We are officially expecting our second baby in August, which will join our will-be-3-and-a-half year old son, Liam. We are looking forward to the addition and anticipating all of the changes and transitions!
When we found out I was pregnant with Liam, I was anxiously waiting to find out if our baby was a boy or a girl. I am very much Type A, and I was ready to start planning. My husband, however, brought up this crazy idea of not finding out. It took me some time to come around to the thought, but I started to really like the idea. So for our first baby, we waited until the first cry to know if our sweet baby was a boy or a girl.
This time around, life is much more up in the air, and after a quicker discussion, we decided to find out our second sweet baby’s gender come March. However, if the idea of being surprised is at all up your alley, here is why I recommend waiting.
1. There are few surprises left in life.
With technology these days, we know way too much about everything way too early. In fact, I was told by my doctor that I could find out the gender at 12 weeks if I wanted! I opted out, but just the notion of that was crazy to me. For this BIG surprise, it was exciting to wait, especially because we would be equally excited both ways.
With out first, we didn’t find out, primarily because I didn’t want an ultrasound. He was a home-birth-turned-emergency-hospital-transfer, born within 20 minutes of arriving at the hospital and I have no memory of hearing “it’s a boy.” It was a bit anti-climactic. I do remember on our first day home, I sent my friend out with Target gift cards and strict instructions to buy the most boy-ish clothes she could find because everything we had up until then was yellow or green!! I wanted to celebrate his boyness. With our second, we did the traditional anatomy scan at 20 weeks, I definitely wanted to know and to plan! My big thing is wanting to know who’s in there and to call them by name ASAP. We’re pregnant with our third and it still doesn’t feel real, although knowing it’s a girl and calling her Kate definitely helps!! Our gender reveal was a memory I’ll never forget. We’ve always wanted a daughter so we’re embracing all things pink, frilly and glittery! I’d never go for a “surprise” again.