Help! I think I ruined my sway

[Lilyflower]

Hi ladies, I have been following this site for a while and using many of the techniques I have learned here in the hopes of conceiving a baby girl. I have a beautiful son but suffered major GD. The past few months I have been taking only folate, doing cardio 5-6 days per week, no snacking, lots of coffee, and fairly LE friendly diet. I’m also still nursing my son and my DH has been taking olive leaf. This month we did one attempt with J&D about 2-3 days before O. And we got pregnant!

The thing is that because I was still nursing an 18 month old and had not gotten my cycle back, two months ago I started taking Vitex and doing acupuncture. It clearly worked because within two months, I was ovulating and we conceived. My intuition hit me before I found out that I was even pregnant that I’m pregnant... and that it’s a BOY. I feel it in my bones. The night I took the positive test, I had a very vivid dream of the birth of a boy. I’ve never felt so strong about anything and I’ve been extremely stressed and devastated since. It dawned on me that the acupuncture may have swayed because it helped my fertility so much that it went blue.

So my questions to you are:

1) Do you think I ruined my sway?? :(

2) Have any of you experience such STRONG intuition that you were undeniably having a boy only to end up having a girl at the end? I know mom’s gut feelings are usually right so I’m clinging to any hope that I’m wrong

Thank you!

[missiz]

hey Lilyflower, no i dont think you've ruined your sway, it sounds like you managed a great combination of sway tactics to give you a good shot at a girl. I am not sure whether acupuncture sways in any way or not, I dont have experience with that but I do know that alot of ladies on these forums have been CERTAIN they are having one gender, only to find out its the opposite. You still have a very good chance at getting a girl and you've done your best to sway, goodluck with it all :)

[ksmom]

You didn't ruin your sway. No sway, no matter if it's perfect or not, is a guarantee of one gender over the other. You always have a chance at pink and I think you had a pretty good sway. I've seen tons of women have their intuition be wrong! So many have posted here convinced they're having one gender but end up having the other. I thought DS2 and DS3 were going to be girls and nope, definitely wrong. lol Intuition just isn't a good predictor for gender. Congrats on your pregnancy!

[Throwaway_panther]

Also piping in about the intuition -- this is a personal struggle for me, as well. Intuition can be very easily clouded (my therapist once told me she attended a seminar on this -- that many mental illnesses, like eating disorders, seem to affect a person's intuition). That was fascinating to me, because I think it's very true for myself and I'm sure others. GD, I think, can very easily be a factor in clouding our intuitions.

There are several women on here who were absolutely sure of the gender of their baby, one way or the other, and then surprised. I have a family friend who was so convinced she was having a second boy after her son that she told me, "I remember sitting there on the table as they cut me open and thinking, 'Two boys is ok. I can do two boys.'" She was shocked it was a girl. She then went on to have three more girls!

I relate, though. I have wrestled with this. My intuition on DD for me was correct, but then I first thought my pregnancy currently was boy, then I thought, 'Shit, it's a girl.' Now my intuition is constantly saying one thing or the other. And unless I have surprise b/g twins, who knows what's going on!

[Lilyflower]

Thank you so much for your replies. It is extremely comforting to hear your kind words and advice. As exciting and miraculous as the process is, it is so stressful when there is such a strong yearning for a specific gender. My brain keeps playing tricks on me and I think “what could I have done better or differently”. And I wonder “did I exercise for long enough” “should I have had more coffee” etc.

I hope you are all right about the cases of intuition being wrong (especially with such a strong preference clouding it) because I feel down to my core that I am having a boy and I can find so many reasons to logically support that. The acupuncture for example, or the fact that I couldn’t skip breakfast due to blood sugar issues. I just feel that my gut is trying to prepare me by letting me know now so I can try to come to terms with it. But the only times I feel truly happy is when I’m thinking of girl names or of the labour itself where I find out I’ve been wrong all along. The thing is that with my son, I had a hunch he would be a boy but this time, I feel certain beyond words. I guess we will see, for now I’m going to hold on to hope that I’m wrong..

[atomic sagebrush]

1) I don't know how you would have ruined your sway. Can you please tell me what you think you did wrong?

