"I hope it's a ....."

What a privilege to be the mother of 2 boys and to be pregnant again!

And oh wow. I'm now 10.5 weeks pregnant and if I had a dollar for everytime someone has said, "Oh congratulations! Hopefully it'll be a girl this time!" I'd be looking at a pretty sweet gift for myself (yes, myself, I'm the one pregnant!) by the time week 40 rolls around. Probably something shiny, or an overnight trip somewhere that included a massage at a spa.

If people don't offer their hopes of pink, then I definitely get one of 2 questions, "So do you think it'll be a girl this time?" or the very similar "Are you guys hoping for pink this time?" There hasn't been one first reaction of "Yay! Maybe 3 boys!?!" or "Blue blue blue!"

Really, I don't mind. I totally get why people say it and I've said similar things to people... even my cousin who is due in May with their 3rd girl, I sent my "maybe this time boy!" hopes her way early on.  Yet maybe it's even her thrilled reaction at "3 of a kind" that birthed (no pun intended) this post idea.

What ARE we thinking? Boy? Girl? What DO we hope for? Pink? Blue? And the mom to mom question, "Do you have any clues or hints as to what it is?"

So what is my "mom sense" telling me these days? 
Not much really.  But lets break it down, old wives tale style and see if we can come up with something...

Nausea-  My nausea is worse than it was with Isaac. My blood sugar seems to drop out of nowhere and I find myself having to snack a lot to keep from feeling sick- which I didn't have to do with Isaac.  Old Wives say More Nausea = Girl. However! I'm 10 weeks and still haven't thrown up once.  So while it's worse than it was with Isaac, it's still not sending me to the toilet every morning and evening.  And my language teacher who has had 4 kids (3 girls and a boy) says just the opposite of the Old Wives... "My nausea was non-existent with girls, with my son I nearly died."  So. Nausea isn't really telling me a whole lot I don't think.  Though maybe it's more similar to my pregnancy with Isaac than it is different.

Cravings- With Isaac I craved meat and sour/salty things. So Aunt Annie's pretzel stand was a favorite of mine as I'd get a salty pretzel and an ice cold lemonade. Most Old Wives agree with me- salty equals boy, sweet equals girl. This time is similar, as I have eaten more regular Lays salted potato chips in the last 6 weeks than I have in the last 6 years probably.  But the "craving" is different. It's almost like nothing else will taste good, so salty chips is my option because it's all I can stomach.  And I can't drink anything carbonated. That immediately gives me indigestion, nausea and leaves my mouth tasting like metal.  Sweet sweet tea has been a life saver. At home I make it myself and when I'm out- and for language class- I usually get a "Lipton Peach Iced Tea" every day.  Then around 11pm or so every night the last big wave of nausea hits (does no good to go to sleep early as it wakes me up) and a piece of cinnamon-sugar toast and a glass of milk has been my go to snack item.   So... I wouldn't say I'm craving salty things, but day time it's what I'll reach for... yet with Isaac I couldn't get enough lemonade and with this one all drinks must be sweet.  So... in my estimation, cravings are still leaving me in the dark.

The Baby Bump Shape- This one is hard to say because in general bumps show up earlier in subsequent pregnancies than they do with the first. I'm no exception to this I think as Isaac took his sweet time showing himself and til the end looked just like I was totally faking everyone out and just stuck a basket ball under my shirt.  Like a good little boy, Isaac followed all the Old Wives and was "all belly."  This one is already showing (that I can see... no one has tried to pat my belly or anything yet!) and I feel like it's wider.  Wide to Old Wives means girl. However my cousin (the one with baby girl #3 in her at this very moment) is a walking testimony that Old Wives sometimes just like to gossip and really don't know what they're talking about as nothing about her baby bumps would be considered "wide."  Also, since I'm having to snack more (as much as I'd like to stick with the doctor-recommended only adding 300 more calories per day) I can't say I'm not just gaining weight in general.  Also, the bump has yet to really "pop" in the true sense of course so it's hard to tell in the first place.  So baby bump isn't helping either.

Intuition- I have zero intuition about this one. I say I felt like Isaac was a boy, though not strongly... but definitely more strong than any clue I have about this one. 

"Yeah yeah, but what do you want?"- I can honestly say I really don't know.  Maybe it's coming from the heart of a grateful mother who has 2 healthy children and I'm older now than even just 3 years ago when we started our parenting journey, so I can say, "It doesn't matter." But I think I was also affected by having the option of getting to choose what I wanted the sex of my 2nd child to be.  How often do you get that choice? If you don't adopt, never! Yet, when we filled out the page with all the "options" for kids, neither of us could bring ourselves to check "Boy" or "Girl" so we checked "Either."  To have that kind of power of choice then just give it back to God and trust He will bring the right child into our family has affected me.  How much more though than just getting older and being thankful for another child in general, I can't say.  But I am SO grateful I didn't check the "girl" box while adopting as there is no other child on the face of the earth that could be more perfect (or more naughty) as the 2nd child in our family than Isaiah Kingston. 

So what do I want?  I guess I feel like I've got that options paper in my hand again and I'm realizing I just don't have enough wisdom to choose for myself and am gladly and gratefully letting the Lord make that choice for me... my hope is in Him, not in the nursery decor color!

For those who are not satisfied with a Jesus-Sunday-school answer, I will say that some days I think about having a girl, and buying pink, and using the word "Daughter"... yet there are as equal number of days where it is so easy to picture 3 little pairs of swim trunks hanging on the line, even more trains and train accessories scattered all over my floor, and not having to change my daily vocabulary from "BOYS!" to "KIDS!"

Does that answer your question?