Let's Talk Baby #2

Welcome to a pregnancy update of my first trimester. Let's start at the beginning.

Maybe it was August 10th when I took the pregnancy test that showed up positive. Eli had been up for about an hour and he had been happily playing all morning. Jeff and I saw the result and shared the good news with Eli.

"Eli," we said, "you're going to have a baby brother or sister!"

Eli started crying hysterically. Hopefully it's not a foreshadow of things to come.

At four weeks, I was remembering how much I hate the first trimester nausea and food aversions to everything and Jeff was remembering how much he hates to take my picture every week.

I'd say morning sickness was worse with this one than with Eli, but I still never threw up (due to pregnancy) so I guess it wasn't that bad.

As soon as I hit second trimester the morning sickness ended and was replaced with a raging appetite. My stomach can go from being stuffed to growling all in an hour's time.

I have had food aversions to hamburger meat, eggs, and chocolate (sometimes). But most food tastes different to me now and I don't remember that happening with Eli.

My cravings have been almost identical to my first pregnancy. They're very specific and weird so don't laugh: peanut butter toast, cabbage salad, grapefruit, orange jello with mandarin oranges in it, Arby's roast beef sandwiches, Subway sandwiches (Doctor said it's okay), sour gummy worms, cheesy potatoes and that's all I can think of right now.

As one might imagine, we're very anxious to find out the gender of the baby. Specifically because I'm convinced the Excells can't produce girls. I can't help but get the feeling a life of all boys is in my future.

With all this gender anxiety, I may have done a little bit of experimenting with every gender prediction old wives' tale in the book. Shall we look at the results?

Cabbage Test - I will not tell you exactly what I did for this test. My curiosity got the best of me and I'll just say maybe you don't want to drink out of any of our cups until they've all made several cycles through the dishwasher... But the result -- GIRL.

Baking Soda Test - This test has a lot in common with the cabbage test including the result -- GIRL.

Wedding Ring Test - Thread a string through wedding ring or a needle and hold it over pregnant belly. If it waves in circles, girl. Pendulum-like, boy. Results were slightly inconclusive because Jeff has a very steady hand, but we'll say -- GIRL.

Chinese Gender Predictor - An old chart found in some guy's tomb that claims to have a 95% accuracy rating -- GIRL.

Heart Rate - Over 140, girl. At my 14-week check-up baby's heart was beating at 150 -- GIRL.

Acne - More acne during pregnancy is said to be a girl. Lately I feel like I've got my blotchy high school face back, so the result is -- GIRL.

Mother's Intuition - BOY.

We find out in 10 days what we're having. We'll see who's right -- the old wives or the pregnant mom.