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I am a labor and delivery nurse and I firmly in the pencil test. I know it sounds rediculous, but it has worked for all my friends and co-workers. The test predicted I would have a boy and it was right. I have an older co-worker who has never had children and has went through menopause and the pencil stays completely still above her wrist. That's when I became a believer. We always use a needle with string attached, sometimes even a suture needle with the needle stuck into the eraser head of the pencil.

How do you do the pencil test? It sounds really cool.

I was 40 years old and had 3 boys and my doctor told me I probably should expect another boy. I did the pencil test and it said girl. Guess what! I had a beautiful baby girl, she is now 14. Since I did the test so long ago can you tell me how to do it, I have a niece with 2 boys and is 9 weeks pregnant so we want to try the test on her. My e-mail address is: owjj@aol.net

DIDN'T WORK for me. Said I was having a girl, but had a boy. So, I am not a believer int his test.

I am a believer of this test!!! Years ago I had done this test on family, friends, co-workers and even my potential husbands(of course they didn't know what it meant at the time) and it always came out accurate. When I met my husband it came out the same for both of us. We have 2 children and had one miscarriage. After I did the test on myself I always stopped when the pencil stood still after 3 movements. I am now 38 years old and now when I think I am done having kids I started doing this again on myself. After 3 minutes of the pencil being still it shows strong movement of a boy! I tried it on my husband and it does nothing! What does this mean? It's a little baffling!!!

How do you do the needle and string trick and how do you know what boy or girl means?

In answer to your question to do the test: You will need to thread a needle and stick the needle in the eraser of a pencil that is sharpened. After you have done this, hold the thread of the needle in your hand steadily(you have to be comfortable and not move). While holding the thread make sure to drop the pencil on your other wrist or someone's wrist and bring it up slowly just about an inch or so and the pencil will start to move. When it goes in a circle it is starting to decide whether it will be a girl or boy. If it moves horizontally, it's a girl. Vertically, it's a boy. It will show all the children you will have including any miscarriages. When it comes to a complete stop or does not move at all it is done. Unless you are like me, you may think you are done and 3 minutes later it may still move!!! Good Luck!!

I'm just not sure how this thing can work, I try to do things based on knowledge not on superst_tion. Maybe it can tell you the s_x of the child you are carrying now because the lead reacts to the chemical changes in your body based on wether you are having a boy or a girl. But how can it tell you what you have already had or what you will have if you aren't pregnant? There is no chemical change in your body for something like that. I mean what does the pencil have psychic abilities? lol. Not saying it won't work while you are pregnant but to say that it can tell you what you will have or what you have had is a bit far fetched.

i haven't heard of using a pencil but your wedding ring and a peice of thread. I did this the daybefore my u/s and it said i was having a girl and my ultrasound confirmed girl.

I just found out last week that we are going to have twins. The ultrasound clearly has one as a girl and a 90% chance that the 2nd one is a girl. My sister did the pencil test this past weekend and according to the results we are having one of each. My wife and I don't put much faith in these type of things but it was bizarre to see the pencil move as it did. It swung back & forth across her wrist (girl), circled and then swung in line w/ her forearm (boy). The swinging motion was rather quick and repeated which was eerie. My wife is 6 mos pregnant. It'll be interesting to see who's right.

I have 2 weeks until my baby is born. the ultrasound could not tell us anything what is this test? hoe does it work? I just wanna see.

Becy, look up 5 responses over the one that you put in and someone has the way that you know the results. I heard that the way you make the test was to thread a needle, put the needle in the center of an eraser on a pencil then hang it over your wrist. Then like I said, 5 responses up was how to read the results.

lol. Actually s. shows how to do the whole thing pretty well, I didn't need to explain anything.

to determine the gender of the baby how far in pregency to you have to be?

Wendy Miles, a resident of Allison Park, Pa., knew the s_x of her oldest children before they were born. Not through the science of ultrasound or amniocentesis, but through the much older method of the pencil, needle, thread, swing. "My mother's friend had a method that she said had never been wrong," Miles recalls. "She had me do the pencil, needle, thread, swing. I then held it suspended over my wrist. The friend predicted by the pencil's movement what I was having. She was right both times, but, personally, I still think it was luck." Since then, Miles has had one more child. That time, her mother's friend wasn't around to do the pencil test, so Miles' mother did the predicting instead – based on how Miles was carrying the baby. She, too, was right, but, in spite of their track record, Miles isn't any more convinced of the legitimacy of either of those methods. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health found that Miles is right to be skeptical. In the September 1999 issue of the journal Birth, they asked 104 pregnant women to use whatever method they liked, including folklore, dreams and hunches, to guess their unborn child's s_x. The women were right 55 percent of the time – about the same as would occur for a random guess. What the research didn't note was that the idea is not necessarily to be right, and not many people will start painting the nursery in pink or blue based on how their Pencil twirls. Most pregnancy myths are just the opportunity to have a little fun. Others can be more harmful. When Jen Kissel, who lives in Pennsylvania, told people she was going to have her babies delivered at a birthing center by midwives, she was told, variously, that midwives are witches, and that her babies would be born with cleft palates, without faces or dead. She was appalled that people could be so ignorant and insensitive. Lori Albright, who, as a certified nurse midwife at The Midwife Center for Birth and Women's Health in Pittsburgh, Pa., delivered Kissel's three healthy, perfect babies, wasn't surprised. In the 13 years she's worked as a midwife, she's heard it all. Here's what she has to say about the most common myths of pregnancy: “Don’t Do It---You are playing with Witchcraft”!!!!!!!!!!!!

what is this 'pencil test' i keep reading about? i want to do it, on myself and see what s_x my baby will be