Upon learning the big news, most expecting parents intuitively start marveling about the tints that will be added to their family pallet (and come to define their nursery). The imagination here often lends itself to stereotypes and extremes are envisioned: is it going to be a dive into a pink-ish princess world or will blue, trucks, cars and dinosaurs take over?

The wait is usually over between the 16^th to the 20^th week of pregnancy, when you’re baby’s genital will be developed enough for your gyno (or sonogram technician) to be able to confirm the gender – of course provided baby decides to cooperate (be in the right position) and isn’t too shy to permit a peak!

There is also a growing group of parents that choose to keep the gender a mystery until delivery but I’m certainly not one of those and my mind has been busy pondering whether my daughter will have a younger brother or sister from day one… In addition, I’m the planner and dreamer type and therefore before yellow starts taking over my house and mind I need to know what directions things are heading. For the impatient-types like me, gender games are a fun (and non-invasive) way to cater to our curiosity.

• Chinese Gender Chart

It predicts your baby’s gender based on your Chinese lunar age at the time you got pregnant and the Chinese lunar month in which you conceived. Here’s the one I used:

http://www.babycenter.com/chinese-gender-predictor

Result: Girl

• Gender Prediction Test

IntelliGender’s Gender Prediction Test
Can be used as early as 10 weeks of pregnancy

A gender prediction test that you can buy at some local pharmacies. Those tests have been on the market for a couple of years now but their accuracy is actually quite controversial and for the most part medical professionals have not endorsed them concluding that they are a waste of money. Nevertheless, some brands affirm around 80% accuracy (so 4 out of 5 tests according to them is correct). The test I used (see image above) claims to examine the chemicals produced by the pregnant mother’s urine and so should give a “dark, smoky green” reaction to the urine of a mother carrying a male baby and an “orange tinted” reaction to the urine of a mother pregnant with a girl.

Result: Girl

Of course neither the Chinese chart nor the prediction test kit have conclusive scientific backing and therefore shouldn’t replace a sonogram test result to prove or contradict their prediction. So if you learn you have a girl don’t go all Marie-Antoinette in your baby’s nursery just yet!

For my part, I’ll wait for the sonogram before I break the news to my daughter that she should be expecting a sister!