Boy and Girl Talking Through Cup in Street Art

Whether you're fix to know your unborn babe's sexual practice (at present!) or are waiting to find out in the delivery room, chances are you have your suspicions—hunches fueled, perhaps, by well-pregnant friends and family. Take, for example, kickoff-fourth dimension mom Arlene Bordinhao of Las Vegas, who was convinced she was having a girl. Folks informed her that because she was carrying high and her abdomen resembled a watermelon, not a basketball game, it had to exist a girl. The Chinese lunar calendar also predicted a daughter.

• RELATED: How Presently Can You Observe Out the Sex activity of Your Infant?

Plus, Bordinhao'southward mother didn't come across any night circles on her neck. "In the Philippines, where I was born, no rings means a girl," she explains. Although her husband wanted to expect to detect out the infant's sex activity, Bordinhao had to know for certain.

"Not existence able to ready for the biggest event of my life made me crazy," she admits, so she establish out at sixteen weeks during a routine sonogram. Surprise! "There was our little man, in all his glory," Bordinhao recalls. "We were in daze for 24 hours, but now we're thrilled. Finding out helped us prepare mentally and stock the nursery. I can't wait to meet him!"

"What Are You Having?"

That'southward commonly the first question expectant mothers and fathers are asked. Parents-to-be tin can—and about always do!—answer information technology earlier than ever before, cheers to the latest imaging technology. In fact, 9 out of x new moms polled in our MomTrak survey knew the sexual activity of their baby prior to labor day.

"Past your 5th month, effectually week xviii or nineteen of your pregnancy, a sonogram can evidence you lot the sex of your unborn child with near 95 percent accuracy," explains Daniel A. Potter, M.D., a reproductive endocrinologist at the Huntington Reproductive Middle Medical Group in California. "From a medical standpoint, we do an ultrasound to check the age, position, and health of the fetus, but most parents want to know the sexual practice too. That'due south truthful if it'due south the starting time baby or the 4th."

Expectant parents are specially nosy creatures: If you lot Google "predict infant'southward sex," you'll find more than than ane million results, including gender predictor kits you tin purchase at your local Target. Yet, if we all hold that having a healthy, happy baby is paramount, why exercise we care then much whether that baby is a boy or a girl?

"It'southward human nature," Dr. Potter says. It started in the Stone Historic period, he continues: "A family unit without sons, whose job was to chase and go on everyone fed, might not take survived. Then offerings were fabricated to the gods, and soothsayers were consulted. People passed on to the next generation the methods they considered most effective for guaranteeing a boy, and this inspired sometime wives' tales."

Throughout history, gender has remained a priority. "For hundreds of years, sex determined not only your life's options merely your parents' options besides," says social historian Stephanie Coontz, Ph.D., author of A Strange Stirring, which tells of the struggle for gender equality in the 1960s. "It influenced how your parents treated you, what they expected of you, fifty-fifty if they welcomed you lot at all."

In many societies, not having a son was a tragedy; for the ruling elite, it was a threat to their power: "Women were killed or killed themselves if they didn't evangelize a boy," she says.

Polls today reveal that Americans withal accept a slight preference for boys. Only in this country, a baby's gender is no longer a matter of life-and-death importance. "We increasingly desire the aforementioned things for our children, boys or girls," Dr. Coontz says. Still, many can't resist the siren call of knowing Babe's sexual practice.

blueish and pink bottles

Credit: Alexandra Grablewski

Finding Out

These days, marvel, practicality, and peace of mind ofttimes outweigh surprise. "We felt that learning the baby's gender was a succulent moment, no affair when nosotros found out," says Robin Rosen of Atlanta, a mom of a daughter and a boy.

Some first-fourth dimension parents choose to know the sex of their baby but prolong the suspense the second time around. "As a new mom, then much is completely unknown," says San Francisco mom of two Kat Eden. Finding out the infant's sexual activity and focusing on picking a name, clothes, and decor helped Eden feel grounded during her showtime pregnancy. "With my second, I knew what to expect," she says. "It was exciting to wonder about the little person growing in my breadbasket."

