with all her riches healthy and happy.

of some extra kilos and a confirmation...

We went for out monthly checkup last night. Our appointment were actually supposed to be on Saturday (21st) but since it will be deepavali and coupled with the long break, we decided to go early. So wifey and I went for the evening session.

On the weighing scale, wifey had put on 3+ kgs since the last visit. When wifey inform this to me, I just thought that probably baby is growing.

Anyway, during the doc’s consultation, the doctor noted that wifey had gain a lot of weight. (In fact, wifey told me later that the nurse asked her to take her weight again before seeing the doctor. Probably to make sure that the first reading was not a mistake.) According to the doctor, baby has now turned and her head is pointing slightly downward, which is an indication that baby is on track. Her hands and feet are very distinct now. We can also clearly see her little heart beating and at one point we even caught a glimpse of something that we think might be her intestine. The good doctor also did another scan around the pelvic region and to confirm that we will be having a mei mei. Can’t see any extra appendage there, so he confirmed that we will be having a girl.

That was a good relief to me as it just so happen that I was reading an entry in this forum. In one of the threads, some women shared of their experience where the initial scan indicate the baby as girl and later to find out in the subsequent scan that the baby is actually a boy. Even though our gynea have been known to be very accurate, there was always that small inkling worrying feeling. But I guess with this confirmation put all those worries to rest.

Doc also said that baby’s size is normal and concluded that probably the extra weight gained is probably gained by wifey rather than baby. So I guess wifey must be in a way, enjoying this pregnancy by indulging on her favorite preoccupation, Food!.
Doc advices to cut down a bit on rice, bread and carbo stuff. So, I guess, it will be more vege from now on.

of oysters and sea cucumbers...

We went for our regular checkup the other day. For this round, we were pretty excited because we might get to know if baby will be a little sweet seductress of a chick or a hunk of a stud (I would like to say like his father but I cannot lie). We were told that if we were lucky we should be able to find out by the last visit, but that did not materialize as the doctor were not able to see. So, it’s pretty obvious that we are damn excited about this visit.

One of my colleague told me that she did not know the gender of her son until the eight month because he was tightly crossing his legs and that got me a bit worried too. But she did suggest that if baby is crossing his/her legs, probably I should give a slap on wifey’s tummy to wake him up. Hmmmm sounds interesting…
Then there was this one time that I was having lunch with another colleague and came up with the idea that maybe I should get wifey to watch a bit of porn before the good doctor scans her. You know, just to get the little guy of the little guy excited so that we can see it.

In any case both wifey and I don’t really have a strong preference for a boy or a girl as long as it is not half and half. Wifey said that maybe a girl will be good because then, she can dress her up. Me, I am not really sure. Boy also good, can whack him if he is naughty. Girl also good, because then she’ll be daddy’s girl.
Mom in law says that probably a boy, but I think probably a girl from the way wifey’s face looks.

So anyway, back to the doc’s appointment, doc scanned wifey’s stomach and by now we can see baby’s legs and arms. Then doc scanned from another angle and can see baby’s spine and ribs. At the back of my mind I was amazed and was also thankful. ”hmmm a clear and distinct spine. Baby is definitely not going to grow up into a spineless chickensh*t of a coward. Baby’s got spine”. And of course wifey and I blurted the customary oohsss and aaahhs as we go view the image. What I find amazing is that everything seem so clear and obvious and in place. Baby seem so real to us.

Then the doctor turned the direction of the scan and seem to be taking some time maneuvering around. I think he is trying to determine the gender, but he is like taking forever. I almost felt like saying ”enough with the messing around already, oyster or sea cucumber?” but of course I didn’t. Anyway, doc finally stopped maneuvering and pointed and say, “here you can see the tighs and in between you can see and determine if boy or a girl’”. “Do you want to know?”. Wifey and I almost simultaneously said yes. And doc said 95% is a girl. Why 95%? Will baby have a 5% of a birdie dangling about? Which 95% of baby will be girl and which 5% will be boy? Anyway, I guess doc is just saying this 95% because things are never certain and he do not wanna to be liable for all the girlie stuff wifey is going to buy and only to find out that he made a mistake. So looks like I’m going to have a girl. Phew! Wifey will be the one who have to talk to her about the birds and bees when she grows up ;)

Note: now that I think about it, baby’s thighs really do look like a couple of sea cucumbers.