2)I had a strong intuition I was having a girl and it turned out to be a boy. And I hear from people literally at lesat once a week who swear to me that they just KNOW they are having a boy but then the baby turns out to be a girl. :) '

Mom's gut feelings are NOT usually right. Most people (60%) have NO intuition either way. In the most recent study, which I have read, women with any intuition correctly called their baby''s gender...51% of the time (sample size of over 1000 people) Women who had "strong" gender preference called it correctly 62% of the time but this sample size only 53 people and when they did a statistical regression on it the number turned out to be statistically insignificant, meaning it could have gone either way from sheer luck, it was in the margin of error. There is one other study that claimed to find 70% correct intuition but this was in only 48 people and this study found intuition to be significantly less reliable in women who had a strong gender preference.

[Lilyflower]

Hi Atomic,

First of all I just want to say thank you to you and the other ladies on this site who have taken the time to respond to me. It’s truly amazing to have the support of women who really understand what it feels like to long for a certain gender.

I believe that I potentially ruined my sway because of two main reasons:

1) Because I had not had a cycle yet (still nursing a now 20 month old), in June I began doing acupuncture to bring back my cycle, which it did. But I should have known better than to continue because within two months of regular visits, I not only started ovulating again but conceived. While I know that you cannot use acupuncture to necessarily sway either way, it clearly had a dramatic effect on my fertility which theoretically if anything, would sway blue.

2) While I have always been very active with my son, I only began really doing the 5-7 days of an hour of cardio for under five weeks when we conceived. Almost daily prior to that, I would be out for long walks but with frequent stops at the park etc. Once I began the recommended level of cardio, I wholeheartedly committed, one week doing 7 days and the week I ovulated, I had finished 9 days in a row. The other weeks were 5-6 days. I was intent on doing at least 8-12 weeks of cardio prior to ttc but for some reason decided to ttc after jut over 4 weeks. Why I decided to “just go for it” is now beyond me! I’m such a dedicated person and I had the plan all laid out. I guess I figured it would take time to conceive especially doing one attempt but now I’m kicking myself for even trying.

The thing is, I’ve been quietly following this site for over a year, carefully learning what has worked for others and what I felt would work for me. I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me that the acupuncture could potentially enhance my fertility- something I know sways boy! And why I didn’t give myself adequate time to follow my new exercise plan is now haunting me. Of course being so analytical, I wonder a lot of things like could I have had more coffee or eaten even more LE but those are the main reasons I now question myself and feel I swayed blue.

Im trying to remind myself that the universe has a bigger plan for each of us that may not make sense now and that this happened for a reason but I can’t help but blame myself for not fully giving myself the best chance at a girl.

With regards to intuition, I am clinging to the hope that I’m wrong. I did have a feeling my son would be a boy and that feeling has been amplified exponentially this time. I guess we will find out when he or she is born!

Thank you again for all of your time and advice. It is so truly appreciated.

[Throwaway_panther]

Oooh atomic, do you have a link to that bigger study?! I would love to read that since that darn
70% correct intuition study has messed with my mind for so long.


Lilyflower, just for perspective: I did acupuncture for 8 months straight (3-5 times a month at times) and ate breakfast everyday, and I'm still sitting here thinking I won't get my boy. There have been days where I have obsessed over not eating breakfast *soon* enough. Days where I regret not eating 2000 full calories. I've gone back and forth forever that I lifted for YEARS, and right before we conceived I had only just picked it up again. I have reread my posted sway so often that I pretty much have it memorized, including a typo I keep meaning to fix when I'm not on mobile!

GD is a vicious monster who takes over our lives and controls our intuitions and feelings. I think you sound similar to me in that we're highly self critical/analyzing, so sways were always going to be a stressful mess for us. But as I'm sure you can see from obsessively reading sways like me -- luck is still the deciding factor and people get girls eating breakfast everyday or sitting on a couch, just like people get boys despite smoking and running marathons. I have literally had moments where I thought I ruined my sway by doing TOO much because I've seen so many successful sways with less changes -- and I'm a boy swayer, not a girl swayer (the latter of which atomic recommends to loosen up/relax!).

[atomic sagebrush]

Hey, can somebody bump this for me for tomorrow??

[Lilyflower]

Bump! :)

[dreamofdaughter]

Your sway sounds very good. I have a hard time believing acupuncture would undermine it that much.

As for intutuon, I think unless you have Zero gender desire, you can't count on intuition. I had a vivid dream of my son the night before before my ultrasound and I was right but I didn't have any GD.

Ask youself, is it intuition talking for is it fear?

Sending you positive thoughts for a healthy baby (girl :))

[atomic sagebrush]

Oooh atomic, do you have a link to that bigger study?! I would love to read that since that darn
70% correct intuition study has messed with my mind for so long.


