Having many Type-A tendencies, long before this pregnancy was ever planned, I was always firmly in the find out what you’re having camp. I can totally relate to the reason of “I would have to know for planning purposes.”

Mr. M on the other hand, was a big fan of the surprise. My initial reaction was that I could never do it. There was no way. However, with time I started to think about the perks of not finding out what we were having, and by the time we were pregnant, I knew I could do it.

I never thought it would be easy for me, and I thought I would be seriously tempted to be a Team Green dropout when the time came, but to my surprise, it has been relatively easy! I’ve certainly had times where it’s harder than others, but I’ve never been tempted to drop out. So, I thought it would be fun to share some of the motivating factors that made this decision easy to stick to, and heck, even get excited about!

There are very few surprises left in life – I think this is the most common motivator for people, and one of the biggest reasons my husband did not want to find out. For me, I’m not huge on surprises, but this was one I could control. I know it’s coming and it’s one or the other. I didn’t start to get excited about this one until a little while into the pregnancy, and now, it’s something I can get teary just thinking about. We get to find out whether this kicking monster is a boy or a girl by meeting him or her in person!

Gender-neutral stuff for future children – Everything we’re collecting in baby gear and clothing at this point is gender-neutral. In the event that we decide to have a second child and it’s the opposite sex, we won’t have a plethora of gender-specific items or feel we need to start from scratch with clothing/gear.

Needs-based shower – When you don’t know what you’re having showers tend to be less clothing-focused. I’ll be perfectly upfront here that this was a big influencer in my decision. That control-freak side of me would like to keep things as needs-based as possible. We have been more than happy with hand-me-downs and with clothing I am a big fan of thrifting. I also don’t want to end up with too much pink or blue clothing, I like a good mix of neutrals.

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Name secrecy – While keeping the name a secret is certainly not specific to sticking to Team Green, I have found people harass me less about names because we don’t know what we’re having. We’re keeping it a secret from everyone and by saying we’re waiting to meet our baby and see what we’re having, people don’t press you too much on the name front.

Guessing is fun – I think this might be the part that drives people to find out. The need to know… I on the other hand am having so much fun guessing what we’re having (well, most of the time). We’ve had our minds set on a girl most of this pregnancy, but there are certainly enough days I think about having a boy too. You just can’t know and continuing to guess and hearing people’s predictions has been a lot of fun.

Regrets don’t seem to exist – The first thing people tend to ask me is what we’re having, and when we say we don’t know, you tend to get one of three reactions: the “Good for you! That’s the best moment” response from people that have experienced it themselves; the “I wish we had done that” response from people that regret finding out; and the, “I could never do that! I had to/would have to know!” group. I don’t think we’ll live to regret this one, but I know if we had caved I probably would have wished we hadn’t found out.

I’m definitely eager to know whether we’re having a boy or girl, and which of our chosen names we love so much will be the one… but the wait will definitely be worth that moment.

Did you decide to find out the sex? What were the reasons for your decision?