Intelligender & 1st Tri Farewell

I made it. I'm officially 13 weeks pregnant, and now a 2nd tri gal. Which, on the one hand, seems like a great accomplishment. 1/3 of the way there! On the other hand, I think it's terribly deceptive, considering the majority of pregnant women come into their first tri four weeks in. Therefore it seems like the next trimesters are going to just fly by... uh, no. But even still, it's nice to know I'm beyond the biggest risk of miscarriage. I realized, after I took this pic, that a white shirt probably wasn't the best choice for a baby bump picture, but hey, I was having a great hair day so I'm not going to be too picky.

My birthday was this past week and my older sister really wanted to get me something she had heard of somewhere, called the Intelligender. Essentially, you pee in a cup (the joy of every pregnant lady!) and after 10 minutes, the strip on the cup turns to either orangey-yellow and says 'GIRL' or it turns to grey-green and says 'BOY.' It has an 82% accuracy rate for determining gender, but as they say on their website, don't paint your nursery based on the test!

Ultimately, I ended up returning it. NOT because I didn't believe it would work, I'm a big believer in pee color strips. My hubby and I are pretty traditional though and with our first, we had the ultrasound tech secretly sign a note saying whether it was a boy or girl. We took the note home and threw a party that night, where we all discovered the gender together. It was super fun, and hubby would like to do that again for this baby. Peeing in a cup and yelling down the hall, "Hey, Sweetie, we're having a _________!" seemed a little anti-climatic.

My thoughts? This is a great option if you're one of those Natural Mamas who are opting out of optional ultrasounds. (That was a fun sentence to write.) Also great if you get a "fuzzy" ultrasound photo or baby doesn't cooperate during his or her first photo session. And of course, if you just can't possibly wait till that all-important 20 week ultrasound, then spend the $30 dollars and get yourself an Intelligender test! (Available at http://www.intelligender.com/, and Walgreens and CVS pharmacies.) If you do end up purchasing it, my sister and I would love to know how the test worked for you!