Are You a Betting Man?

Well, me neither. BUT, we thought it might be fun to do a poll predicting baby M's sex!

I think the general consensus with most of our friends is boy, but my Daddy and a few other people are still holding out that it's a girl.

To help make a more "informed" decision, (or actually just add to the speculation), here are my responses/results to some of the most common old wives tales, (OWTs) to predict the sex.

1.) Carrying high or low?

I think this one is a throw away. There's absolutely no way to tell right now. You can't even see my "bump" most of the time, much less decide if I'm carrying high or low. I think we would have to wait a few weeks at least to get a better answer on this one.

OWT Prediction: N/A

2.) Heartbeat over or under 140 beats per minute?

At my last doctor appointment, (on August 29th), the doppler picked up the heartbeat at 137 beats per minute.

OWT Prediction: BOY

3.) Craving Sweet or Salty?

I really haven't had any cravings at all. I still have lots of aversions and really don't have much of an appetite at all. Coming up with an idea for dinner every night is a challenge, because very little sounds good to me. If I had to pick one of the two I would go with sweet though, because I do eat a lot of fruit and I had frozen yogurt two times last week. The thought of eating overly salty food grosses me out.

OWT Prediction: GIRL

4.) Chinese Birth Prediction

These are supposedly ancient methods of determining the baby's sex and claim to be highly accurate. The problem is I've done 2 different ones and they came up with different answers. The ones that use lunar calendar/age are supposed to be more accurate and they say girl, the ones on websites like thebump say boy.

OWT Prediction: GIRL if lunar, BOY if not

5.) Drano Test

If you've not heard of this, the rules are you pee in a cup and add in some Drano. If the Drano is green = girl, blue = boy. I have not done this and have no plans to do so at this time. I cannot stand the smell of Drano, and the thought of mixing it with urine... YUCK! Moving on...

OWT Prediction: N/A

6.) Mayan Even or Odd Test

According to legend the Mayans determined sex by looking at the mother's age at conception and the year in which the baby was conceived; if both numbers were odd or even = girl, one odd and one even = boy. In my case both are odd.

OWT Prediction: GIRL

7.) Stolen Beauty?

Supposedly women pregnant with girls have their beauty "stolen" by the girls that they're carrying resulting in bad skin. My skin has been horrible for the past two months.

OWT Prediction: GIRL

8.) Soft or Dry Hands

Abnormally dry hands during pregnancy is supposed to be a sign that you're carrying a boy, soft skin a girl. My skin has been very dry, I feel like I put on lotion 5 times a day sometimes. I even woke up in the middle of the night the other night and put lotion on because my skin felt so dry all over.

OWT Prediction: BOY

9.) Citrus Cravings?

If you're carrying a girl you supposedly crave citrus, while carrying a boy you crave meat. Once again I don't think I necessarily have "cravings"- but I have put away quite a bit of vitamin C rich foods lately. Including drinking a GALLON of grapefruit juice in 5 days last week and eating whole red bell peppers in a sitting. I would say the vitamin C love lately is the closest thing I have to a craving.

OWT Prediction: GIRL

10.) Show Me Your Hands

If you're carrying a girl you show your hands with your palms up, and if you're carrying a boy you show your hands palms down. I don't see what this could possibly have to do with the sex of the baby! It seems like you're more likely to show your hands the same way as you always have, I would show mine palms up.

OWT Prediction: GIRL

11.) Key Test

If you're carrying a girl you pick a key up by the long end, if a boy you pick a key up by the round part. I think this can be lumped into the same category with #10, I've always picked up keys by the round part, I don't think it has a single thing to do with the baby's sex. At least these two cancel each other out rendering them both irrelevant in my eyes.

OWT Prediction: BOY

12.) Dreams

Supposedly you end up having the opposite about what you dream about while pregnant. Every single dream I've had has been about a girl. Soo...

