The directions say to test with the first morning urine. Well, on Wednesday, January 5th I woke up at 2:30 am because I had to pee. I checked the FAQs because I was excited to take the test as soon as I could. It said that as long as you haven't voided within 2.5 hours then it was okay to take it any time in those early morning hours. So I did. I later found out by reading message boards from people who must have endless amount of money to try this test under different circumstances that doing it in the middle of the night does not necessarily have the same results if I'd done it at, say, 7 am. Then again, it might not have made a difference (it never did with my ovulation predictor tests or pregnancy test).Next, the directions state to urinate in the cup they provide. Easy - done. Next, they give you a syringe to collect 20 ml from the cup. Easy - done. Next, you are to remove the sticker covering a hole on a cup filled with particles. You are not to put this back on as it could affect your result! Then, stick the syringe into the hole and fill the cup with 20 ml. Easy - done.
Here comes the next chance for mistake. It says the urine must be swirled with the particles, not shaken. This is harder than I thought considering you can't use the syringe or stick anything into the cup with the particles (there is a lid that cannot be removed). You are supposed to mix the two together but not too much, yet to swirl for 10 seconds. Well I didn't set a timer or anything so I may have done it for 10 seconds or I may have gone over or under. Also, I found it hard to tell if I was "swirling" too fast or too slow. What if I was swirling too much, giving it the impression that I was light shaking? Intelligender says this makes the biggest difference!
Then it says to place on a dry surface and not to touch it for 5 minutes -- disturbing it in the littlest way can affect the result. So I stood there for 5 minutes and watched it not change at all (it stayed yellow). I read the directions and it said that if it remained unchanged or turned orange then that meant a girl. If it turned green then that was a boy.
At that point I left the room to get my camera and when I returned - since it was now 6 min - I picked up the cup to move to a cleaner area to take the picture. Well when I did that. . .it turned green! The directions said not to read it after 5 minutes as a change might be inaccurate. But, hello, now it was clearly matching the boy color! I was frustrated as I didn't know whether moving it (disturbing it) had changed it or whether it would have changed to green on its own. And, whether 6 min was close enought to 5 to go with that result or whether I wasn't supposed to count it at that point! (By the way, it never changed again -- it stayed green for the next few hours until I threw it away.)
Needless to say, I got online to read message boards and other blogs of women who have taken the test. Even though Intelligender's website claims that they are 90% accurate, in "the real world" when websites like Babycenter and Cafe Mom have taken polls, it comes out to be only around 60%. They caution not to believe it any more than you would a coin toss!
The feedback that I read from women who have taken this test actually seemed like it's wrong more than it's right! Other people have had the same experience as I did with it changing shortly after the 5 min (some the opposite color as mine).
Intelligender's website says that boy is the default answer. Basically if you do anything wrong, you will get a boy result. If you take it when you're not pregnant, it will say boy. If you have sex within 48 hrs it will say boy. If you're on progesterone it will say boy. They are still trying to figure out all of the factors that give false boy reads.
So, if it had said girl I would have been more likely to believe it (although there have been women who got girl results only to end up having boys), but basically I have no more of a feeling either way on what my baby's gender is since taking the test. I think they have a lot of improving to do, since it just went on the market in 2009.
This baby is keeping me guessing! As I said in an earlier post, I really thought it was a girl until I was about 6 weeks pregnant and then I felt like it was a boy. But when I heard the heartbeat at 175 at 10 weeks, that made me think it was a girl. However this week, despite the high chance for my Intelligender test being wrong, I keep picturing that it is a boy. How in the world do some people wait until 40 weeks? It's going to be a big enough surprise at 20 weeks!!!!
In October I wrote that if it's a girl her name will be Kristana (think Kristina only instead of KristIna it's KristAna), we're thinking the middle name will just be the letter K -- after my mom Kathleen and Joe's mom's middle name is Kay.
Kristana K Rodgers.
If it's a boy I was pushing Levi Joseph Rodgers, as Levi is a popular name this year and it'd be after my stepdad Richard because his middle name is Lee after his grandfather Levi. Joseph is not only Joe but also my dad. But Joe really doesn't care for the name Levi; the only boy's name we can agree on is Chase. Even Logan said Chase was his favorite boy name when we read him the list of top 100 boy names of 2010!
So right now if it's a boy it will be Chase JR Rodgers. On his birth certificate the JR will be listed as Joseph-Richard, as hyphanated middle names are also the thing this year, but in school and on applications it seems easier to just have JR so that's what we'll call him.
Chase JR Rodgers.
Unless we hear a boy's name we like better between now and then.