Lilyflower, just for perspective: I did acupuncture for 8 months straight (3-5 times a month at times) and ate breakfast everyday, and I'm still sitting here thinking I won't get my boy. There have been days where I have obsessed over not eating breakfast *soon* enough. Days where I regret not eating 2000 full calories. I've gone back and forth forever that I lifted for YEARS, and right before we conceived I had only just picked it up again. I have reread my posted sway so often that I pretty much have it memorized, including a typo I keep meaning to fix when I'm not on mobile!

GD is a vicious monster who takes over our lives and controls our intuitions and feelings. I think you sound similar to me in that we're highly self critical/analyzing, so sways were always going to be a stressful mess for us. But as I'm sure you can see from obsessively reading sways like me -- luck is still the deciding factor and people get girls eating breakfast everyday or sitting on a couch, just like people get boys despite smoking and running marathons. I have literally had moments where I thought I ruined my sway by doing TOO much because I've seen so many successful sways with less changes -- and I'm a boy swayer, not a girl swayer (the latter of which atomic recommends to loosen up/relax!).

I think it's this one, but it's in a different font than the one I have printed off so LMK if it is not saying the same as what I posted above. https://digitalrepository.aurorahealthcare.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1454&context=jpcrr

[sunstars]

I agree with intuition being right if you don't have gender preference. With my Ds1 i had a very strong intuition of him being a boy, and I didn't care much about gender. With Ds2 i was sure it's a girl, I even bought lots of girl clothes! But I do wanted a girl very much this time. With my third pregnancy I just didn't listen to my intuition, because I didn't trust it anymore, so I didn't even realize I was pregnant with twins until almost 14th week, just the night before the first US I paid close attention to a few of my symptoms and wondered for a second could it be twins. It turned out twin girls, whom I lost in the end.
Anyway, your sway is pretty strong one, good luck!

[atomic sagebrush]

Hi Atomic,

First of all I just want to say thank you to you and the other ladies on this site who have taken the time to respond to me. It’s truly amazing to have the support of women who really understand what it feels like to long for a certain gender.

I believe that I potentially ruined my sway because of two main reasons:

1) Because I had not had a cycle yet (still nursing a now 20 month old), in June I began doing acupuncture to bring back my cycle, which it did. But I should have known better than to continue because within two months of regular visits, I not only started ovulating again but conceived. While I know that you cannot use acupuncture to necessarily sway either way, it clearly had a dramatic effect on my fertility which theoretically if anything, would sway blue.

2) While I have always been very active with my son, I only began really doing the 5-7 days of an hour of cardio for under five weeks when we conceived. Almost daily prior to that, I would be out for long walks but with frequent stops at the park etc. Once I began the recommended level of cardio, I wholeheartedly committed, one week doing 7 days and the week I ovulated, I had finished 9 days in a row. The other weeks were 5-6 days. I was intent on doing at least 8-12 weeks of cardio prior to ttc but for some reason decided to ttc after jut over 4 weeks. Why I decided to “just go for it” is now beyond me! I’m such a dedicated person and I had the plan all laid out. I guess I figured it would take time to conceive especially doing one attempt but now I’m kicking myself for even trying.

The thing is, I’ve been quietly following this site for over a year, carefully learning what has worked for others and what I felt would work for me. I have no idea why it didn’t occur to me that the acupuncture could potentially enhance my fertility- something I know sways boy! And why I didn’t give myself adequate time to follow my new exercise plan is now haunting me. Of course being so analytical, I wonder a lot of things like could I have had more coffee or eaten even more LE but those are the main reasons I now question myself and feel I swayed blue.

Im trying to remind myself that the universe has a bigger plan for each of us that may not make sense now and that this happened for a reason but I can’t help but blame myself for not fully giving myself the best chance at a girl.

With regards to intuition, I am clinging to the hope that I’m wrong. I did have a feeling my son would be a boy and that feeling has been amplified exponentially this time. I guess we will find out when he or she is born!

Thank you again for all of your time and advice. It is so truly appreciated.

1)we've speculated about that in the past but the REAL reason I'm so down on acupuncture (and I'm down on it for blue swayers too BTW) is that the acupuncturists are super aggressive with pushing herbs onto people and I've had too many people go to acupuncturists to get stuck with tiny needles only to end up walking out with $500 in herbs that will actually make it much harder for them to conceive and sway the opposite diretion from what they want, not to mention that are not safe. So I woudln't worry about the acupuncture. I really, truly, honest to heaven do not believe acupuncture works to boost fertility. The "studies" that claim it does are all done by people who financially profit from the concept.

