Adventure #23 or #46...Gender Prediction

For more than two weeks now we have been eagerly awaiting my second ultrasound. This ultrasound usually allows for the gender of the child I am carrying to be revealed. I have gotten so excited to learn if we are having a boy or girl only to be outsmarted by mother nature.

The appointed with my midwife got cancelled and rescheduled then rescheduled again due to ice. I thought mother nature was going to foil my plans once again last week but I was able to sneak the appointment in between snow storms.

For my first ultrasound I went to an office that offers walk-in appointments but this time around will use a different facility because this ultrasound is a little more advanced. So finally I will go on Monday and we will know if I can reuse the plethora of "girl" clothing or if we need to stock up on some "boy" clothing. (I'll save my boy/girl argument and our over genderizing for a different blog post!)

However, although we will know around 11 AM on Monday we won't really know until later that evening when the girls help us reveal the gender. I will have the ultrasound technician write the gender on a piece of paper, take that to the party store, and have them put the "appropriate" color balloons in a box. The girls will each pull a strip of tape off the box and release the balloons reveling boy or girl.

In the meantime I have done ten different "gender" prediction methods on myself. Out of the ten, five reveal boy and five reveal girl.

Chinese gender predictor chart - this method looks at age of conception and month of conception.
Result: Girl

Breasts blossom (girl) vs. darkening of the areola (boy)
Result:  girl

Morning sickness yes (girl) vs. no (boy)
Result: girl

Dry hands and cold feet?
Result: boy -  I've been cold the entire pregnancy

More headaches than normal?
Result: boy

Clear skin (boy) vs. acne (girl) - it's said a girl will "steal your beauty"
Result: boy

Mayan Calendar - age and year of conception, both even or odd (girl), one even one odd (boy)
Result: boy

Wedding ring on a string - swinging in a circle (girl), swinging in a pendulum motion (boy)
Result: boy

Heart rate - over 140 (girl), under 140 boy
Result: That's my secret....you'll have to wait until Monday to find out!

Adventure #3 - Learning about Bee Keeping

Driving home from Bee Keeping class the other night I finally figured out why I feel so daunted by this project. Learning how to keep bees is a lot like learning how to drive a car for the first time.

Imagine you have taken Driver's Ed and then go to take the test - in a real moving vehicle. But you never did the in-car practice driving.

Scary right? You have the information but not the practical hands on experience.

That's how I imagine my first hives. I've learned a lot but now I own a colony of bees to take care of, nurture, learn from, inspect, assure their health and vitality but I've never seen up close a box full of bees.

I haven't actually bought my nuc (nucleolus/colony) of bees yet. I'm stuck in the fear-zone about owning and taking care of the bees. Especially since I will need to paying pretty close attention to them later this summer when I'm having a baby. Regardless, if I'm going to do it, I need to get in gear soon as spring will be here (really, it will be, I promise, even though it is snowing across much of the United States right now) spring will come! And with spring comes the "nectar flow" all of those beautiful plants start blooming. The bees come out of the hive looking for food.

So I will keep you posted. If it doesn't happen this year it will happen next year. Bees are in danger and CRITICAL to our crops. Do you know in some countries (China and Mexico) where there are not enough bees they are HAND-POLLINATING crops? Think about that for a minute.

If you want to be informed and inspired about potentially keeping bees watch this 16 minute TEDTalk featuring Dr. Marla Spivak - she is passionate about bees and ensuring their survival.