OWT Prediction: BOY

The Results:

N/A = 2

BOY = 5

GIRL = 6

So, girl barely edges out boy! What do you think? Do you believe in any of these Old Wives Tales, (or any other ones)?? Do you have "gut feelings" about the sex of the baby?

Just for fun I put a poll up at the top right side of the page where you can vote for which you think it is, and I'll share the final results in a few days.

Have fun!

Jennifer

A DECADE

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

On this date 10 years ago my husband asked me to be his girlfriend.

I cannot believe we have been together a decade!

How is it possible that we're old enough for that to be true?!

It's really neat to look back on the last 10 years of our lives together, and I'm so excited for the next ten, (and the ten after that, and the ten after that, and so on).

Happy Dating Anniversary to my favorite person in the world. :)

Jennifer

Baby Toys

Oh, who are we kidding? These are more like toys for us. ;)

Yesterday two big boxes arrived at our house within an hour of each other. I needed to run errands and go grocery shopping, but I was so excited that they were coming that I put off leaving the house.

Because the two big boxes contain the first big purchases we've made for the baby! :)

A Britax B-Ready stroller and Britax Chaperone infant car seat in Cowmooflage!

When I started looking at strollers I was in LOVE with the Baby Jogger City Select. If you're not familiar with this stroller, it's pretty stinkin' awesome and can be configured 16 different ways including adding a second seat for a second baby. We decided that since ideally we would like to have more children in the future if we're able to, (and since my Reproductive Endocrinologist told us at my very first appointment with him that if we wanted to have more than one child we would need to start thinking about that soon after having the first), that having a stroller that wound convert to a double stroller, might actually be something that could save us a little money in the long run.

We went to Buy Buy Baby to see the City Select in the flesh, (metal and canvas?), and next to it was the Britax B-Ready. I spent about 20 minutes playing with both of them--folding them up, taking off the seats and moving them around, checking out the attachments, and wheeling them around the stroller section. For me, the B-Ready was actually easier to figure out how to work everything, but I hadn't really even heard about it before I saw it in the store, so I went home to do some research, (surprise, surprise).

I watched tons of videos, read reviews, looked at opinions on baby product message boards, and came to the conclusion that the City Select and B-Ready were both great strollers, and it really came down to personal preference and which one you liked better.

Not exactly what I was hoping to hear. I wanted there to be an overwhelming response that one was significantly better than the other, but that just didn't happen. Because they're both considered to be such great strollers, I just decided to not think about it for a few months.

That's right, the avoidance tactic. ;)

Then I read about the Britax Free Ride event where if you bought the Britax B-Ready from September 15-October 15, you got a car seat, second seat, or bassinet for free. The idea of saving a couple hundred bucks was definitely appealing to me! But I wanted to make 100% that our decision wasn't just being swayed by the thought of saving money, and that we really did love the Britax stroller.

So back to Buy Buy Baby we went to try out strollers again! We ended up deciding that we really were just a tad bit partial to the Britax stroller, (although if I were having twins, I think I would have gone with the City Select). And decided we would make our purchase as soon as the Free Ride Event started.

Last Thursday we ordered the stroller and car seat from Amazon because it was about $100 cheaper than the suggested retail price and we got free shipping. I did the math and by buying during this promo event at a reduced price with no tax and free shipping we saved about $390 from the list price of the two! Hooray for saving, (LOTS of), money!!

But enough of the boring details, let's get to some pictures!

Like I mentioned above the car seat and stroller came in two big boxes. The car seat literally came out of the box completely assembled and ready to go.

The cow print just cracks me up.

The stroller on the other hand was a pile of parts and wheels...

It looked a little daunting at first, but I honestly think it took me about 5 minutes to put it all together--SUPER easy!

Once assembled this is the frame with no seats attached:

Then you can just snap in the car seat or seat that came with the stroller facing either forwards or back facing the person pushing the stroller.

