Boy or Girl? That is the Question

"How far along are you?"
"What are you having?"

These seem to be the only two questions I have received in the past few months.

I can answer the first question with ease, but the second is a little trickier since we are waiting to find out the gender until it's born... GASP!!!

Before we chose to start a family, I didn't comprehend how ingrained it is in our society to find out the gender before the baby's born, and how absolutely insane you seem when you tell people that you are choosing to wait. I didn't think it was a big deal; my parents didn't find out with any of their kids so I guess it has always seemed like a viable option to me. Oh was I wrong. I never thought I would feel the need to write a post on such a trivial subject, but here I am writing this post hoping that I can answer a few frequently asked questions Aaron and I have received in the past few months.

FAQs

1. "WHY?"
   In my opinion there are two kinds of people in this world: those who peek at their Christmas presents early, and those who wait. Both types of people are excited to receive their presents, except one cannot handle the anticipation and must find out what the present is or they feel they might burst. This type of person is just as excited to receive their present on Christmas day as they were when they found out what it was.
   The other type of person does not peek at their presents early because they know that if they find out before they receive the gift it will ruin the surprise and it will be torture knowing what the present is but not being able to receive it until Christmas. Aaron and I are this type of person. We both love surprises :) It's just who we are.
2. "You are so brave!" (not really a question, but we get this A LOT)
   Really? I may be new to motherhood, but I am pretty sure there isn't a lot of courage or bravery involved in what we're choosing to do. We're choosing to wait until it's born to find out the gender, we're not planning a trip to Cambodia the week before it's due.
3. "Don't you want to make plans? I couldn't do it because I'm a planner."
   Yes, we make very detailed plans. We plan on having more than one child, and we plan on having one set of baby things instead of a boy-set and a girl-set. We feel that it would be a waste of our money and space to buy gender-specific stuff (nursery decor, carseat, burp cloths, stroller, crib sheets, etc.) for each gender. Why would we want to buy specific boy/girl stuff our first baby then possibly have to repurchase everything again for our second baby? It seems much more logical and simple to buy gender-neutral gear and use for each baby instead of purchasing and storing two sets of everything. This is our plan.
4. "How will you pick a name if you don't know the gender?"
   We will pick one boy name and one girl name. Problem solved.

I have also heard a few positive and funny remarks that I must mention:

"Good for you! We did it and it was such a neat experience."

"Since there are so few real surprises left in life, waiting to find out the gender is pretty special."

"Good idea, that way you won't get as many useless gifts."

Here is proof that you can do gender neutral and still have cute things

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