The Old Wives' Tales and My Pregnancy

I decided to compile these old wives' tales and add in my experience with some of them.

So sleep position is an iffy one because I'm a wild sleeper. I want to say that I tend to sleep on my right side, but I read that it's important to sleep on your left side when pregnant because it helps the baby breathe easier. This being said, I have been consciously trying to sleep on my left side and have found that difficult because I want to sleep on my right. What I actually do though is sleep in ALL over the place!

Extreme nausea? No. I actually was concerned about why I had not thrown up at all. I read that I should ask my mom is she was a barfer because much of this is genetic. Throughout five pregnancies my mom did not throw up once, and I have not with my first. This makes me feel better about not having gotten sick. Although yes I got nauseous in the beginnings of pregnancy it was never a huge concern. My mom said that her's got worse with each pregnancy, and she even passed out once. I am very lightheaded, just like she was!

I haven't had many food cravings but something that, especially in the beginning, I always wanted was juice, juice, and more juice. I cannot get enough orange juice!

Damn this adult acne! It started as bacne, then it traveled to my neck and face. Although not bad, it was bad enough for me. Finally now, at week 15, I'm starting to clear up. Am I getting that second trimester "glow" that they talk about??

As mentioned earlier I haven't had many food cravings, but I must say that now I eat cookies, candy, and ice cream more than I ever have before. So I guess this means I've been having sugar cravings... Mmmmm, chocolate...

Ask my husband if I've been experiencing mood changes. Yesterday morning I couldn't breathe I was crying so hard, and when Chad helped me try to take deep breathes all I could do was weep. At the Veteran's Day assembly at the elementary school where I work I held back tears the entire time; the kids were too darn cute and I felt so thankful for the veterans that have served our country. Would this have made me cry before? Most likely not. My mood changes = extreme sensitivity and many, many tears.

Ahh, the infamous pendulum test. My grandfather and my dad have both predicted correctly the sex of nearly every child and grandchild in the family. My cousin Janae and I once, at a family party, went around to every person and dangled a needle on the end of string over their hand. We thought it was amazing that it was accurate in determining the sex of every person! Then Chad did the pendulum test on me. He thought out loud and when he thought it would swing back and forth it did; when he thought it would swing around in a circle it did. Our conclusion, this is bullshit.

Age: 23, year of conception: 2010. One even, one odd means a boy!

A stress test is a tricky one because considering that the time of conception was right after our wedding and during our honeymoon, we were both very NOT stressed!

Last night I officially had my first baby dream! I have had dreams about nursing (everyone wanted to nurse from my breasts, including my cats and Chad) and other pregnancy-related things, but last night was my first real baby dream. I dreamt that my very easy birth gave me a baby boy and I could not for the life of me remember his name! He was a super cutie and I had the most difficult time unbuttoning my shirt so I could nurse him. Dream meaning: I'm having a girl.

Sleep Position - girl
Upset Stomach - boy
Soft or dry hands - girl

Food Cravings - girl

Adult Acne - girl
Sugar and Spice Food Cravings - girl

Mood Changes - girl

Even and Odd Numbers - boy
Dream Meanings - girl

Here's another tale that I heard from my Jamaican brother, Yohan. He told me his instincts say girl but he said that it's the father's instincts that are always correct. Although I think (or "thought" I should say; I'm starting to think otherwise) that we're having a boy, this entire pregnancy all Chad can think is that we're having a baby girl. We both feel very content about baby being a boy or girl, but according to Yohan's tale: we're having a girl.

Who has heard of the Chinese Gender Chart? This handy little chart tells me we're having a girl.

According to these tales the data shows a striking 9 to 2, we're having a girl!

Alright, so now we must wait in patience until we find out the baby's sex. Since we cannot agree as to whether or not we should find out the sex from an ultrasound, we decided to go with out first thought, to find out. And maybe this means that baby number two can be a surprise? A little more than four weeks and we go in for the 20-week appointment for our first ultrasound!