BFP and stressed about gender

I swayed pink for our third and final child and got pregnant WAY sooner than I was expecting. My other two took seven months each, and I got pregnant on the second cycle this time. I hate to say I firmly believe it’s because I was not thinking about my pregnancy at all and was consumed by grad school, yoga teacher training, work, and my daughters birthday party 😂 Lots of things going on.

Anyway... I feel like my sway was decent. We had only one attempt at (surprise early) OPK, I was almost completely vegetarian focusing on eating less in general and definitely low protein and fat for me. Drinking regularly, extra coffee, I was taking myo inositol, DH taking olive leaf and cycling and running a lot. I cut out most of my exercise and just did gentle yoga. I also drank tons of Pellegrino for otherwise low nutrient increase of cal mag. No prenatal for me, just folate, and I KNOW I implanted on the left. I felt it with both the others and it’s very clear to me. But...

I’m SO STRESSED about gender. I’m constantly comparing my symptoms between my son and daughter. Omg my feet are cold, it’s a boy 😭😭😭 IS MY INTUITION BEING OVERRIDDEN BY WHAT I WANT?? Am I sleeping on my left side?!

I know it’s not logical. I am VERY aware. But I can’t get over the possibility that I know deep down it’s a boy and I just won’t accept it, which is also completely illogical, especially since my other early signs pointed to girls. I just don’t know how to chill out about it. I’m doing the clinical sneak peek on the 27th so I don’t have to wait long but I just feel so much stress about it being a boy. I’ve tried to work through it on my own and I have moments of acceptance but I decided to post here to see if y’all had any advice... because I’m just struggling. It’s low key on my mind like ALL the time.

It happens again and again that people who assume they'll take a while to conceive get pregnant quickly - that's why I like you guys to not assume that LOL. But it sounds to me like you did not sell your sway short in any way, did a lot of very positive things that should help!

But I PROMISE that there's no way symptoms predict gender. The Y chromosome is dormant till into the 10th week and even then it doesn't make much testosterone compared to later on. Yet the symptoms in early pregnancy are typically much more noticeable!! There is just no basis for comparing symptoms by gender. The hormones are the same.

Sleeping on your left side has nothing to do with your baby's gender. That was the idea of one person who was helping me out so I wanted to humor her, even though I thought the idea was utter nonsense. She put it in the stats, not me, and not based on anything really.

It is so normal when we have a preference to feel very ambivalent and worried. That happens to virtually all of us, and it doesn't predict gender either. There are PLENTY of people who don't accept it even when they get their desired gender! It doesn't mean you're secretly in denial that it's a boy - we just honestly can't tell.

Of all my 5 pregnancies, my second boy and my girl were the most alike. My other three pregnancies, all boys, were as different from those two and each other as an apple, an orange, and a rhinoceros LOL. There was no pattern to the symptoms whatsoever!

Just do your best to get through this, even if it's a minute by minute kind of thing.

Thanks. And you’re right of course. It’s totally illogical, and I didn’t even know it was on this site! I was reading old wives tales from my other pregnancies ha!

That makes me feel much better about the symptoms. It’s so hard to FEEL like it’s a girl then be like but what about this and this and this?! I don’t want to miss out on any of the enjoyment of this pregnancy since it’s my last but it’s been hard for me to stay in the moment!

Did you have your sneak peak? I also got BFP with one attempt this month - it was a mistake, I wasn't even sure I was ready to TTC but a few too many wines and my judgement went. I am terrified as don't think I gave my sway the best go as only had a few weeks on it. I am going to do harmony at 10 weeks. too scared to do sneakpeak incase it's wrong and I get my hopes up. I can't stop thinking about gender though...

Sneak Peek does not reliably work and we do not recommend doing it. Please do a NIPT only like Harmony or Panorama.