…will be in April! That’s right, when Baby Hopscotch makes his/her entrance into the world.
Last month we had our first ultrasound for Baby H, which was also the big screen where they do all of the measurements to check baby’s development. This was a pretty big deal, as it was our very first ultrasound of the entire pregnancy, so we finally got to see the certain someone who had been kicking me so hard!
We had already made the decision months ago that we absolutely wanted to find out the gender, but we wanted to keep that news to ourselves. Now that all was revealed during the ultrasound, I realize it’s going to be harder than I thought to keep my mouth shut on the topic. Because knowing it and not sharing it feels huge.
In college during one of my Gender & Women’s Studies classes, a friend and I jokingly decided we wanted to go on a big hospital blanket crusade, handing out green blankets to all newborns, boys and girls alike. We thought that we needed to save all of these babies before gender stereotypes were just foisted on them on the first day of their lives. We were also idealist college students, where we thought we could change the world.
Fast forward to today. I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with going super pink, girly girl or boy baby blue all over the place. I love both! For our baby, however, I’d love for people to think outside of the box a little bit. If they would like to buy us some cute clothes I hope they will think “Is this cute?” instead of “Is this cute for a (insert baby’s gender here)?”
So, as I said, it’s not easy holding onto this secret… a secret we can talk about inside our home when it’s just the two of us. But we are so excited for a happy, healthy baby with two arms, two legs, 10 fingers and 10 toes and we are overwhelmingly excited to share that news with everyone!
Is anyone else keeping their baby’s gender a secret?
blogger / pineapple / 12381 posts
We’ll be letting everyone know the baby’s sex at delivery too. I linked to an article recently that said that the whole pink and blue thing is a creation of the last 40 years. Here’s the link: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/When-Did-Girls-Start-Wearing-Pink.html?c=y&page=1
honeydew / 7968 posts
nope! and honestly, i know it would have slipped out any way. i refer to them as “he” “she”…. it was easier when i didn’t know, then i could say “it” or something…. i think the only way i could have done it is if i didn’t know beforehand….. although, i’m way too nosy/curious to not know!
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
The best part of Team Green is that you can more easily re-use the clothes for future babies… that can end up being a big cost saver!
squash / 13199 posts
we originally planned to keep the gender a secret. we were going to only tell our parents and then not tell anyone else. But that plan flew out the window very quickly because its soooo much easier to just tell them we are having a girl then explain everything
cantaloupe / 6730 posts
I like it! My cousin recently had a baby girl. We knew that the baby was a girl and we knew what her name was going to be. So when she was born, it was like when you read the end of a book when you are only half way through. Sort of anti-climatic (which, I know, sounds terrible!). I like the fun of finding out later.
guest
We’re due in a few weeks, and have mostly managed to keep the sex a secret — there have been a few accidental uses of pronouns in front of others, but I’d say only one set of friends and our dentist know. I’ve found that strangers have a more difficult time accepting the idea of not knowing than our friends and family, but we did prep everyone we knew on the concept of gender neutral baby items even before we’d decided not to tell anyone the sex of the baby. At this point we don’t feel as strongly about the issue, but I’m being stubborn and continue to keep the secret. They’ll all find out soon enough who is in there!
blogger / wonderful cherry / 21628 posts
I like the idea of being on team green. I have no idea if I will be able to do it when we have a baby though. It seems like knowing the gender and keeping it a secret from everyone would be really hard!
guest
We’re due in 12 weeks and we really struggled with whether or not to find out, to tell or anything. In the end, we really wanted to know so we found out and tell people the gender but have decided to keep all names a secret until the birth. It feels like the last thing to announce once she’s here so we both like that we have a special thing to come along with her. Plus it gives us the chance to really decide on the name, test it on each other and see if it really fits her when she arrives before announcing it. The grandparents are going crazy not knowing, but I’m so glad we kept it and don’t have anyone speaking into the names either.
grapefruit / 4400 posts
We’re true Team Green– even we won’t know the sex until the baby is born! It’s been pretty easy so far (I’m only 17 weeks), but I think once we have our next U/S, it’ll be hard not to know– especially that’s when people usually find out!
blogger / pomegranate / 3201 posts
There’s no way I could do it! It would be so hard not to slip in a “he” or “she” here or there! Plus, our families would probably harrass us until they found out!
blogger / apricot / 366 posts
I have to say that it has been *very* hard keeping it to ourselves! We use the baby’s name around the house and the gender, so outside of the house I have to watch myself very closely. I have to say “Baby kicks so much” when talking about him/her. It is hard! But I’m excited that it will be a surprise for everyone!
(and sometimes I definitely think we should just tell people – it would be easier, especially when registering! – but I’m too stubborn at this point!)
pomegranate / 3658 posts
LOVE this. Thank you for this post! I’m totally on board with idealist-college-student-Hopscotch.
Let’s change the world with green blankets!
cherry / 228 posts
yes! I think everyone should keep the sex a secret if possible! It’s just a really nice surprise for everyone when the LO finally arrives
grapefruit / 4049 posts
We did something slightly different. For our 2nd, I was Team Green all the way… I didn’t know at all. And I loved finding out at birth!! It was the best surprise in my entire LIFE thus far!
However, my DH totally wanted to know, so I let the ultrasound tech tell him (she wrote it down on a piece of paper). This way it was his “little secret” with the baby. Also, we have a girl already, so if it was a boy, he was in charge of getting a new cover for our carseat (it’s pink) delivered to his office so when we left for the hospital, little boy wouldn’t be *that boy* in his sister’s old pink car seat! LOL. And I got a few gender neutral things we needed new again on our registry.
Anyway, it worked out really well because my hubby is awesome at keeping it a secret. He didn’t slip once and he kept it all very ambiguous. we had fun joking about it a lot actually. Anyhow, it was awesome because everyone guessed it was a boy, but we had a girl… I really wanted two girls first, and that’s what we got
kiwi / 718 posts
we’re team green too! but even we don’t know. I didn’t want the temptation to tell others