With Evalana and Lazarus, we got to find out their genders at our 18-week ultrasound appointments. With Ezekiel, we decided not to get an ultrasound, so we obviously didn't find out his gender until his birth. Now that we've tried it both ways, we've decided we like finding out during the pregnancy, rather than at the end. Although I don't regret not getting an ultrasound, so, if we have future babies, we may still do the same thing. So many people had said how great it is to wait until the birth to find out, so i was surprised to find that i like the other way so much better. I loved being able to look forward to that halfway through the pregnancy. And I especially loved being able to find out with everyone else around. We had a lot of our family with us, some on the phone, and some friends with us also, and i loved being able to enjoy everyone's reactions. I wouldn't expect them to be any less or more excited depending on the answer, but i liked being with them when they found out. With Ezekiel, everyone who wasn't at our house found out over the phone, and i didn't hear any of those conversations. I loved having a special event, just for finding out the baby's gender. We got to have a party all for that moment, rather than it just being part of the birth. During the labor, I wasn't thinking about if the baby was a boy or girl--i just wanted the baby out. After the birth, I was so very very happy to have this baby, i still wasn't even thinking at all about if he was a boy or girl. i had him in my arms, but i didn't even think to check until, over a minute after the birth, someone asked that we look. When we did check and see that he was a boy, i was very surprised, and it was so fun to finally know, but at that point, when i was holding this newborn baby, it seemed like such a tiny detail. And a few other practical reasons i like finding out ahead of time. I could have bought clothes for him on sale ahead of time, rather than waiting until after he was born to find out we didn't have anything for him to wear. Thankfully Grandma Nancy took care of a bunch of first outfits for him that week. Then I was able to go shopping when he was a couple weeks old, but I wouldn't have felt up to that task any earlier. With this big boy, if i had been able to buy ahead of his birth, i probably would have bought some of the wrong sizes, since i wouldn't have guessed he'd be in 6-month size when he was born. The other thing that would have been helpful is knowing if we should have been looking at boy names or girl names. Now we do have a good list going for possible future children, but working on names is so difficult, so i'd always be happy to make that process a little simpler. I think it's great that we get the option of finding out around 18 weeks with ultrasound or waiting until the birth. I also like that we've been able to experience both ways.
Once I get it edited, hopefully i can post the video of when we found out that ezekiel was a boy.