Sometimes siblings factor into the conclusion. "My older son is a need-to-know kind of kid," says Caren Rodriguez of Greensboro, Northward Carolina, a mom of two boys. "Being able to tell his form about the babe was a source of pride for him."

Those who do choose to wait savor the anticipation. As Rachel Levin of New York Urban center says, "Having the surprise to look frontward to helped me become through those last, long weeks of my pregnancy."

What if you want to find out and your guy doesn't? Some parents adopt a "Don't ask, don't tell" policy. One scenario: The medico writes the sex on an index card and seals it in an envelope. The couple agrees that if either of them is bursting to know, he or she can peek.

You could besides wait and run into where things go. "We'd been trying to have a baby for a long fourth dimension," says Sophie Beauvais of Cambridge, Massachusetts. "We were and then stressed out that we stopped trying and took a holiday. Soon after we got back, I establish out I was pregnant." They remained undecided about finding out until the mean solar day of the baby's 18-week ultrasound: "Past and then, we were so thrilled our dream was coming truthful that when the nurse asked if we wanted to know, we both blurted, 'Yes!' It merely felt correct."

Dealing with Disappointment

What if you lot've been envisioning tutus and tea parties, only to find out you're having a boy? Or your husband has a deep desire for a boy, but you lot're getting a girl? Y'all may be bummed out, and that's okay.

"It'due south normal to feel let down," says Sara Rosenquist, Ph.D., author of After the Stork. Feeling guilty about your negative emotions can add to the anxiety stew. Talk with your partner, a close family unit member, or friend. "Pretending you're not upset keeps negative feelings simmering and can intensify the sadness," Dr. Rosenquist adds. It'due south all-time to work through any regrets now, before sleep deprivation and other realities of having a newborn compound your sadness.

Kerstin Armstrong of Atlanta, a mom of three girls, always pictured herself with boys and needed time to accept that she'd never have a son. "Simply wishing for a boy doesn't mean I love my girls any less!" she says.

Armstrong'south hubby, Scott, feels similarly. "I was hoping for a boy with each pregnancy, and a office of me will always long for a son," he admits. "Only Kerstin one time told me something that even so resonates: 'Everything our daughters know about boys will come from you.' I consider information technology a privilege to be their vision of what a man should be."

baby'south gender

Boy vs. Girl

Behavior

• Babe girls feel discomfort more than acutely than boys practice, so they're more likely to fuss when they become cold or take a wet diaper. But don't be too quick to characterization your little princess high-maintenance; her keener sense of touch also makes her more responsive to cuddling and easier to soothe.
• Girls tend to produce more oxytocin, the human-bonding hormone, and serotonin, a "feel-good" hormone. This helps explain why they're more apt to exist caregivers to dolls and younger siblings. Piffling boys really are more than interested in toy cars, trucks, and other things that move.
• "Boys tend to explore their earth more than physically than girls practise, such equally by banging their toys, jumping, and playing rough. "They have an unrestrained style of expressing free energy," says Adie Goldberg, co-writer of It's a Infant Boy! and It's a Babe Girl! Play is calmer among girls, who tend to stay closer to adults, engage in fantasy, and hang out in minor groups, whereas boys gravitate toward packs of playmates and intense, agile games.

Health

• Baby girls are five times more probable than boys are to go hemangiomas, raised cherry birthmarks caused by a buildup of blood vessels. They unremarkably disappear by age 9 merely tin can be treated with steroids or removed past lasers.
• Baby boys are at higher risk for hernias. That's because when they're in utero, their testicles descend from the belly, which tin leave a cavity in the groin that requires surgery to repair.
• Baby girls are four times more susceptible to hip dysplasia, a dislocation of the thighbone from the hip socket. Braces can usually remedy the condition.
• Boys more often have asthma, nevertheless they're more than likely than girls to outgrow it by adolescence. One possible explanation: Higher testosterone levels might relax airway muscles.
• Girls are more prone to UTIs. Their urinary tract is shorter, then it's easier for bacteria to reach their bladder and crusade an infection