2)Under 5 weeks of exercise is fine. 5-6 days of cardio is fine. We still get good results with even as little as 4 days a week. This is in no way a dealbreaker.

Assuming that it will take forever to conceive is a pitfall a lot of people fall into. Please don't beat yourself up. If you are pregnant with a boy now, I don't think either the acupuncture or the length of time you spent exercising had anything to do with that.

[Lilawt]

Hi,

Been reading a lot of your posts tonight Lilyflower. I’m fairly new to the site and I see the same names often so just trying to get to know your story.

Intuition is such a funny thing, I mean realistically.. it’s impossible right? How could we ‘know’?

I believe that intuition is like a coping mechanism, a way of convincing yourself of a certain gender to try to lessen the blow when/if you hear the news.

When I was pregnant with DS1 as soon as I saw that faint second line ... I just knew it was a boy. I didn’t have a major preference as I think I’d always like one of each but to have my daughter first would have taken some of the pressure off.

With DS2 I had no instant feeling. As the pregnancy went on I was only getting girl guesses. Friends and family were convinced, even my husband. I tried to fight off their opinions... but I’m only human and I allowed their ‘feelings’ to manifest inside me as hope. Right up until the last moment when the sonographer said ‘it’s a little boy’ I was telling myself it was a boy but really I thought it was a girl.

When I was asked myself I always said I thought it was a boy. Sorry to hijack your post here with my long winded explanation, my point is, for people like us who have experienced GD I really believe that intuition doesn’t even come in to it, it’s our brains trying to protect us from the possible heartbreak. You can not tell gender from intuition.

Like I said... read a few of your posts tonight and I’m thinking of you! I admire you for being team green and I hope it’s your baby girl

Lil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Lilyflower]

Hi,

Been reading a lot of your posts tonight Lilyflower. I’m fairly new to the site and I see the same names often so just trying to get to know your story.

Intuition is such a funny thing, I mean realistically.. it’s impossible right? How could we ‘know’?

I believe that intuition is like a coping mechanism, a way of convincing yourself of a certain gender to try to lessen the blow when/if you hear the news.

When I was pregnant with DS1 as soon as I saw that faint second line ... I just knew it was a boy. I didn’t have a major preference as I think I’d always like one of each but to have my daughter first would have taken some of the pressure off.

With DS2 I had no instant feeling. As the pregnancy went on I was only getting girl guesses. Friends and family were convinced, even my husband. I tried to fight off their opinions... but I’m only human and I allowed their ‘feelings’ to manifest inside me as hope. Right up until the last moment when the sonographer said ‘it’s a little boy’ I was telling myself it was a boy but really I thought it was a girl.

When I was asked myself I always said I thought it was a boy. Sorry to hijack your post here with my long winded explanation, my point is, for people like us who have experienced GD I really believe that intuition doesn’t even come in to it, it’s our brains trying to protect us from the possible heartbreak. You can not tell gender from intuition.

Like I said... read a few of your posts tonight and I’m thinking of you! I admire you for being team green and I hope it’s your baby girl

Lil


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hi Lil,

Thank you for your post, I really enjoyed reading it and your point of view :)

It’s so interesting to me that you knew right away your first would be a boy but yet say intuition doesn’t come into it with GD. That’s my understanding as well - that once you start preferring a certain gender, intuition kind of goes out the window. Isn’t the brain such a funny and intricate thing!?! I like your take on it as being a coping mechanism - makes sense!

I think for me, the team green thing is a no brainer. With DS1, I was desperate to find out as soon as possible but once I did, I was so crushed that I wished I didn’t know. Once my son was born, any anxiety or GD went out the window and I felt bad for wasting so much time worrying about it and being sad. That’s why this time, I wanted to give myself the space to enjoy pregnancy and let it be what it will be since I have the same confidence that once the little bub is out, so much stress will be replaced with love. But as you know by reading my posts, it’s sooo much easier said than done since my intuition has been playing tricks on me by triggering my GD and robbing me of the sense of “not knowing”. But as you say, perhaps it truly is protecting me by really forcing me to prepare for a boy, which is what I’ve been doing. If it will be a girl, I will be so shocked! But you never know!

