My SIL just had a baby girl

[hurrem]

This post is not about me but my sister-in-law on my husband's side. She gave birth to an adorable baby girl a couple of days ago, and she was telling me all about the guesswork and predictions family members made to determine the baby's sex. We are from a South-Asian culture, but there are many similarities with the old wives tales mentioned here.

My SIL already has a son who is just over a year old, but when she was pregnant with her daughter, literally everyone was convinced she was having another boy. Her pregnancy symptoms were exactly the same as her first: Craving for sweet foods and citrus fruits, baby measured and weighed just like the first at ultrasound, same heartbeat, same level of nausea and aversion to certain foods, and the way she was carrying her bump, just like her first pregnancy. My SIL went team green for both her children, although she was hoping for a baby girl this time.

She also had no intuition what the sex was both times. But everyone thought she would be having another boy according to her symptoms, and also because of the whorl pattern of her son's hair. Even when my SIL was at her ultrasound, some ladies next to her were looking at her son and said he would be having a brother because of his hair swirl direction.

No one had chosen any girl names but had boy ones ready, because her symptoms all indicated 'boy'. My SIL is saying that this just shows that these are old wives tales and don't predict anything, and because pregnancy is different for everyone. But everyone is happy that the baby is here well and healthy, and they're picking out names now!

[atomic sagebrush]

Aww! Huge congrats to her (and your whole family!) And thanks for sharing that - it helps me to convince people that the OWT really are not accurate!

[hurrem]

Just found out that SIL's son was planned and her daughter was a surprise baby. With her daughter SIL didn't even know she was pregnant until 6 weeks along! She was told by our other SIL that her eyes were swollen and red, and to take a test in case she was pregnant. She didn't believe it at first and said they used protection so it couldn't have happened, but bfp it was!

[atomic sagebrush]

Wow how interesting, thank you!