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Wait for It!!
My dad always told me that there is no greater surprise in life than the moment you find out if your little baby you carried for over 9 months is a boy or a girl. Some argue and say that whether you find out 1/2 way at your ultrasound, or wait till the end, it’s the same. But as someone who tried both, I would have to say that I agree with my dad. I would go for the surprise in the delivery room again in a heartbeat!
I have 3 kids and I convinced my husband that I really wanted to wait for the surprise with our first child. Yes it would have been easier to find out but nothing will ever take away that moment when I heard it was a girl. I love watching the video of my husband going out to the waiting room to tell the room full of boy guessers that we had a little girl. The excitement alone is reason enough to wait, but there are some other benefits as well.
First off, let's talk about your baby shower. This is your first opportunity to get a lot of the essential items you need to care for your baby. But let's face it, people LOVE to buy clothes. Especially, little girl clothes!!! I have been to showers in the past where the mother did not get one item other than clothes. Yes, the baby will look adorable, but what about a bathtub, diapers, nail trimmers, wipes, medicine, gas drops, burp clothes, etc?!?!? There are so many little things that you need as a new parent and a closet full of clothes they might wear once is very generous, but not always the most useful. So, by not finding out what you are having you get all the useful things! And then, YOU get to enjoy the fun of buying cute clothes for your little baby. I had a few months supply of diapers when my daughter was born. It was the best ever! Another huge perk....UNISEX ITEMS!!!! I can't tell you how many pictures I see of a little boy taking a bath in his older sisters pink bathtub. Yes, pink is so much cuter than green and yellow but I can't tell you how much money I saved by not having to re buy all the baby items I needed once my little boy came along. It was wonderful!!!
As far as the room goes, I was able to do all the decorating once I brought my baby home. I know it's so hard for people to wait and they feel they can't prepare properly unless they know the gender in advance. But honestly, the baby doesn't sleep in their room for almost 6 months sometimes! You have tons of time to pick out adorable bedding once they are born!
For my second child my husband really wanted to find out. Because I love a good surprise, and it was right around Christmas time, we decided it would be fun to have the ultrasound tech write down what it was in a sealed envelope and then we went to the store and picked out 2 outfits, one for a boy and one for a girl. We gave both to the checkout counter and we told them to wrap the outfit of the gender of the baby in the envelope. We saved the box and opened it on Christmas morning with our families. It was an amazing surprise!!! I was 99% sure it was another girl and BOY was I wrong!!! I'm so glad we found out because I might have passed out if I delivered a boy after thinking it was a girl for 9 months. It was fun to get a few little boy clothes and plan for his arrival. But since he was going to share a room with his sister I didn't need much for his bedding. It was fun knowing, but I still preferred not knowing.
For our last baby I convinced my husband that I wanted another surprise. He did not. But we compromised and I agreed to schedule my first ultrasound early so he didn't have to stress about twins very long. (It was a huge possibility and we were happy when we saw 1 baby in there....2 to 4 kids is quite the jump!). We held out again and I'm so glad we did!! We got to hear them say for the last time that it was a girl! It turned out that both my girls were my surprise babies. It was so fun to take all the tests and see if the wives tales were right. Most of them were right for all 3 pregnancies. I would encourage anyone, whether it's your first or your last to go for the surprise. You won't regret it! Best decision I ever made!