Boy or Girl? Why We Love Finding Out

"I don't know how people wait to find out. I could never do that!"

"We wanted the birth to be extra special, and I wouldn't change the excitement of that moment in the delivery room for anything!"

"We wanted to be prepared, to paint the nursery and buy the right clothes."

"We didn't want to only get pink or blue gifts, and you never really know until the baby is born anyway. "

"There are so few real surprises left in life!"

"The surprise is the same whether it happens four months earlier or not!"

I think the reasons why some parents wait to find out and some parents want to know as soon as possible are really interesting. This is one area of parenting where I really think there is no right or wrong way to do it. From the reasons people give why they found out or didn't find out I am convinced that most of the time the underlying reason is the same.

Parents either find out or don't find out ahead of time because they are excited to have a baby! 

Either they are so excited they can't wait, or they are more patient people and are so excited that they want to have that revelation come at a rather exciting time, in the delivery room. So I understand and love that people make different decisions on this. We happen to love finding out ahead of time, and here are a few reasons why. 

1. We like to be prepared. This is not a big reason, but I am a checklist, do things ahead of time girl, so knowing is obviously helpful for that. That's a pretty self explanatory benefit. 

2. We feel instantly closer to the baby. I love to know because the more I know about this little person, the more connected I feel to him or her. We can start using gendered pronouns and picturing our life with our new child. Before we find out I feel like I live in two realities at the same time. I have one vision of the future where I have a girl, and one where it's a boy. I get this weird feeling like I don't know what is going on in my life. Knowing makes everything more real. 

3. Names are hard, so if possible, just pick one. We do like to name our babies as soon as we can, even before they're born, so we have been working on both boy and girl names at this point. But names are very challenging! You want it to be just right, and it's a lot of pressure! Since we're struggling this time around with finding a name we love, finding out will allow us to only work half as hard. 

4. We love calling the baby by name before birth. In this day and age where unborn children are viewed as less than human, we choose to name our child as soon as possible and to tell close family and friends the name as well. It is our way of saying, "We may not have seen this person yet, but they are a member of our family equal to all the others. They have a name. They have a place. They belong here with us."


Today we found out the gender of our second baby! We have not settled on a name yet, but hopefully will have one in a few weeks. It is so exciting to look forward to adding this new member to our family...

It's a BOY!!!