Down to earth with a bump (7) - AND THEN THE BUMP GREW SOME MORE

THE RING TEST & EVERYONE HAS AN OPINION, EVEN MY TWO YEAR OLD NEPHEW

Back to reality and my bump continued to grow at an alarming rate through to about the seven-month mark before finally slowing down. It was around this time that I, also began to slow down. Not surprisingly my hop skip and jump subsided and was replaced with a most unsexy waddle. I was far more tired and feeling nauseas again in the mornings. My sleep was always disturbed. My bladder was rubbish and I would pee like a racehorse through the night. Cramp in my legs would often wake me. Heartburn would kill me. And then if all this wasn’t enough, there were the Quentin Tarrentino genre of dreams; horrendously vivid and mostly about the birth.

One odd thing about these dreams; the baby’s sex was never determined. Which leads me on to say, we had absolutely no idea what we were having. A baby. A 50/50 chance. Boy or girl, who could tell?

It was after one of those four weddings I mentioned that we had an unexpected house guest come to stay for a week. Sharon was a long lost cousin of my new sister-in-law who was over for the celebration and to see a bit of Blighty. She had never set foot out of Antipodea.

Here she was, typically Australian, fun and big hearted, no holds- barred asking me to take my wedding ring off. Before I knew what was coming next, she plucked a hair out of my head. Tugging at it to get a good long one.

Hair in hand, she threaded my ring on to it before letting it hover over my bump. And then we waited. And waited. The ring began to rock back and forth like a pendulum. This she told us meant we were having a boy. (Apparently if it swings round in a circular motion you are having a girl).

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Tom had always been forward with his language development. So being able to express himself from a very early age it ought not have not come as such a surprise when he voiced his opinion on the sex of our unborn baby.

‘You have a baby in your tummy Auntie Em. When will it come out? I want to see it.’

‘Not for a while yet Tom. It has to grow a little more before it is ready to come out.’

‘Auntie Em, it is a girl.’

And just like that my nephew joined ranks with the many others who told us what they thought it was. It is amusing to say the least. I mean, they have a one out of two chance of being right don’t they? But some people are adamant.

‘Ooh, you are all upfront, it’s a boy.’

Rubbish. 
My friend was all upfront with both of her pregnancies and she had a girl each time.

‘Ooh, you are carrying high, it’s got to be a girl.’

Rubbish. I believe every woman is built differently and depending on how your womb sits, will depend on the shape you are and how you carry.

Some women talk about knowing what they are having. The intuition they feel is incredibly strong towards the sex. Not me.

Some couples find out. We didn’t want to. We blurted out, ‘We don’t want to know,’ as we fell through the door of the sonographer’s room. I’m glad we agreed on that. Surely not agreeing would be the start of something altogether more difficult than a pregnancy?