They say that if you're carrying low that is a girl and I have found this to be accurate when I look at people. I carried Logan straight out (and had strangers come up to me, pointing this out, saying I was having a boy). Well this week I popped out (a few days I've even worn my old maternity clothes -- need to buy some new maternity clothes becuase for some reason I can't stand my old ones anymore), and I do feel I'm carrying lower than with Logan. I'll do side-by-side comparison pics next week.
No sooner I had I started showing (just naked) this week when my back started hurting. :( So I'm going to my massage therapist today for the first time since I've been pregnant and hope that helps. On the bright side, it's my lower back. With Logan only my upper back hurt (and not until the 17th week), which is actually not as common since lower back pain is due to the pelvis changing in order to prepare for the birth. In my entire pregnancy with Logan, I never felt any changes with my pelvis -- which may be because it didn't stretch like it was supposed to! However, maybe this time my body recognizes what's going on and is already getting started. . .which is a good sign for my pushing phase!
Yesterday I caught part of A Baby Story and I almost had to laugh at the woman's attitude so opposite from mine! With her first delivery a vaccum had to be used and she had a 4th degree tear so she asked for a c-section with her second and the doctor said yes (these days you can almost always get one if you want one, whereas I was talking to my grandma's neighbor on New Year's whose dad was an OB and she said that he's horrified with all the c-sections they do nowadays -- back when he was a doctor they were only done under the worst of circumstances). Anyway, this woman was so happy and excited for her c-section. She's like, "I know I'm cheating and I'm taking the easy way out! My friends hate me because this is so much better than going through labor!" I didn't get a chance to see the ending on whether she still felt that way after she had her baby, but I thought well if I do end up with one I will block out everything I know and tell myself the same thing!
I'm feeling a lot better this week nausea-wise. As I wrote on Dec 30, I felt good after returning home from Christmas -- that lasted for 4 days, but then on Monday, January 3rd I threw up for the second time during this pregnancy. Just like the first time, it caught me off guard. I woke up feeling fine and ate breakfast, but thank goodness for the garbage disposal because no sooner had I finished eating my waffles when I had to run to the kitchen sink!
I felt bad the rest of the day, but have felt good since Tuesday, January 4th. This weekend starts Week 12 so I am praying that it is over for good! I've had a total of 13-14 days of nausea (so two weeks during this pregnancy). I know that I was still pretty bad at this point with Logan because I remember people telling me it might end next week and I was like, really? I couldn't imagine. Well that's because it took until week 17! This time it seems like it really could, as I'm feeling excellent.
A few weeks ago Joe found out that one of his co-workers' wives is due the exact same day as me!!! (Or at least her last period was Oct 17, putting her due date at July 24, my due date is allowed to either be that day or July 28 since I ovulated 4 days late = what the ultrasound verified.)
They have a daughter who was born exactly a year after Logan (April 2009) so maybe we'll all meet and get the kids together sometime. Joe said she is contemplating becoming a stay at home mom when this baby is born. Apparently she's been super sick and had to go on the medication because she's lost weight from throwing up so much. She said the medication has stopped her from throwing up but she still feels nauseated. So maybe it's fine I didn't go on it because I would be depressed if even the medication didn't take it away (since I've had no trouble gaining weight -- I'm up 5 lbs now).
For my final news, the heat wave has begun. Joe came home from work on Wednesday and began putting on layers. He is usually warmer than me, as he wears short sleeves in the winter while I'm in long sleeves even sometimes in the summer! So I was like, "You're not cold are you?" I had spent that day SO HOT! I had put our heat on the lowest setting we've ever had it, assuming it must have been warm outside that day for being January. Duh. . .Joe brought it to my attention it was me. I'm going to have a lovely third trimester :p
One pro, though, of having a July baby compared to April is that last time I came right out of winter where I'd been cooped up during my second and third trimesters which obviously prevented me from being very active. This time I'll have spring and summer for half of my second and all of my third trimester so I should be able to get outside and be active with Logan which will hopefully help my labor.
Just like in the post (Change Of Plans With Baby #2) that I wrote on my other blog last May (which, by the way, I've now concluded my Memories As A Mom blogsite with our final family update), I prefer a summer baby to a fall or winter baby which I think would be the worst -- especially with Logan being sick this past Nov/Dec I kept thinking "the only thing worse than being pregnant while he's sick is having a newborn and having them both sick!" At least my baby will be 5 months old by next winter. I am hoping that I make it through this winter without catching anything. At least I'm about out of the first trimester which is the scariest time to get sick. Only one more week!!!!
Here is the blog I wrote when I was pregnant with Logan at this time: The Three Trimesters.
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