An Old Wives' Tale

If you've had a baby and a baby shower, I'm sure you remember the excitement of it all.

You enter the room and everyone oohs and ahhs over your belly.

Having people caress your blossoming tummy first, then asking if you don't mind.

Always nicer to have family do that, than strangers.

That's just awkward and kinda creepy.

Especially if they say something equally creepy like, "my, that's a huge outie you have going on."

Anyway, I co-hosted a baby shower for my SIL over the weekend.

Everyone talks to you in that voice 3 octaves higher than normal.

They give you gifts like itty-bitty booties and burp cloths.

Half the women share their episiotomy horror stories, and the other half brag about their stretchmark-less middles.

And the wives' tales come out.

Caffeine will make you child a busy-body.

Eating sushi will give them colic.

And, do you know about the chain thing?

I've seen it as one person holds up a chain (necklace) with a pendant over your stomach, if it turned circles it was a boy. Back-and-forth, a girl.

One of the relatives had her version, holding it over your palm.

She claims that it's pretty reliable, and she tried it with all the moms with kids to prove it, including me.

Dip once next to your palm for child one, then hold it over the palm.

Back-and-forth action. There is DQ.

Dip twice for child 2. Circles. There's My Boy.

Dip 3 times next to the palm then hold it over for the third child.

Back-and-forth. There's K.

Whoa, spooky.

I told her to do it a 4th time, see what happens.

It didn't move!!

That means I'm done having kids!

Hmm...interesting.

So doing this for the mommy-to-be, who doesn't know what she's having, a boy was predicted.

In six weeks or less we should know.

Any wives' tales you care to share regarding pregnancy!?

17 supporters in group:

  1. Michelle said...

    How fun! I love baby showers.

    The old wives tale that I have found about 75% accurate is regarding morning sickness. It seems everyone who has bad morning sickness has girls and those with boys either have mild morning sickness or none at all.

    Anyone else heard this or noticed this?

  2. Formerly known as Frau said...

    Congrats to your SIL .....I don't know any tales but I always loved hearing them.

  3. Carri said...

    I have heard that same tale of the chain. A friend's friend did it to me but she ddin't do all the dipping on the side and so far it came true but she had a third baby in my palm and so far no number three although we are trying.

  4. Amy Amy Bo Bamey said...

    So you are not gonna post a picture of your positive pregnancy test next week? You can't be done! Yours are too cute not to have anymore. You don't want to be the next Michelle Duggar?

    I did that chain trick and it seemed to work as well.

  5. Tasha said...

    I know exactly what you mean. That's why I like to go the other route and just comment on how big their boobs have gotten. :P

  6. Tasha said...

    And Michelle, that was true for both my babies! I was hardly sick at all with my son, but I thought I was going to die the first few months preggo wiht my daughter. SO sick with her!

  7. Rachel said...

    I have always felt so awkward at baby showers. I HATE people staring at me. . . hard to avoid that when you're the main attraction.

    I've heard about that myth -- a lady in my church did it to my mom when she was pregnant with Hannah. According to the chain, she was a boy. :)

    Following In My Shoes

  8. Cajoh said...

    I never heard of that. I'm always too skeptical and think that they know how to manipulate the necklace to get the desired effect.

  9. life in the mom lane said...

    I was sicker than a dog with both of my girls...looked like crap too...

    Felt & looked GREAT with my son....

    I heard girls suck your beauty pout of you... for me it was true!

  10. Anonymous said...

    Were there any children at this shower? My sister is mad that I'm bringing my Diva (10 years old). She said children shouldn't be there. Now I feel bad. What do you think?

  11. The Mom Jen said...

    My daughters went and neices and a few babies per permission from their aunt. I wouldn't take them to a non family shower unless I had no other option.

  12. Stacy said...

    Congrats to your SIL. I try not to share my last delivery experience until after people have had their baby. It's not pleasant. The first time I was pregnant my husband said I looked like a chicken, isn't that nice? A freaking chicken!

  13. Denise said...

    Congrats to your SIL!

    I've heard round basketball belly is a boy, wide belly is a girl... heard the chain thing... and the morning sickness one wasn't the case for me. I was sick for only 2 weeks, threw up once a day at 10 am precisely and then I was great... and had a girl.

    The one I found most interesting (and true in my case) was your baby will come out looking exactly like the person you despise the most. In my case it was my BIL simply b/c he irritated the snot out of me while I was preggers. He would poke my belly and wake the baby up just to watch me squirm and adjust my position for the next 30 minutes. He thought it was hilarious to see the baby's elbow drag across my belly. Jerk.

  14. Christy said...

    Can't say I've ever had the experience (I've not had kids). But all the women in my family always swore by the wive's tales.

    AND - I tagged you on my blog (http://christysadventure.blogspot.com). If you haven't and are interested to do it...list your Top 5 memories of 2009! Thanks!

  15. Messy Mommy said...

    Same trick used on my when I was pregnant this last time. It predicted correctly and stopped after #3. Crazy!

  16. Anonymous said...

    There are a lot of people who really believe in that ring trick. My aunt did it for me when I was pregnant. It said boy - and it was right!

  17. Fearless_Fabulous_Gayle said...

    I have a bunch of these that I found to be true while I was preggo. Like if you have heartburn your baby will have hair, OMG, I had horrible hb w/ baby girl and she had tons of hair, had mild hb with baby boy and he had hair as well, but not as much as her. I craved sweet stuff with bg and salty with bb. My face broke out with bb but not with bg (maybe more testosterone?). The heartbeat of bg was faster than bb on the first screening. I carried bg very low and she had a cone head, carried bb high. I was very emotional & mean while carrying bg, not so much w/ bb. Labor was easy w/ bg and she came right out, bb was stubborn and a little reluctant (even nurses said this was typical). Both babies were preemies but bg came right home with us, bb had to be put in the NICU (say girls are stronger babies). Bg kicked me like a football player and was active, and bb was sluggish and lazy. Everyone used to tell me all this crazy stuff b4 and I scoffed at them, but in my cases, everything I had heard lined up... And since I had them so close together (11 mos. apart) it was funny noticing the differences in girl/boy pregnancies... And usually I can tell what a woman is having by her "symptoms," right now I have a 100% acuracy rate, ROFL

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