Anybody gone for no 3 cos they're desperate for a girl?

[desperatelyseekingsleep]

I have 2 ds (3 and 1), both of which have been v hard work. I would really love a daughter but am I mad to try when life is such hard work already? Is the jump from 2 to 3 even bigger than the jump from 1 t 2? Also, what are my chances of a 3rd boy? Don't think I could cope with that... Anybody any advice or experience? Any surefire ways of conceiving a girl

Well, I know quite a few people with 3 boys, where the mum confessed that the third was a very deliberate final attempt for a girl ....

My MIL. She has 4 fantastic boys!

well i wasnt desperate, but i had always sort of assumed i would have a daughter one day. so i went for no3 and found i was daydreaming about her a lot... decided to go for the scan and find out as i didnt want to be 'disappointed' at all when s/he was born... and it was a third boy.

was pleased for my boy, but slightly heartbroken at realisation i would likely never have a daughter.

it was only when dp said that he would try again with me when/if i wanted to - and that it was not therefore a definite that it would never be - that i realised how much i had wanted a girl. now that its a 'possible', i dont lament my 'loss' and i adore my boys. (though whether id ever actually have another child is unlikely as i have neverending pnd and cant cope with the ones i have )

i think im gonna stick with my boys tbh.

Oh god, I was soooo desparate for a girl after 2 boys!!!

I got that book by hazel Chestermann Phillips which tellls you when to have sex. Apparently if you have sex at ovulation you get a boy cos the male sperms swim faster and get to the egg first. If you have sex a few days before ovulation, you get a girl cos the male sperms would have died before the egg was released, and the females, who swim slower, would be arriving just as the egg was coming out.

Whether this is remotely scientific or not, I have absolutely no idea, but all I can tell you is that me, my friend and my sil all followed the technique and got girls.

I have 2 boys, wanted a girl, but expected to have another boy, ended up with a girl, now 3 months old, am very pleased with her.

I think the chances of having another boy are high, and I think if you are going to be terribly disappointed if you have a boy then you might want to consider it carefully.

The jump from 2 to 3 feels big for me right now, but think I am still getting used to having 3.

Just be warned that you are slightly more likely to have another boy after 2 or 3 boys.

I thought statistically if you've had two children of one gender you're more likely to have another of the same.

I have two DDs and am pregnant with no. 3 and I'm 99% sure it's another girl - will find out next month for sure, though, hopefully.

expat - You might like to learn that in fact, statistically, you have equal chances of a girl or a boy

This is because each outcome is independent of previous outcomes - not like drawing cards where previous draws decrease no of cards in deck and hence affect probabilities of new draw, but more like rolling dice, where probabilities remain the same at each roll.

So your chance of a boy this time is 50%.

Out of the eight possible outcomes for 3 children:
ggg
ggb
gbg
gbb
bgg
bgb
bbg
bbb

3 girls >> 1/8 probability
2 girls & 1 boy >> 3/8
2 boy & 1 girl >> 3/8
3 boys >> 1/8

so cote, and tired, if i had another - planned to concieve on 'right' day, i might get my girl afterall?
think i'll leave that for another few years... i really cant cope with any more atm (mine are only 4, 3 and 2 now) and im hopefully going to be studying soon so its going to be at least 5 yrs before i can think of another... i'll be 37 ish... thats not too late, no?

Starlight - If that was true (that having a boy makes it more likely that you will have boys in the future, but having girls has no such effect), then we would see a significantly higher incidence of boy babies than girls.

That is not the case. In fact, girls are slightly more frequently than boys, except in times of war, which has led some scientists to speculate that a restricted diet (i.e. near starvation) leads the body to produce more boys (so they go hunt food, presumably).

Actually, I thought that the environment of the mother's body made a difference as to whether X or Y sperm were favoured, as they are different (Y are lighter as they don't have as much genetic material in them). But nothing is 100% and it's still a crap shoot, however you look at it.

PS - DSS girls are not necessarily easier. I speak from experience.

NappiesGalore (now I see where you got the name from ) - I believe in the theory that tired wrote about. DD is conceived on 11th day of ovulation on a 32 day cycle . I didn't think I could get pregnant on 11th day.

Since then, I've been asking friends for their conception dates, and sure enough, girls are conceived early in the cycle and boys are conceived later, after ovulation.

My mother said that is how my brother was conceived after me, so this theory is not new.

We were discussing this at playgroup, someones parents were one of 11, their grandma had had 11 boys before getting a girl, can you imagine? A whole football team of them.. There was something in the news recently that said if you ate more cereal you are more likely to have a girl, girl sperm swim slower but survive longer so you can time sex to improve chances of getting the sex you want.

Cote DAzur: (relating to your first post, not the one to Starlight)

That is assuming that each couple has an exactly 0.5 change of a girl or a boy being conceived/born each time, isn't it?

If, say, some factors (say the maternal cervical pH thing, or some undiagnosed chromosomal factor in the father) meant that for any particular couple the odds would be naturally skewed very slightly one way or the other, then if you had two of one kind already it could be an indication that you were skewed one way or the other, or it could not. You should then be able to do some kind of Bayesian analysis that would show that if you have two of one kind then your chances of having a third of that kind are very slightly more than 50%.

That is assuming that there did exist innate factors to skew the likely gender, on which I make no comment as I have no idea. But if there were such factors, then you would expect a gg or bb family to end up with ggg or bbb very slightly more often than ggb or bbg. Whether that is in fact the case ought to be able to be established as a matter of fact.

Mrs - I agree with you that girls are not necessarily less work. Mine is a handful, and has been from day 1.

I'm not sure about your statement on 'environment' of mother's body, though. What does that really mean? I read a bit about pH levels and how what you eat can change them on some baby websites, but never in any scientific source. If it has any real effect whatsoever, I doubt if it is as noticeable as claimed in some websites.

Male sperm have exactly the same amount of genetic material as female sperm, by the way. They are both gametes with 23 chromosomes - i.e. they are haploid, as opposed to the other cells of the body which are diploid.

my parents did.they had four girls.

The Y chromosome is a lot smaller than the X chromosome. It may not seem much compared to the other 22, but it's how sperm selection was done (so they still do it?)- using the slight difference in weight.

(although, relating to your post to Starlight, significantly more boys than girls are born each year in the UK.

i have no idea when in my cycle i conceived. i had only one cycle after my ERPC and it was llloooonnggg.

i have no idea when in my cycle i conceived. i had only one cycle after my ERPC and it was llloooonnggg.

No
And to be honest it pissed me off when I was pregnant with DC3 that everyone nodded sagely and said 'ooh are you hoping for a girl now'
I wasn't . I actually probably would have preferred another boy. But I just wanted a happy smily babe.

( yes. DC3 was a girl)

Port - I would be interested to see any real studies on the maternal pH theory. Are there any? I've only ever seen references to it in baby websites, never in serious scientific sources.

"Innate factors" - like what? I'm not sure if any propensity to make babies of a single gender is ever diagnosed. I would be interested to read about it, though, if anyone can post a link to a reputable source.

As I said before, there is a 1/8 chance of having three girls in a row. That doesn't necessarily mean the mother has a rare condition, it just means that she is unlucky if she wanted a boy or two.

When you roll dice, you have 1/36 chance of getting two 6s. It doesn't happen often but it does happen. And not because the dice have an 'innate factor'