Thank you again for taking the time to reply to my post and for your kind words, it means a lot :)

[Blue2]

Hi Lil,

Thank you for your post, I really enjoyed reading it and your point of view :)

It’s so interesting to me that you knew right away your first would be a boy but yet say intuition doesn’t come into it with GD. That’s my understanding as well - that once you start preferring a certain gender, intuition kind of goes out the window. Isn’t the brain such a funny and intricate thing!?! I like your take on it as being a coping mechanism - makes sense!

I think for me, the team green thing is a no brainer. With DS1, I was desperate to find out as soon as possible but once I did, I was so crushed that I wished I didn’t know. Once my son was born, any anxiety or GD went out the window and I felt bad for wasting so much time worrying about it and being sad. That’s why this time, I wanted to give myself the space to enjoy pregnancy and let it be what it will be since I have the same confidence that once the little bub is out, so much stress will be replaced with love. But as you know by reading my posts, it’s sooo much easier said than done since my intuition has been playing tricks on me by triggering my GD and robbing me of the sense of “not knowing”. But as you say, perhaps it truly is protecting me by really forcing me to prepare for a boy, which is what I’ve been doing. If it will be a girl, I will be so shocked! But you never know!

Thank you again for taking the time to reply to my post and for your kind words, it means a lot :)

Agree 100% - once you have a gender preference, intuition goes out the window. I wanted a baby boy SO badly for my first, and the minute the doctor handed me the envelope, I raced out to my car in the parking lot, got in, took a deep breath, and before even opening the envelope I felt it - sadness. Wash over me. But before I opened it told myself she would be the most perfect little thing and I would love her more than anything (true and I do, she is my mini)

If I trust my intuition with #2 after ttc/blue sway, it will only be if my intuition is telling me "it's another girl" so I can trigger that mental copying mechanism

...and then *fingers crossed as hard as possible* be totally surprised & over the moon if it turns out to be my boy!!

[Lilyflower]

Agree 100% - once you have a gender preference, intuition goes out the window. I wanted a baby boy SO badly for my first, and the minute the doctor handed me the envelope, I raced out to my car in the parking lot, got in, took a deep breath, and before even opening the envelope I felt it - sadness. Wash over me. But before I opened it told myself she would be the most perfect little thing and I would love her more than anything (true and I do, she is my mini)

If I trust my intuition with #2 after ttc/blue sway, it will only be if my intuition is telling me "it's another girl" so I can trigger that mental copying mechanism

...and then *fingers crossed as hard as possible* be totally surprised & over the moon if it turns out to be my boy!!

Omg that happened to me exactly! We were going to do a gender reveal and once the tech handed me the envelope, my heart sank. I already had a feeling and then in that moment, I knew. So let me ask you - would you not call that intuition?? I think that maybe this time for me, my intuition is for sure skewed based on my past experience and my brain going into defence mode but the whole thing still puzzles me if I really think about it :)

Wishing you blue dust and I hope you get a nice surprise!!!

[atomic sagebrush]

One time my school was running a contest where the winning ticket was on a can of pop and I KNEW as I pushed the button to buy my pop, that I had won the contest and I did!!

BUT.

A couple times I have had the exact same, out of nowhere certainty that I was going to win other things, raffles and giveaways and such, up to and including buying several lottery tickets once because I was just SO SURE and that one time I really DID win after having that feeling. But then I lost every single time.

Now, maybe that first time I legit had a flash of intuition and then I remembered it and thought I was having it later when I wasn't. Or maybe I NEVER had intuition at all and if I'd not coincidentally happened to win the contest the one time I had the feeling of intuition, I"d have forgotten it totally. Maybe I had had that feeling a hundred other times and it only stuck in my brain the one time it really happened. IDK. All I know is that I"ve had the same sensation several times and it was only true once!

[Lilyflower]

One time my school was running a contest where the winning ticket was on a can of pop and I KNEW as I pushed the button to buy my pop, that I had won the contest and I did!!

BUT.

A couple times I have had the exact same, out of nowhere certainty that I was going to win other things, raffles and giveaways and such, up to and including buying several lottery tickets once because I was just SO SURE and that one time I really DID win after having that feeling.

Now, maybe that first time I legit had a flash of intuition and then I remembered it and thought I was having it later when I wasn't. Or maybe I NEVER had intuition at all and if I'd not coincidentally happened to win the contest the one time I had the feeling of intuition, I"d have forgotten it totally. Maybe I had had that feeling a hundred other times and it only stuck in my brain the one time it really happened. IDK. All I know is that I"ve had the same sensation several times and it was only true once!

