PREGNANCY & THE GREAT DEBATE
When we announced that we were pregnant with both our babies, the first question people would ask us was, "Are you finding out the gender?" The more we debated if we should find out with our first baby, the more I realized people have very strong opinions. Very rarely did I speak to someone that found out with one and waited with another. It was either, you are crazy for waiting or don't find out! It’s such a beautiful thing to wait.
Here is my take on the "Great Debate"
WAiTiNG
After trying to talk my husband into the idea of waiting for about two whole months, he finally agreed to wait to find out the gender of baby #1, our Charlie. There was something so wonderful about not finding out. I'm not sure if it's the fact that there are very little surprises left in life and hardly any as magical as giving birth and finding out the gender of your baby all within a few minutes. I also think it was just as much about having that mystery for ten months. I can't really put my finger on it, but waiting was so worth it. There are so many "planners" out there that would have a really hard time waiting, but I think everyone should try it, at least once.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:
1. How are you going to register? I'm a huge fan of classy neutrals and don't like gender specific baby products (PINK/BLUE) You do not need a ton of gender specific clothes before the baby is born. Your baby will live in his/her onesies and pjs for the first few weeks. The only outfit I had to buy for both genders was the coming home from the hospital outfit. We were also told Charlie was going to be eight pounds, so when he was only six pounds we had to go out and buy all newborn sizes anyways.
2. What about the nursery? Charlie slept in a bassinet next to our bed for 6 months, so we wouldn't have even really used the nursery. I picked a gender neutral crib so we could use it for our second baby as well, so that was not an issue.
3. How will you choose a name? Many people narrow down the names to one for each gender, which I HIGHLY recommend. We procrastinated with narrowing the list down to a few names for each and ended up in the hospital holding a baby boy with no name. It caused me a great deal of stress. I felt rushed and overwhelmed. We had too many options and ended up picking Charlie which was very random. This was the only negative experience with waiting, though I do tend to procrastinate and could see this happening either way. His full name is Charles Everett, and I wouldn't change a thing.
FiNDiNG OUT
For baby #2, we decided to find out the gender! I really loved the experience of waiting, but having only given birth just a short 10 months before the task of picking a new name for two genders seemed too much for me to handle at the time. I didn't want another hospital incident with a no name baby and nurses with a white board trying to help us decide. We did the blood test around 14 weeks and was given an envelope with the results. We decided to wait until I was five months pregnant (half way there) to find out the gender of baby #2. I was always a little skeptical around gender reveals but I was sucked in and we did a fun little video (check is out on instagram @mrsnipple_) When I opened the box and read it was a BOY, it was great...and then it was over. Anti-climatic is not that far off from the entire experience compared to finding out on D day. Yes, we shared hugs and kissed and celebrated for about 30 seconds and that was it.
MY CONCLUSiON
It's such a personal decision, but if you can't tell yet, I'm a huge fan of waiting to find out. There is just something indescribable about the entire situation.
