It's Mommy Time!

Hi everyone, this is Alicia. Patrick's been pestering me to make a blog post for a while now, so I finally gave in. I'm not nearly as good of a writer as he is, so please excuse my writing weaknesses.

In about a week we are going for our next doctor's visit. We get to see the first pictures of our baby! It's quite exciting. There is one small problem... If everything goes smoothly and Baby Potts cooperates, we should be finding out the sex of the baby.

I know, I know, most of you are thinking, "What's the problem with that?!" The problem is that I don't want to find out the sex of the baby. It has been an ongoing debate in our household for a few months now. When Patrick and I first got married and the topic of having children came up, I was very clear about the fact that I didn't want to find out the sex of our children. Maybe part of the reason is that my parents never found out what they were having. I never knew whether I was getting a new brother or sister. And those were some of the best surprises of my life!

I have always enjoyed being surprised. (Good surprises of course.) Growing up, I was never one to look in closets, or search the attic to try and discover what I was getting for Christmas. In fact, most years "Surprises" was actually one of the items I would write on my Christmas list. Patrick, on the other hand, has no patience for surprises. It isn't that he doesn't like them, he just gets too excited. He can't wait for the surprise to come, he needs to know now! Ever since we have been together, I don't think one Christmas or birthday has passed where he hasn't opened his gifts early. If it's under the tree, he NEEDS to open it. Whatever is in the package can be used and enjoyed now, so why wait? Needless to say, I do not agree with his philosophy. For me, the surprise is part of the gift. There is something special about the excitement and apprehension of the wait. It builds up and makes the end result even more awesome.

With that said, about 90 percent of the people who ask about the pregnancy and the baby want to know what we're having. I can't tell you how many times a day I hear, "Is it a boy or a girl?" or "Have you found out what you're having yet?" I try to explain that I don't want to find out and I get mostly blank stares or confused looks. I understand of course. I get why Patrick wants to know now. And it will make picking out a name and shopping for baby things much easier.

In the end I finally yielded. I'm sure when they ask at the appointment if we want to know, I won't be able to say no. And it's really important to Patrick to find out. So, in about a week, we should know if we are having a boy or girl. I really don't care which it is, as long as the baby is healthy. Plus, on delivery day we could still get a surprise. Because until that baby enters the world, we won't be 100 percent sure whether we got a boy or a girl anyway.