The whole concept of intuition is so complicated isn’t it?

I’ve been reading a lot about neuroscience as it relates to intuition and from what I am reading, our brain is like an iceberg, with logical thoughts being at the tip, and everything else like emotions, gut feelings and intuition falling under the surface. Apparently, when we envision or see something - be it real or imagined - and attach a feeling to it, then our brain processes it as fact. And in order to protect us in the future, anytime we experience something similar, our brain draws from the previous (real or imagined) experience and pulls up the same feelings. It’s the same function that triggers the fight flight or freeze response. We have that reaction anytime we perceive a threat, even if that threat is not there but we perceive that it is, we will trigger the stress response either way.

So for gender disappointment, if the first time we have that sinking feeling and end up being right or not, it’s real because we’ve attached the negative feeling to the thought or image. Then especially if it ends up being true and disappointing, the experience becomes etched in our brain and the next pregnancy is processed like the first and we perceive whatever “gut” feeling we have as fact.

The more I think about this theory, the more questions I have but it kind of makes sense to me now why I think I know what I’m having based on the first correct guess (which may have been intuition or a coincidence but it was real to me) because my negative feelings made it real even before I found out I was right.

So complicated! Or simple?

[atomic sagebrush]

Makes sense! Great description!!!!

[Princess Mom]

I thought my sway baby was deff a boy, even during the scan I thought I seen boy parts lol, I was shocked when I turned around and was handed a pink balloon. Best of luck

[WelcomeBaby]

I'm so sorry, Lilyflower, that you're worrying this much right now. I'm in the exact same situation - pink sway that looks quite strong on paper, now I'm in the 2ww and I already "know" that I'm pregnant with another boy :sigh: - so here's my take on this whole intuition thing.
When I was pregnant with my son, I wanted a girl really badly, but knew from the moment I held my pos PT that he was a boy. I was right. (At this point, I'd like to mention that I once had the exact type of overwhelming "intuition" when boarding a plance - I just KNEW it was going to crash. I seriously considered just turning around and leaving. Well, obviously the plane didn't crash. So much for my intuition. :bigsmile:)
My friend knew all along she was having a boy, she could feel it in her bones, just like you. She thought the tech was joking when she heard that it was a girl at her 20 week scan. LOL
My sister didn't have a gender preference and her intuition went back and forth her entire pregnancy.
My friend wanted a girl more than anything in the world (already had a boy) but had no hunch at all. (She did have a girl.)
Some women on the internet who have 4 or 5 kids (of different genders, I assume) claim they always knew right away regardless of gender preference.

So, taking everthing and everyone I know into account, I don't put much stock into "intuition". I'm convinced there is something to it for SOME women - the ones who have several kids and always guessed their genders correctly very early on regardless of preference (provided there ARE women like that in the first place and these anonymous posters in the countless pregnancy forums weren't just misremembering or making things up!). The thing is, you don't know if you're one of these presumably very rare women until you HAD 4 or 5 kids. :) Conclusion: Don't worry about it now. It's more likely your "intuition" doesn't mean a thing, or, more precisely, doesn't tell you your baby's gender. :hug2:

[atomic sagebrush]

I'm seeing this now Welcome so I think someone has approved it already - thank you!

[atomic sagebrush]

I have had 5 kids and I have had several flashes of intuition in my pregnancies. The thing is, some of them were wrong. I had complete and total 100% surety with my first, and he was indeed a boy. I had a pretty strong inkling with my girl and was right on her, too. I had no consistent hunch with 2 and they were both boys - i did have several flashes where I thought "oh this is a girl" or "yes totally boy" but it wasn't consistent. But here's the thing. With my 3rd, I had no gender preference when I got pregnant but I just felt from the very first minute that he was a she with every fiber of my being. The exact same I felt with my first boy, and my girl. Now, if it was a coin flip I could have easily hit it right from luck just those two times, and happened to win the coin toss the 3rd time too. And then I can easily imagine looking back and only remembering the times I got #2 and #4 right. Not out of maliciousness but just because I got lucky a couple times, then forgot all the little niggling doubts I'd had along the way (plus, not even getting into the number of people who do fib online) :agree: even if it's a thing, just like the PP is saying - let's say it's real 20% of the time. That's gonna be 80% of the time that it doesn't work for people! It's just not worth getting wound up over.