Example here's the car seat facing fowards:

and back:

And the stroller's seat facing forwards:

and back:

The stroller can actually be configured 14 different ways if you have a second seat, bassinet, and second car seat, (all sold separately of course), but we don't really need all of those things since we only have one bambino on the way. I would like to have the bassinet though, it's pretty sweet.

For right now we're extremely happy with the stroller and it's construction and versatility, but it will be about 6 months until I can give an honest review of it and it's functioning with baby. In the mean time it's kind of fun to play with/look at. ;)

Oh, and since you made it through all of my blabbering about a stroller and car seat, here's a belly picture for you. I cropped my head out for the picture because I have no makeup on and my hair's not done today, so I look like a hot mess.

This was taken today, so 18 weeks and 1 day. Still no cute little round basketball belly, but it is getting bigger!

Jennifer

P.S. Sorry about the giant pictures once again! I upload all my pictures to photobucket and then link them to here. I resize them to make them smaller, but for some reason sometimes it takes a few hours for them to change size. I usually try to write my posts ahead of time and schedule them to post later and it resolves this issue, but I accidentally hit the wrong button today and published it immediately, hence the super-sized pictures until photobucket/blogger work it out in a few hours and they appear the correct sizes. Until then I'll just be incredibly frustrated by it, and feel sorry for those of you who have to look at way too large pictures! ;)

Life Lately...

I feel like I kind of left y'all hanging for the past month or so. We announced that we're having a baby and then just kind of dropped off the face of the internet planet. The truth is that I didn't really feel like I had much more to say on that topic, but at the same time couldn't think of anything else to talk about either. We're still only going to the doctor once a month, my last visit lasted all of 10 minutes and we didn't even have an ultrasound, just listened to the heart beat on the doppler. Pretty uneventful.

We are obviously VERY excited about having a baby, but I also don't want to bore y'all with a whole bunch of incredibly mundane details every few days, especially when I know I have several readers who are still struggling with infertility. I am trying hard to strike a balance between being excited about and embracing this time in our life while being sensitive to those who I know all to well are hurting. I have also realized that the demons of infertility are not something that simply disappear the moment you find out you're pregnant, those wounds are deep and I know will last a while.

For the inquiring minds who are interested in the mundane details... I am officially 17 weeks pregnant today. I'm feeling much better since the 2nd trimester started and have actually started cooking dinner again. I have gained a grand total of 2 pounds, and I don't think I look pregnant at all, (unless I pig out at dinner-learned that last Friday night), but I definitely look more than 2 pounds bigger. We will be finding out the sex of the baby, but we don't know it yet. My doctor does anatomy scans between 20 and 22 weeks, so it'll still be a few weeks before we find out. We're 95% sure we have names picked out, but they're still subject to change and will be finalized after we find out the sex, and will tell everyone when we're 100% sure.

I think that pretty much sums up our most common questions. Oh, and for those who want a belly shot, here's one from 2 weeks ago at 14 weeks 5 days:

Told you there wasn't much to see. I even put on maternity jeans for this picture because everyone told me I would look more pregnant with them on! I definitely think I look fatter thicker, but no noticeable cute round baby bump yet. It's a little more apparent now, but my last attempt to take a picture failed miserably and I'm not posting them. ;) Let's just say I'm okay with my stomach looking rounder/bigger, I'm not okay with my arms looking gigantic, and therefore all future bump photos will be taken in shirts with sleeves. haha

I have spent most of my free time, (and a lot of the time I should have been cleaning our messy house), doing lots and lots, (and lots), of research on baby products. This is the collection of books that are currently living on the floor by my nightstand, (I linked the titles to Amazon if you're interested in any of them):

Praying Through Your Pregnancy - I just got this in the mail yesterday so haven't had much time to form a solid opinion of it, but I'm really excited about it. It has specific prayers for your baby based on the development that week. I really wish I would have found it weeks ago.

