With that said, I have some opinion questions for everybody. Nick and I have been discussing baby related things with more frequency as of late, and one of the topics that came up was whether or not we wanted to find out the sex of the baby when we eventually get pregnant. He said he didn't have an opinion either way, and that whatever I wanted to do would be fine with him. The trouble is... I don't know what I want to do either! My mom thinks it should be a surprise, which makes me want to find out just to do my own thing, lol, but I can see her point of why it is so special to be a surprise.
Here are my thoughts:
Pros:
- Special moment in the delivery room finding out together
- Other people's horrified reactions when the hear you're not finding out
- Excuse for everyone to get together after the baby is born for my shower
- Excuse to do the nursery in pretty black and white or grey and white and add in pops of color once baby arrives
- Excited phone call I get to make to everyone, "ITS A _____!!!!"
- We could pick out a name that felt right once the baby was here instead of already having one picked that might not fit as well
Cons:
- Makes it difficult to get the nursery ready ahead of time, creating more work after baby comes
- I wouldn't be able to go crazy making all sorts of fun things for baby before hand (could be a pro - might save a lot of money...)
- We wouldn't already have the name picked out thereby raising my stress level (If it were up to me, we would have all of our kids already named... now.)
- Baby shower would be pre-baby ensuring I have everything I need in advance
What are your thoughts? If we found out, it would be for practical reasons. If we didn't, it would be for sentimental ones. When the time comes, should we find out or let it be a surprise? To find out or not to find out, that is the question.
4 comments:
If you want to know my personal opinion/plans, I found out with the first baby, and I'm glad I did. There was so much to learn about having a baby and I was cluessless on everything; I didn't need any more 'unknowns.' I felt calmer when I felt prepared for him to arrive. I didn't want to be worrying about things while sitting at the hospital. Not only that, but I feel it was equally exciting to have everyone waiting for the day when we could find out if he was a boy or girl from our ultrasound-- then getting to announce what he was/show the pictures of the ultrasound. There's plenty of excitment at the birth with announcing the name and seeing what the baby looks like and weighs, I don't think announcing the gender at the birth is needed to make it super exciting-- it's your first! With that said, I've thought about not finding out with the second (we'll see if the husband agrees). Mostly because I will have already been through it once, know how to handle the needs of a little boy at birth (and the issues that little girls don't have to deal with) and feel like I would be prepared enough to accept whatever gender. I would just want a healthly baby, so finding out early wouldn't matter. Also, I did Jett's room in everything gender neutral (cremes) and then just did antique planes, cars, and other cute boy things to add color to the room. I did not want to buy everything twice. Hope that helps, but I think you can't go wrong either way. Just my opinion, sorry for the novel ;)!
Amen, Alison! Seriously, she said everything I would have said only better. You can keep some things to yourself if you want more surprises at the birth. Keeping the name under wraps really gets under peoples' skin. It's great.
Not being a mother myself, I have thought about this same question and gone through the pros and cons, and as long as Future Husband agrees, I've decided to wait till Baby's here. Mostly because I like being surprised myself. haha
I'm sure that's not very helpful, so here's more of my two cents: the nursery could be gender neutral so you don't have to redecorate for every birth (boy, girl, boy girl... could be annoying and expensive). You could still put together a bunch of DIY baby stuff, again keeping it gender neutral. Who says a baby boy has to ALWAYS wear blue? Silly. You could pick Boy Name and Girl Name and have them ready on the day Baby comes! (And then you have a name in your bag for the next baby...) You may be able to swing at least TWO baby showers: pre-baby for the regular-old stuff (stroller, car seat, diaper bag, bouncer/jumper, bottles, pacifiers, etc) and post-baby for the Boy or Girl (clothes, blankets, shoes, etc). See. I've thought this out. :)
Here's my input: We haven't found out with either baby and I've loved both experiences, but it all depends on your personality, I think. I'm not one that needed the nursery "perfect" before the baby was born (they don't sleep in there for a couple of months anyway) and I didn't need to have a name decided upon ahead of time (we had 2 boy names and 2 girls names on hand each time) and I honestly think it made me less stressed not knowing because there were so many things I couldn't do until the baby was born, so all I could do was relax and wait. I will say PREPARE for craziness if you do decide to not find out, I was shocked at how upset (and rude) people were at our decision to wait (like it had anything to do with them!) Anyway, for us it came down to I said "do you HAVE to know?" and he said "No, do you HAVE to know?" and I said "no" so we decided to wait... when the time comes you'll know what you want to do and either way it'll be great!
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