Just for fun - xx vs xy
Just for funsies, let’s chat about sex guessing!!!
Baby #3 will arrive at any minute, and we are ready for them! This is our second time we have decided to leave the baby's biological sex a surprise. For our first, we were all about having a baby vs boy or girl.
We got a ton of gender-neutral clothing and nursery items, which came in handy when baby #2 came out differently! We decided to find out the sex for #2 to help baby #1 understand the concept of what was happening. Finn was only 19 months when we had Piper, so we figured it would be more helpful for us to refer to him getting a “sister” vs “baby”. I’m honestly not sure if any of this landed, but he was thrilled either way.
Now that our kids are 4 and 6, we’ve decided to not find out again. Both of them have opinions of what they want, but as we all know, what you “want” isn’t always what you get! I know I have a bit of privilege in having one of each already. We have our favorite “boy” and “girl” clothes saved, so lots of options for this third child. Now our kids are old enough to understand that you don’t get to “pick” a biological sex and that no matter what we get, we will love them very much.
Anyway! Baby’s XX or XY chromosomes can be a fun guessing game and I do love all of the old wives tales! Let’s play!
Here is how my pregnancy has been going so far, and how it compares with my boy and girl pregnancies.
First trimester nausea? Boy- none
Girl - none
#3- none
Carrying high vs low?
You tell me!
Finn at 30 weeks
Piper at 30 weeks
Baby #3 at 30(ish) weeks
I think I carried relatively similarly with both of my kids.
But honestly, I don’t have a waist. My ribs are about 1 cm away from my pelvis and there’s just nowhere else for baby to go.
First fetal heart rate?
8 weeks Boy - 143
10 weeks Girl - 179
6 weeks #3 - 155
(As someone who has had to do Non-stress tests in the final month, I will add that I regularly watch my kid’s heart rates jump from 130-170 bpm and this definitely has nothing to do with gender. The fetal heart rate myth is based off of boys being larger and having slower heart rates.)
Cravings?
Boy- Stone fruits and olives. I couldn’t get enough mangoes, nectarines, or peaches with Finn! I also craved apples and more salt.
Girl- Citrus fruit and salads.
Baby #3- Citrus, hot sauce, spice, chocolate, and cereal. (I do think a lot of this is seasonal. I couldn’t get enough ginger / cinnamon over the holidays and craved a lot of oranges/ lemon during cold and flu season!) I craved salt in the beginning of this pregnancy, but this was alleviated once I started taking thyroid medication.
Ice cream was essential for all of my pregnancies. Kids just like ice cream.
Dry hands?
Boy - Yes
Girl - Yes
*Note - We were living in Denver, Colorado for both of our babies. If you’ve ever lived at Altitude, you can attest that your hands will just be dry.
All. The. Time.
Baby #3- Dry.
(Again, mostly pregnant during the winter in the midwest. I don’t think you can live here without dry hands in the winter.)
Clumsy??
Boy/ Girl/ #3 - Yes.
Turns out pregnancy just makes you clumsy! Yoga and barre class really helps. I’m definitely bumping into things more frequently with this pregnancy. Thankfully I haven’t had any significant impact or falls. This is one thing I really emphasize in my prenatal fitness programs and classes. There is a myth that after 20 weeks one should avoid balancing exercises.
This is when we need to stress training, before the third trimester hits. Your pelvis and center of gravity will shift, and learning to maintain and train your stabilizers will do wonders for your posture, and can help to prevent falls. (For more prenatal guidelines and ways to modify training, please get my free E-Book!)
Mood?
I definitely was more “chill” with my first…. We were just so excited to finally be having a baby! When I was pregnant with my daughter I was far more stressed out. Especially since I was chasing after a toddler. This one I’m feeling pretty chill, but mostly just relieved that this time the older two will be in school during the week!
Chinese Gender Wheel
Boy - Correct
Girl- Correct
Baby 3- l… I get both boy and girl. It’s 50% accurate, so no matter what, it’s right!
Conception Date
If we want to get reaallly TMI here, conception vs/ ovulation date has been correct for both of our kids. (It has been said that girls “take longer to swim” and conception before ovulation is more likely to produce a female vs male.) I’m going to leave this one blank here.
I will note that early during pregnancy #2 I was fully convinced my daughter was a boy. I carried the same and had the exact same pregnancy symptoms. The only, extremely weird, and not often commented on difference was that with my daughter I felt like I never had to shave my legs. Whereas with my son I felt like I had to shave every other day. I don’t know if this is a thing or not.
Very early on during my first pregnancy I had a dream about delivering a very tiny baby boy with thick dark hair and a button nose. This…. Happened. I don’t remember any dreams with my daughter, only just having dreams with intense water- themes. I’ve only had dreams about a girl so far with this one. I do wonder if it's because that's the birth I most recently had!
I think it’s also very important to note that regardless of what baby’s nethers look like, they might choose to identify differently. I don’t want my children making assumptions about what kind of play they can expect from this one. My daughter will play with trucks and dinosaurs, my son will also play with dolls and have tea parties. I realize I’m only delaying the inevitable explosion of blue or pink in our living room once baby arrives, but I’m enjoying it for now.
Which of these were “true” for you? Any other differences you’ve noticed? Leave them in the comments below!