If you’re pregnant or have ever been pregnant you may have heard some of the following…
You’re carrying high, t must be a girl! You’re glowing! You must be a having a boy because a girl would steal all your beauty. Oh you got sick? It’s a girl! Craving salty foods? It’s a boy!
I’ve heard so many of these old wives tales over the past 7 months and I’m not a fan of them honestly. They are called old wives tales because that’s exactly what the are – TALES! So why do we talk about them all time? They’re not based on science or reality. Here are all the ones I’ve heard so far. Tell me if you have more in the comments below!
You’re having a boy if…
- You’re carrying low
- You crave salty food
- You don’t get sick the first trimester
- You look beautiful
- Your baby has a low heart rate in early pregnancy
You’re having a girl if…
- You’re carrying high
- You crave sweets
- You get really sick in the first trimester
- You lose your good looks
- Your baby has a high heartbeat in early pregnancy
Look, did some of these old wives tales hold true for me? Of course. Each “tale” has a 50% chance of being true. As you guys know, I’m having a girl. And yes, I got very sick the first trimester and now I crave sugar like crazy! But those are really the only two that held true for me. I feel more beautiful than ever (so she didn’t “steal my beauty”). I’m carrying low in my opinion, and her heart rate was on the low side (130 beat per minutes) at 9 weeks.
I can’t even tell you how many times people have told me they thought I was having a boy because I still had my looks (read more about how I feel about my pregnancy looks and body HERE). It made me SO mad when people would say this! I of course knew I was having a girl at the time, so I kind of took their comments as an insult to my baby girl. Am I crazy? Maybe. Maybe I am an overprotective mom already. But it insulted me that these people thought my precious little girl would cause something negative to happen to me. I personally think my little girl’s beauty is making ME more beautiful! Her beauty shines through me!!! So my point is these tales are really not true and honestly pretty sexist. If I feel great and look beautiful I’m having a boy. But if I feel like hell and look ugly then its a girl! That’s such BS!
My sister has a little girl (my adorable niece!) and another little girl on the way, and her two pregnancies couldn’t be more different! She was super sick in her first pregnancy and feels great during her second. She didn’t love how she looked during her first, and feels beautiful and strong now with baby #2! But BOTH pregnancies are girl pregnancies! I guess my point is that we are all different and all pregnancies are different! We should ditch these silly old wives tales and embrace whatever sex we are blessed with! Sure it’s fun to guess the sex based on how your body is changing, but let’s guess based on what our gut tells us and not these “old wives.” Who are these bitches anyway? Ha!
BTW, here are some of my favorite maternity dresses that I plan to wear in my third trimester and I know I’ll feel BEAUTIFUL in all them 🙂
You can get my dress at Nordstrom HERE, at Revolve Clothing HERE, or rent it at Rent the Runway HERE
The craziest tale I’ve heard is, "If you have a lot of heartburn, your baby will have a lot of hair." LOL. Heartburn is most certainly not related to how much hair your baby has. I feel the same about all those tales and I love that you posted about it. Thank you for sharing this beautiful time of if your life with us.
Ali,
I am on my 5th pregnancy and I have heard all the tales! The girls steal your beauty one is the worst. I am learning so much from following your blog. I love all the dresses you have chosen so far and I love how you make it a point to mention when they are non maternity. So inspirational! Thank you.
Thank you for the blog! I felt the wives tales were fun while I was pregnant. I didn’t take any of them seriously, but i thought it was cool to see if any of them would be true.
I have never heard of a girl stealing your beauty and a boy giving you the "glow". That ones seems very silly.
Love your dress choices. If I have a third, I might just have to buy some of the dresses.
Totally agree. You’ll probably hate them even more if you decide to have a second. I’m carrying my second girl and the pregnancies could not be more different. Especially the beauty part! With my first I had gorgeous skin, and this time it’s just now calmed down after months of being broken out. The most annoying thing I’ve heard from people this time though, before we knew it was a girl, is that I "needed" a boy. We are extremely happy to be having another girl!
I had a little girl three years ago….and nothing applied to me. In fact my daughters baseline heartrate was so low I gave the nurses a heart attack am everyone I went in for an appt! They did so many tests and she ended up being perfect!!!!
First of all – who in their right mind would tell a pregnant woman that she is having a girl because the baby’s stolen all their beauty!! Cruel much?? I’ve been pregnant 3 times (2 boys and a girl) and pregnancy is hard enough without telling you rude things. This isn’t a wives tale but I carry really big and I can’t count the times that I’ve been told I look "ready to go any day" and I’ve got 8 weeks to go!!
I heard the heartburn wives tale a lot!! I never found out the gender of our babes but it was fun to try and guess based on silly wives tales.
Have to every heard the one where you hang a ring on a string above the belly and if it moves circular it’s one gender and back and forth it’s another (I obviously can’t remember the exact details). That one always seemed super crazy to me!!
