The Old Wives' Tale of the Heartbeat.

My first two pregnancies were completely different from one another. From the symptoms I had, I would have sworn I was having the opposite sex.

With Ella, I craved Salty. With Allison, I craved sweet.
With Ella, I had stringy hair. With Allison, it glowed.
With Ella, my nails suffered. With Allison, I could have been a hand model.
With Ella, I was barely sick. With Allison, puking was on the daily schedule.
And it went on and on, always being the opposite.

The only thing that was the same throughout both was a high heartbeat. Both heart rates clocked in at 160bpm at 12 weeks.

The Old Wives' Tale of the heartbeat says over 140bpm = girl and under 140bpm = boy. It's worked for me so far, so I'll probably look to this again.

BUT ...

It's too early now. Right now, the heart has just formed within the last week and started pumping. Before 7 weeks, the HR should be over 100. After 7 weeks, the HR should be over 120. After 9-10 weeks, the HR should be over 130 (but the normal range is 120-160).

Which means my baby's HR of 129bpm doesn't mean diddly. Except, of course, that the baby is healthy. I totally plan on using this measurement as an indicator of "is it a boy or a girl?" but I can't just yet. It's just too early. Even if the baby is a girl, her new heart simply isn't capable of beating that fast.

Maybe it'll remain low when I hear it on doppler at my 12 week appointment and I'll come back to "it's a boy". I just can't yet!

And just to add - I am completely aware that this Old Wives' Tale is completely false. I looked up the data which proved 50% of boys had heartrates of under 140 and the other had rates above 140. Same with girls. But hey, it's fun to guess, right?