@zaelia, thanks. I respect your decision, too. I’m glad you were able to accept and perceive your own feelings to come to that decision to find out about your daughter. I tend to think the opposite about disappointment for myself actually. I put a lot of value into how I perceive my own emotions and hormones, and how they can affect my baby. I don’t want my negative emotions or stress to reach my unborn baby now, whereas I know that after the trials of labor I will be overjoyed to finally meet this babe regardless of sex, so any disappointment would be tempered by the joy of the experience. I understand that it is much different thinking about your third (especially if that’s your final pregnancy) than your first since you already had a household of boys, though. I’m not sure how I would feel in your shoes. I have always wanted 3 of one sex, even though that’s only about a 25% likelihood.
@jtucker, I totally agree with your pieces of advice. Only problem practically-speaking is that we’ve already done it all. We have picked our name options and designed our nursery. There are still a couple things to do on that front but mostly it’s all over so the distraction is gone.
@sillypumpkin, I would definitely be annoyed by that technician in hindsight. I hope you can find out at your anatomy scan. Also, what a wild dream. I’ve definitely been having some crazy ones myself what with these hormones, but nothing so clearly tied to baby’s sex.
@claireelisewren, thanks for the encouragement from a fellow team green perspective! I’m glad to hear that it didn’t stay so hard forever as it is during the middle of the pregnancy. I just keep telling myself I’ve gotta get over this hump to week 25 or so and it’ll hopefully feel easier again.
@amberw, yes, I find gender-neutral everything to just be so much more practical longterm. We plan on 3 kids who will share a room while they’re young regardless of sex, so a gender-neutral kids room was really important to us regardless of our team green decision. I was a nanny and babysitter to work my way through college and I’ve actually been lucky to curate an entire gender-neutral wardrobe over the years in hand-me-downs. I have enough clothing to last for the first 2 years of life regardless of sex without having to buy a thing except bathing suits and snowsuits. I know no matter what we get, we are over-prepared in that department.
@mummacat92, see above for preparedness level. I feel I’m actually more prepared for parenting by keeping it a surprise, as I’m prepared either way and prepped for a mixed-gender household later as we expand further.
I hear that a lot about the need to prepare if you’re a planning type person, but I am such an overplanner, and I feel like finding out the sex now would actually inhibit my ability to see the forest through the trees already knowing we want 3 kids, not just 1. It keeps me from going crazy buying things we won’t need or use for more than one child if we wind up with 2 of one, 1 of the other. It keeps everything functional irrespective of sex, and keeps our budget minimal over time. As much as I love little dresses, I can buy plenty of those for my 2 year-old if it’s important to me and her then. I can’t think of anything else there is to logistically plan that can’t be planned regardless.