My friend told me over and over again during my first pregnancy that I looked "too good" to be having a girl (I had a boy, and we knew/announced the gender). I’m currently pregnant with a baby girl now, and honestly feel like I look even better than I did when I was pregnant with my son. I’m less bloated/swollen and about 15 pounds lighter than I was at 33 weeks along with my son! My husband’s family is Portuguese and they have a lot of old wives’ tales that they swear by, but they’ve been proven wrong with all the recent pregnancies we’ve had in the family over the past couple of years. Sometimes they’re fun to help try to determine baby’s gender, but when people are so insistent on their accuracy, it can get pretty obnoxious.
My first was a girl. I did carry high, her heart rate was high (158-163 mostly) and I definitely craved sweets, but I also felt so pretty during my pregnancy with her. I was also sick the first12-13 weeks with her, 24 hours a day nausea and had an insane amount of food aversions first trimester. My second was a boy, but I again carried high (so not true wive-stales!), his heart-rate was insanely high, higher than my daughters… between 171-175 each time!! So the low heart rate for a boy thing proved to be extremely wrong. And I was SOOOO sick with him… I would say even worse than with my daughter because it lasted longer (about 15 weeks) and most days in the beginning I couldn’t stomach more than pretzels. My cravings with my son weren’t as sweet, but not salty either… I craved tons and tons of cold crisp veggies with him and salads. I also felt worse about my appearance early on with him, I felt like I didn’t look good and broke out horrible in the beginning and even my hair changed (got really oily first trimester) so pretty much none of the wives-tales were right for my son! Oh and with my daughter people would constantly tell me I was having a boy because I carried "all baby" … when I would say "no, we are having a girl" they would say, you can’t be, you look so good and are all baby… you get wide and gain all over with a girl. I couldn’t believe the things that came out of people’s mouths!
I had a boy, I was sick, sick, sick.. I carried high until the very end of the pregnancy. I craved french toast and milk, or salads. (Yeah, what a combination) I gained a ton of weight, I did not feel beautiful, I did not have that glow, but I was 19. No haters, please! Today, I have the most amazing relationship with a young man who I am lucky to hear him call me "mom".I went past my due date, I heard everything from drinking olive oil and orange juice, to walking 14 miles (you try walking 14 miles after 9 months and a heavy baby, plus swollen kancles, damn those wise tails. I agree, Ali.. Do what YOU feel you want and can do, it’s your pregnancy, and only YOU know your body inside and out. As much as you love Keven and even tho 1/2 of him is in there, he doesn’t get it, neither.. You are doing good, you look gorgeous, and you glow. Baby Manno is making that happen on top of your natural beauty. 🙂 Hope this made your day a little brighter, every word came from the heart and was meant.
Love Donna (Your older, more wiser follower) 🙂
The first time I ever shopped for maternity clothes, the lady behind the counter said "oh you must be having a girl" and I asked her why she thought that and she said "because with girls, moms gain weight all over and with boys its just in the belly". Gee thanks lady – too bad she was right and I was having a girl! Ha!
I’m right there with you Ali. My husband and I opted not to find out the gender of our baby until our sweetheart was born. Literally, 90% of family and friends thought I was having a boy because I was carrying high, "glowing" and had "kept my beauty." Which I used to laugh with my mom and say sheesh if that’s the case according to that science if I have a girl she won’t be very attractive. However, I had a sneaky suspicion I was carrying a girl because just like when my mother carried me I had zero morning sickness. Sure enough I gave birth to an absolutely beautiful (of course I’m biased) baby girl this past October. Full head of hair and dark soulful blue eyes. And no, I didn’t have heartburn with her! Another silly wives tale that continued after she was born. Oh look at that hair, you must have had bad heartburn…I heard plenty of times. I think sometimes folks just don’t know what to say so these wives tales are an easy go to. Ha. In hindsight, I’m like awkward…hopefully, social media won’t be around when she’s of the age to read how EVERYONE thought she was a boy. Now every where we go folks rave about how striking she is with her porcelain skin, deep blue eyes, and dark brown hair so I suppose it all worked out in the end…since nearly everyone was insinuating before she arrived that she was either a boy or a not so attractive girl.
I had a man tell me the opposite, that I must be having a girl because I was "still beautiful". He said boys make you look more tired/ugly! I called him out on it and said, "well that was insulting to every women who’s ever had a boy, including your mother and wife!" Some people…..
Glad you are ignoring all those tales…..I have 3 girls. I never had morning sickness with any of them, never craved sweets, and carried them all low. Good luck during the rest of your pregnancy. I loved being pregnant, but I’m done having babies.
Oh and just wait for all of the advice to start pouring in once you near your due date on how to get your baby to move on out of the womb (if she doesn’t decide to arrive early). I eventually had to tell everyone thanks for all of the advice about spicy food, castor oil, exercise, and the there are other things you can do besides exercise 😉 🙂 (ha!) etc. but we are just going to wait for this little love to decide when he or she wants to come! I got even more annoyed with all of that because my girl arrived fashionably late at exactly 41 weeks…and when you are that pregnant and uncomfortable you hit your limit on the false hope and old wives tale train. Ha!
