Girl or boy? Follow your hunch

By MONICA ENG
CHICAGO TRIBUNE
CHICAGO -- When I was expecting my first child five years ago, I was under the impression that somehow it was better not to know the sex of the baby until the day he or she popped out.
"That way it will be a surprise," I told my friends.
Soon enough I discovered that a first-time mother's labor day holds more surprises than you can shake forceps at, and so a little certainty in the delivery room is not an unwelcome thing. Plus, not knowing pretty much guarantees that your baby shower gifts will come in two colors only: light green or pale yellow.
So when I went in for my 22-week ultrasound this time around, I made sure the technician knew that I definitely wanted to know; in fact, I badgered her throughout the process to tell me what I was going to have. But after more than 30 minutes of scooting that sensor in the goo on my belly, we were never able to get a conclusive look at the crucial part of my child's anatomy. Clearly, I was not going to get any answers from modern science. I had no other choice than to turn to voodoo -- or at least a few unorthodox methods based more on superstition than hard science.
What the tests said
A quick scan of the Internet and chats with friends turned up dozens of methods that can allegedly point you in the right direction.
So I subjected myself to as many tests and determiners as I could. Here are the answers they produced:
TESTS THAT SAID 'BOY' (14 TOTAL)
UI had morning sickness.
UPregnancy has me looking slightly better than before.
UI am carrying the extra weight out front.
UI am carrying low.
UMy hair does not have red highlights.
UMy hands are very dry.
UNo acne during pregnancy.
UMy urine is bright yellow.
UI crave salty and sour foods.
UI crave protein such as meats and cheeses.
UI don't crave sweets.
UI gladly eat the heel of a loaf of bread.
UWhen I hang my wedding ring over my stomach from a strand of hair, it goes in a circle.
UMy baby looks like a basketball as opposed to a watermelon.
TESTS THAT SAID 'GIRL' (10 TOTAL)
UI am moodier than usual during pregnancy.
UI rest on my right side.
UI waddle when I walk.
UMy feet are not colder than they were before pregnancy.
UThe hair on my legs is not growing faster than before pregnancy.
UI crave fruit.
UAdding my age at conception to the month of conception comes up with an odd number.
UPreschool-age boys (i.e. my son and his friends) show interest in me during my pregnancy.
UA golden pendant held over my palm goes in a circle.
UThe dad-to-be is not gaining weight with me.
I thought that a few of the methods must have some basis in science. After all, my own doctor declared while taking the baby's heartbeat on one visit, "It sounds like you are having a boy because the heart rate is under 140. If it was higher I would say a girl, because they are anxious little things."
What the doctor said
Not so, says Xavier Pambar, director of the OB/GYN residency program at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago.
"Using the rate of the heartbeat is absolutely false," Pambar says. "The only way to really determine the sex is by looking at the chromosomes through some invasive task like amniocentesis or CVS [chorionic villus sampling]. You can also do ultrasound, but there are some cases of ambiguous genitalia, which can cause problems at that time of the birth if you are expecting a boy and get a girl. But if the radiologist or stenographer is good, an ultrasound is usually pretty accurate."
So Pambar basically dismissed all of the old wives' theories -- even the wedding ring hung by a strand of hair and hung over my belly -- but he did offer this:
"My impression is that a woman's intuition is probably the next best thing after ultrasounds. I'd say that three out of four times, the woman's hunch is correct."
My hunch on the offbeat tests I took to determine the sex of my baby was that some predictors weren't applicable to my situation or were ones that I didn't want to answer in print.
All the guessing and predicting became moot, of course, June 22 with the delivery of 20-inch Miranda Angelina, who weighed in at 7 pounds, 10 ounces.
Funny. I had a hunch I was carrying a girl.