So is it PINK or BLUE?

Even though this is my second pregnancy... every mom-to-be will admit that the excitement and the anxiety is still the same! You get excited at every gynae visit, you get anxious at every new development to your body and everything else that revolves around the pregnancy... The thing that will also be in the mom's mind will be the gender of the baby...

So ever since I guessed I was pregnant... I made careful observations of signs that will fall under the "old wives tale" in gender predicting. I believed strongly in these so called tell tale signs because when I was carrying Siddiq he practically screamed out that he was a boy with all the signs and symtoms. There are even quizzes online that attempt to predict the gender of the baby you are carrying. One example is http://pregnancy.about.com/library/quiz/boygirl/blboygirlquiz.htm

They ask questions about how you are carrying your baby, high or low... what kinda cravings do you have, sweet or salty stuff etc etc.

With Siddiq, I was carrying low... he was always at the sides of my tummy but sitting very low on my abdomen. I had all the savoury/salty preferences, likes meat, NO MORNING SICKNESS since day one, easy as a breeze pregnancy, my hubby was experiencing all the morning sickness, getting drowsy, even gaining weight at one point of time. Even after checking the conception date and time of conception it supposedly tells us that we were having a boy. Almost 95% of the symtoms were pointing to him being a boy. There is even a list to check if it is a boy... I basically followed this list...

• no morning sickness wow that was the bliss when carrying Siddiq!



• baby heart's rate is less than 140 beats/min this one not so true.. Siddiq's heartbeat was usually around 150 - 160 beats/min



• carrying the baby out in front just like said earlier...



• belly looks like basketball defintely yes a basketball!



• carrying low sure did...



• craving salty/sour foods pretty much all the time



• craving protein, meat or cheese oh my goodness! I was a carnivorous preggo then!



• hair on legs grown faster during pregnancy not really though with Siddiq...but I went for a lot of threading.. facial hair was growing more!



• hands very dry I used so much of body butter!



• dad is gaining weight sure my hubby did!



• pregnancy makes you look better i sure did at some point of my pregnancy :) was tempted to go photo shoot even...



• nose is spreading?? I don't know what is this...

Even my maternal as well as his dad's instincts said we were going to have a boy for our first born. And I found out it was true in my 28th week. :)

The list provided for a girl was this:-

• had morning sickness early in pregnancy (YES!)



• baby heart rate is at least 140 beats/per min (YES! its about 156 beats/per min)



• carrying high, hips and rear getting bigger (so definitely true... sob sob!)



• crave sweets



• crave fruits



• crave orange juice (my daily intake in school every time either orange juice or fruit juice or power berries juice!)



• don't look quite good as normal (sighs... even with Siddiq I had acne and all but manage to look still good.. but this pregnancy I look so bad! Dull and bad acne too!)



• moodier than before (I don't know if this is because I'm teaching this time round or what but my P1 kids usually gets on my nerves a lot! I feel moody most of the time)



• chest area have really blossomed (can't really rely on this one as it really blossomed even with Siddiq's pregnancy! Now they are over blossomed! =/)

My second pregnancy, I had morning sickness since Week 3. (This was the time I suspected that I was pregnant.) And it worsens from then till all the way to Week 18. I'm at week 21- 22 now and thankfully the vomitting has lessen and not much of drowsiness. Vomitting still occurs.. usually after half an hour after food.. Certain kinda food. I hate MacDonald's totally. I can't eat anything from there except for apple pie. I even feel like puking stepping into the restaurant! And the drowsiness and vomiting spells usually occur in the evening. I am carrying high. My tummy looks so big (I looked like this when I was in my 7th month with Siddiq!) I am showing at 18 weeks. Maybe cause I have my leftover stretchy skin and tummy fats from Siddiq's pregnancy hence showing earlier. I had sweet cravings.. Be it ice-cream, chocolates or fruits! Lots and lots of fruits especially. A complete opposite from Siddiq's pregnancy.

Oh yes another sign was the amount of activity... at least that was what I heard from a lot of people with experience.. Boys kick faster and a lot more than baby girls...Siddiq started kicking at 14 - 15 weeks and had lots of activity. This baby started to kick me only at 18 weeks (again not sure if my skin is thicker now that's why) And it usually prefers to stretch rather than kick or punch inside... It isn't as active as Siddiq was BUT it has occasionally kicked me pretty hard that I nearly felt knocked over from inside! It was no fun and very painful. I had a scan yesterday and just before that it gave me two hard kicks right in the middle of my stomach and when the baby came on the monitor during the scan I saw how it has positioned itself and kicking me at such an awkward position!

No wonder it hurts so bad! Siddiq was always co-operative when it comes to scanning. My second one is a bit arrogant. It sometimes hide so deep in my tummy and refuses to nudge even when being poked around. Sighs... in the end I have to endure all the poking. Ooops I've side tracked too much... Back to the story of the gender so... yes since the signs to be pointing more to the chances of me having a girl I was thinking that perhaps I should start shopping around for all the girly stuff! And even planned what to inherit from my sister's daugher.. hehe.. there were only two things that kept me from splurging on girly stuff... My hubby's insistence that this was also going to be a boy... and a nudging thought at the back of the mind that I am carrying a boy. So yes.. I had my reservations despite being a firm believer of the old wives's tale.... Then again the only way to find out for sure is of course through a scan! DUH! AND Guess what!?

We are having a BABY BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here he is! :)

His favourite position... :) Refuses to turn around to be measured....

So out goes my beliefs in the old wive's tale! Out goes all this quizzes that supposedly have high accuracy in predicting baby's gender cause my second baby is proof that these stuff is not true! possibly it works on a majority basis.. Oh well now I can get the licence to splurge more on boy's stuff so that the brothers can share more! They can share all the boys stuff and toys! Hehe.. I was thinking I might stop after the second one if it was going to be a girl... Now that I am going to have two boys... It will be nice to have a little sister for them to learn about manly responsibilities and being a gentleman (I seriously think there's a difference between boys who have sisters and boys who don't!) anyways... there's a lot of time to think about the third one... Because for now I just wanna focus on my little potato chip in my tummy and waiting for the day I can hold him in my hands! I love you little one!