So Ali I will agree with you completely and say these Tales r just that Tales that r Old and they were more than likely created when way back in the day, the only thing most women where busy with was raising the babies they had and having more! So, I said a girl because it was my gut feeling, as your belly grew I just said, girl, based on no tale at all. YOU look amazing, healthy and beautiful !! Your sister, congratulations to her, is proof that no two pregnancies are alike no mater what sex, boy or girl your having. I do wanna say that how wonderful is this, 3 Girls !!! Wow , they are going to be the best of cousins! So much fun to look forward to, won’t be long now for you and even sooner for your sister, congratulations to her also. Take care and please keep us posted on all the 3rd trimester news 🙂
I looked awful with my first pregnancy, not even like myself. It was a BOY! Guess HE stole my good looks 😉
I think everyone has different opinions based on previous pregnancies, things they’ve heard and who knows what else! I’m currently 8 months pregnant with a boy and everyone thought I was having a girl for one reason or another. I know it can be kind of annoying but I think everyone means well and is just trying to make an "educated" guess. Also I saw this video and thought it was really funny:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_gUeNMa3mA
PS.
You do look great pregnant! And I’m loving all of your outfits!
Note: the video is about all the parental "advice" you’ll get while pregnant
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_gUeNMa3mA
Ali, I think those old wives tales came from back in the day when you didn’t find out what the sex of the baby was before it was born. I’m 54 and when I was having mine I didn’t know other than a feeling I had what the sex would be. I felt different with both of my pregnancies and they are both boys. I was barely sick at all with the first one and he was on the lazy side in there! I had horrible back labor (no epidurals back then!). My second one I was sick for the first 4 months and he was far from lazy in there! He was more like an acrobat in there! I thought for sure he must be a girl. I carried them both low and out to the front. I had an easy and fast labor with the second one with stomach labor and no back labor. So even though they are both boys the pregnancies were very different other than carrying low and out front. Really though, I’m sure the tales got started because back then there weren’t these new blood tests and really good ultrasounds to learn what the sex of the baby was, so you had 9 months to wonder! You look beautiful and you are glowing! I can’t wait to see your precious bundle of joy! I hope you don’t make us wait to long to see her pictures!
What was your "gut" telling you Ali!? I’m only 8.5 weeks but I have a "boy" feeling for some reason! I cant wait to find out what we are having!!! Curious if you were leaning either way!?
So with you on all these "wives tails" — Ali, have you had a chance to read Brain Rules for Babies by Dr. John Medina? I recommend it for all mommies, current & while just finding out your joyous news! Promise, no "wives tails" included! …just good advice w/ a scientific foundation for all Mommas it’s a must read! Oh and I promise it will make you lol too! ????
I’m 36 weeks pregnant with my first and we aren’t finding out the gender so people are CONSTANTLY telling me what they think it is. People are brutally honest too, "I’m starting to think girl because you’re looking a bit swollen." Oh thanks….!
I agree!! A pregnant Mom, is beautiful no matter the sex. And people who say different, should be ashamed of themselves. No woman, who is pregnant needs to hear negative stuff. On a positive note, you have been my favorite ever since. I am so happy for you. Can not wait to see pictures of your baby!! Your gorgeous in every picture!
I am so glad you wrote this, I am also halfway through my first pregnancy. I have been told it’s a girl or a boy because "you are glowing". It must be a boy because "you barely gained any weight, girls make you blow up everywhere". Maybe I’m glowing because I’m so incredibly happy to actually be pregnant after two grueling years of fertility treatments. I went into our anatomy scan convinced I was having a boy due to everyone’s input. I was blown away when we learned it’s a girl!!! Guess what? I’m so over the moon, I’m sure my glow has intensified by 100%. So happy for you Ali, keep writing your blogs that I love so much!
Hate them too. People and their opinions are so mean sometimes! You are a beautiful pregnant woman! I hope you continue feeling great!
I seriously think you are overreacting… It should not be upsetting you that much.. You should be just laughing and let it go..be over it….
Focus on the positive instead of wasting precious energies.. Just saying..
I never thought twice about those things. Just not that big of a deal.
Hahah this is a tad dramatic. I’m
34 weeks pregnant and just laugh when I hear stuff like that! #firstworldproblems
I have her purse and love it And I sell them…stelladot.com/christinahoffmann
Love this! After we finally told everybody we were expecting EVERYBODY told us it was a girl because of my symptoms. Horrible nausea that was from morning til night and lasted for 5 months!!! I also gained weight EVERYWHERE! Even my fiancé thought we were having a girl. But I thought differently. The day I took a pregnancy test and it came back saying "pregnant " I all of a sudden had an immediate feeling it was a boy. So because of my gut telling me this and everybody else saying the complete opposite of course I was even more curious to see who was right. We had our gender ultrasound at 18 weeks and 2 days. My heart was racing in anticipation when the tech says it’s a BOY!!! I was so happy I cried tears of joy because all along I keep feeling I was carrying my son and I was right. My fiancé was in shock along with everybody else and kept saying are you sure?! Haha. Today my son is 5 years old! Best feeling!!
Best wishes on your pregnancy ❥
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I’m opposite blew up with my son and still have shape with my daughter