At baby number four, we have yet to find out the gender before birth. Ultrasounds put a too-solid “date” on the calendar, and I like my freedom to go to or past 42 weeks. Plus, every time I tell someone I haven’t found out the gender in this pregnancy, I get a story about so-and-so who thought it was a _____ the whole time but the ultrasound turned out to be wrong. And on top of it all, there is absolutely nothing like that moment in birth when this strange new person is pulled up to your chest, a towel or blanket thrown over them, and you get to find out and announce to the room the first fact you know about them.
Whatever reason you choose not to have an ultrasound, sometimes it’s fun to have some predictions anyway. I have no intuition about gender, but my family tends to. With this one, the boys think it’s a boy and my daughter and her cousin both think it’s a girl. It’s turning into quite a competition, actually.
Organic Gender and Gender Prediction
So when Organic Gender wanted us to try their system, we thought it’d be fun to throw their prediction in the hat. The idea is based on an ancient method where the mother’s urine on planted seeds would tell the gender. I am all about passing along tradition, so this is really interesting to me. Organic Gender sends you 2 little flower pots, one Girl and one Boy, with dirt discs and two packets of seeds. And then…a pee-cup. Yup. Pee in the cup (hey, why not- you do it at every prenatal!) and follow the instructions to keep it watered. The strongest one wins!
To make sure that the kids didn’t get too hung up on the results, we talked about old wives’ tales, predictions, and tried a few other prediction methods, too. By the way, my kids were super disappointed that there weren’t any “old wives’ TAILS” in the box. Woops!
Old Wives Tales (Tails?)
A few of the ones we tried and their results:
-Ring Test: Hold a ring over your belly. Circle swings mean girl, line means boy. Answer: Girl. This one has been accurate thus far, so…
-Chinese Calendar: Your age and month of conception tells you the gender. Answer: Inconclusive. Using the Lunar calendar gives me one answer, using our calendar gives me another. Not accurate with my other kids, either.
-Belly: Carrying “out” is boy, carrying “wide” is girl. Answer: Boy. I always carry out, though, so it’s been right for 2/3 so far. Ha!
-Mayan Age Prediction: If your age at conception and the year of conception are both even or odd, girl. Mismatched? Boy. Answer: Girl. This one held true for my others, so…
-Cravings: Sweets means girl, salty/protein means boy. Answer: TRIPLETS! (Seriously, give me all the food.)
And for the Organic Gender answer…
Boy!
They say they are 70% accurate, so for me it’s between the ever-accurate ring test and the Organic Gender sprouts. Which will prevail? We’ll know in the next month or so!
Though, my spunky girl and her cousin have taken matters into their own hands. After about a week and very clear results, they took the Girl pot outside to add more soil to it to make it grow better. We’ll see if that helped them out at all.
Disclaimer: Organic Gender sent me the flower pot kit for review, but all opinions, prediction methods, crazy battling kids, and baby fat is mine.
Deb Searle says
My grandmother always said look at the hair line on the back the first childs neck. If it comes down like a duck tail, the second child will be a boy. If its straight across, the second child will be a girl. Then, look at the second childs hair line to determine the sex of the third child. It has held true 14 out of 15 times with my kids and all my sisters kids too.
BrannanS says
That’s interesting! Wonder if you have to do it when they are babies? My oldest is straight across, #2 (boy) is straight across, #3 (girl) is definitely ducktailed. Inconclusive?
Gail Gardner says
That’s interesting because male ducks have curled tails and females don’t.
Janie M says
The belly one has held true for me- but it could just be that certain bodies ALWAYS carry out, and I have all boys so…
Mayan one was inconclusive, since I conceived around my birthday 2 out of the 3 times. lol- Jonathan was right though.
Ring on a string worked only once of the three times- and my mom had only been wrong one other time in her life before me. lol
I’m going to predict boy- because 3 boys has been pretty amazing. I was skeptical before (when I was in “I want a baby girl with little purple ribbons in her curly hair” mode), but I love it now! Wouldn’t change a thing! 🙂
AngEngland says
I always heard higher levels of morning sickness were usually girls and lower morning sickness were boys.
Sabrina M Bowen says
I never used a ring, but my pendulum got it right all three times. If you understand the chi of the body and how energy flows change during pregnancy, it’s easy to see why that method is, and always has been, so popular – and generally accurate. As for the others, I can’t say one way or another. The Chinese calendar was right (and wrong) for all three of mine. They’re a lot like horoscopes. If you read the ones posted in the back of TV Guide, they’re far from on point, but if you actually have your charts done by a professional, they’re scary correct – the birth/gender calendar is the same way. I would think he Mayan one is similar. Since their years were calculated differently than ours, you wouldn’t be the age you are, so if they really had a prediction system like that, I would think it would go by their age calculations, not ours. And the idea that you carry different is wrong just as often as it’s right. The idea is that you carry a girl (which are usually smaller) high because there isn’t as much weight. But the fact is there are numerous elements to how and where you carry your baby – most important are the health and shape of your “womb” and where the baby is attached through their umbilical cord. If they are attached to the “front” of your uterus, you have a good chance of carrying “out” if they’re attached to the back, you have a better chance of “up.” But it’s got nothing to do with gender. Your best bets for knowing would come from having someone who knows how to use a pendulum, reads chi or auras do an examination on you. Or, you can just wait and find out later. Unless you have gender specific things that need bought, there’s really no NEED to know.
AngEngland says
I know a lot of people with growing concerns about the lack of long-term studies re ultrasound on babies in utero and so avoid or greatly limit their exposure. Like you said – there’s no NEED to know…just desire. I liked Brannan’s review about Organic Gender because it seems like a really safe way to try to find out as a family.
Kathy Baldock says
You CANNOT predict gender; you may be able to predict sex.