Your Pregnancy Week by Week- I didn't like this one at first because it always points out exactly what can go wrong every week, but it's growing on me now that it's past the 1st trimester and doesn't remind me constantly how high miscarriage rates are.

A is for Atticus - I love this baby name book! It's all baby names from "great books" which I just love. P.S. I LOVE the name Atticus, but the husband vetoed that one real quick. What a buzz kill. ;)

Mayo Clinic Guide to a Healthy Pregnancy - My insurance company sent this one to me free when I signed up for the maternity program, and I honestly haven't looked at it too much except when I can't find the answer to my questions anywhere else. I'm sure it's probably a great resource, but since it was the last book I got I don't think about it often.

The Baby Name Wizard - In case you can't tell, this one's been well used. I actually bought it a couple of years ago when we first started trying to get pregnant because I felt like picking out a name early was one thing I could actually control in the world of infertility, (that and amassing an impressive collective of adorable clearance baby clothes, but I'll come back to that one another day). I love this book too because you can look up names you like and it refers you to other names that are similar. There's also a great website that goes along with the book.

What to Expect the First Year - Let's just say I like to be prepared. I have terror moments when I think I'm going to be like Rachel on "Friends" and have read everything about pregnancy and know nothing about how to take care of the baby when it actually arrives. This helps calm my fears a little bit.

Consumer Reports Best Baby Products - I bought this on clearance when our Borders bookstore was closing, and I'm honestly glad I didn't pay more than a couple of bucks for it. It's really my least favorite book of this stack by far. I think pretty much everything in it can be found on the internet.

What to Expect When You're Expecting - Oh, yes, the ever common What to Expect When You're Expecting. I have moments when I really like this book and can understand why it's so popular, and moments when it irritates me and makes me feel like I can only have a healthy baby if I live in a bubble for 9+ months. I do a lot of skimming when I feel like something doesn't pertain to me at the moment, but I like the illustrations. ;)

I may or may not have read a large majority of Jonathan's mother-baby nursing book too. Like I said, I like to be prepared/well-versed on topics of importance to me. ;)

I've also been doing LOTS of research on cloth diapers. I really like the money saving aspect as well as being more environmentally friendly and not putting lots of chemicals on baby's bum. I feel like since I'll be a stay at home mom, I really have no excuse to not at least give it a try. So far I'm leaning towards the bumGenius diapers, but am still up in the air on pockets vs all-in-ones. I ordered a pocket one off of Amazon, (the bumGenius one-size 4.0 in the sweet color), to see how well I liked it.

It came in the mail yesterday and I have to say I was VERY impressed with both the construction and how easy it was to figure out. Even my husband who was initially reluctant to try cloth diapers, (he was picturing the old school ones complete with diaper pins), was impressed with how easy it was to figure out/put on.

I dug through our storage and pulled out a Curious George stuffed animal from Sadie Hawkins my husband's senior year of high school:

to use as a model. I know George is obviously bigger than a newborn, but he does make a pretty good model. Here he is in the bumgenius 4.0 in sweet:

He also modeled some bibs I made a few weeks ago, (sorry about the bad iPhone photo):

Girl bibs with pink chenille backs. I have a few more of these in other girl fabrics along with some boy bibs with blue chenille on the back. I don't know why I didn't take a picture of any of the boy bibs.

I also made burp cloths to match, (here you can see the chenille that's also on the back of the bibs):

I made both boy and girl versions of the bibs and burp cloths, (I have several more than what are pictured), and I figure I can give away whichever ones we don't need. Then I got tired of sewing both boy and girl stuff and decided to stop until we find out the sex. ;)

Other than all of that I've just been enjoying the first sign of fall in north Texas-Starbucks pumpkin spice lattes, (1/2 caf or decaf, nonfat).

It certainly doesn't FEEL like fall here, it was 105 yesterday! I'm ready for some cooler weather and some rain!

Jennifer