This week, the baby is looking much more human! He or she is about the size of a green olive now, and is probably moving around! According to the documentary, In The Womb, all movements are totally reflexive right now. I think the brain takes over movements at around 4 months gestation. The heart is also not yet controlled by the brain, which is why the heartbeat is so fast. It will continue to get faster until the brain takes control of it, also around 4 months. The eyes are fully formed, but aren't functioning yet. Eyelids are almost fused now, and will remain shut until 25 weeks or so. All of the organs are present and just need to be refined. Also, fingers are separate now, and toes are only slightly webbed. Yay!As for me, I'm starting to feel different. I'm finally starting to get the symptoms that most people get by 8 weeks. I'm having plenty of food aversions, especially to ground beef. Blech. I'm picky about what I feel like eating, in general. I can always stomach fruit, and usually vegetables. It's not that other things really make me sick (at least not usually), they just taste terrible sometimes. I'm also more tired now. I'm taking lots of naps and sometimes going to bed at 10:00, which is a very rare occurrence for me. I'm a late night person. Even though my symptoms still aren't that bad, I'm hoping they will abate in a few weeks!
Like most parents-to-be, Travis and I can hardly wait to find out what we're having (I told Travis maybe it'll be a puppy!). There are these gender prediction tests on the market that are called Intelligender, and they are supposed to be able to tell the baby's gender with 80% accuracy after week 10. However, they are pricey (around $30). I would probably be willing to spend that much if it were more accurate, but I see no point in it if we still won't know whether it's a boy or a girl. So, I looked up other methods of gender prediction online and found the red cabbage test. Basically, you cut up a red cabbage, boil it for 10 minutes, and use the dark purple water as a pH test, which is what Intelligender is. So, yesterday, we bought a small red cabbage (for 52 cents!) and did the test. (Even though Intelligender is supposed to be used after 10 weeks, I read that this test should be done BEFORE 10 weeks. Who knows whether the author knew what they were talking about.) There was plenty of water to play with, so we put some in a each of several Styrofoam cups. First, just to make sure it worked, we added lemon juice to one cup, vinegar to another, and root beer to another. The lemon juice and vinegar immediately turned the water to bright pink. The root beer had no effect, so I guess it was non-acidic.
Here is the cabbage as it was boiling:
Can you tell how dark purple the water is?
Ok, so here's how this is supposed to work: you put the cabbage water in a cup and then add an equal amount of urine (sorry, I know that's gross). If the water turns red/pink, it's a boy, and if it stays purple or turns bluish, it's a girl. Keep in mind, this is not a very accurate test. We just did it for fun.
And...here are the results:
The cup on the right is the one we added root beer to, but I used it as the control since there was no change at all. That's basically what the cabbage water looked like before we added anything. The one on the left is the lemon juice. I didn't add much lemon juice at all, and it immediately changed to pink. The one in the middle is the gender test. On the picture, it looks as bright as the lemon juice, but it was nowhere near the same color in person. It was really halfway between purple and pink. Here's a better picture of it transfered into a jar:
This one shows the color better. I'd say this is inconclusive! It might fall more under the boy category. What do you all think? I feel like it's a girl, but I've heard of plenty of expectant mothers who had a strong feeling that ended up being wrong! My dad thinks it's a girl too, and he says he almost always gets it right. Travis isn't sure. I think he might be leaning toward boy. So who knows! I have added a poll on the sidebar so you can all put in your two cents! Vote away!
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