Motor Skills

• Boys often take stronger motor skills—recall jumping and climbing. They might also principal tasks like aiming a throw and building cake towers at a younger age than their girl peers do, probably because the expanse of a male child's brain that'south devoted to visual-spatial relation is larger. Just...
• ...Girls tin can kick serious butt when information technology comes to fine motor skills: They pick upward finger foods earlier on and, when they're older, learn to write and tie shoes sooner.
• Girls generally are toilet-trained before than boys are. They typically master the potty at near 35 months, whereas boys tend to start using the potty at around 39 months. There are loads of theories every bit to why girls get a caput offset. One pop explanation: Mommy's "plumbing" is the aforementioned every bit her daughter'southward, and she often does about of the teaching.

Milestones

• Boys are late growers: They usually don't reach 50 per centum of their adult meridian until nearly 24 months; girls tin reach that mark at only 20 months. Boys also enter puberty roughly two years afterwards than girls exercise and tend to go along shooting upward for iii more than years.
• Girls talk it up before than boys do, thanks to their more efficient use of the language centers in both hemispheres of the brain. At 18 months or so, a daughter's vocabulary consists of about ninety words, compared with xl words for about toddler boys. Only by historic period iii, boys are usually but as skilled in the gift of gab.

What It's Like to Have All of One Kind

"After we found out nosotros were having our quaternary boy, I flare-up into tears. My husband patted my arm and said, 'Information technology'southward okay, honey. It's not your fault.' We both had wanted a girl very much, only nosotros chop-chop got used to the idea of raising little boys who operate on only two speeds—running and sleeping—and who accept a pack mentality. One dark they got together and rigged upwardly a rocket launcher. The rockets? My tampons. Try explaining to your neighbor why her Lexus is covered in feminine-hygiene products! It's been wild, crazy, and loud, but we wouldn't have it any other style." — Ariel Lawhon; Wichita Falls, Texas

"We have ii girls, ages 5 and 3, and I love sharing the things that were important to me as a child, like Little House on the Prairie and the Ramona books. Simply know this: There will ever be glitter all over everything in your house. Resistance to princesses is futile." — Kristin Mahoney; South Orangish, New Jersey

"Having four boys keeps it uncomplicated—with each infant nosotros already had the clothes, toys, and how-to-raise boys books. I've researched soccer teams and baseball leagues and have a stable of other male child moms to call on. What's truly wonderful is that if I didn't have so many boys, I wouldn't have known how different from ane another they could exist." — Annie Drexler, Atlanta

"Equally the mother of three girls, ages v, 3, and 1, and as a total girly girl myself, I truly relish all my daughters' dress-up, makeup, ballet, and pretend play. My husband loves being the only man in the house. That said, information technology tin can often exist an emotional roller coaster. If they spot a issues, cover your ears because the sound can exist deafening! If they scrape a knee, you'd think the leg was broken, their reaction is so dramatic." — Andrea Miller; Sienna Plantation, Texas

Practise Gender Prediction Kits Actually Work?

Instead of waiting for a sonogram, some preggo parents are finding out at home.

A slew of gender prediction kits has sprung upwardly at drugstores in recent years, and some claim to accurately predict a infant'south gender every bit early equally 5 to 7 weeks into a pregnancy. Peeing in a loving cup or pricking your finger and sending a blood sample to a lab for Deoxyribonucleic acid testing is like shooting fish in a barrel enough, simply these aren't surefire methods.

Among the kits, urine tests, which check for the presence of testosterone as early on as ten weeks, are the to the lowest degree expensive and likewise the least authentic. Kits that utilise a blood sample to detect gender are imprecise every bit well (your bathroom isn't a quality-controlled lab!) and pricey (often upwards of $300). If you have more than money than patience, you may want to try ane, but don't paint the plant nursery till you become a sonogram!

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Source: https://www.parents.com/pregnancy/my-baby/gender-prediction/are-you-having-a-boy-or-a-girl/

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