Well…I knew the gender of both of our kids before they were born and so did everyone else in this country…except my husband. It was written in HUGE red letters on my chart on the outside…”do not mention gender to husband”. All of the baby things were in my closet. I told DH if he didn’t want to know the baby’s gender to stay out of my closet. And he did. We picked boys and girls names both times (of course I knew half of that was a waste of time…but I went along with it all). It made my DH happy not to know…and it made me happy to know.
We really got no gifts until after our kids were born which worked just fine.
So happy for you! People and their questions are so strange.
Hanna Anderson is headquartered in my city. I shopped there for D 35 years ago now for G’Sons. They won awards back in the 80-90’s for having a daycare right in their building for their staff. At the time it was completely cutting edge. The clothes are cotton and wear and wear and hold their shape and color.
They have two sales a year --Jan. and July. Amazing prices. Also, there is a Hanna Anderson outlet with much lower prices. They run sales there nearly weekly. This is where I shop. Lots of their clothes are gender neutral. Both DIL’s prefer this brand.
Unbelievable that it is only 3 months until the birth–did I get that right?
Here’s another vote for Hannas. They’re pricy, but the clothes are long-wearing, cute and soft. Perfect for doting aunts, uncles and friends to buy for Romani Jr.
@thumper1 I told Mr R that he can find out if he wants, but he is fine with whatever I want to do.
People also keep asking me if I hope it’s one or the other. Normally I say something sarcastic like I really hope it’s a panda, but I truly have no preference. Both Mr R & I are pretty gender non-conforming
@oregon101 Nah I’m 3 months in - almost 15 weeks. Due date is April 20.
Speaking of gifts, I have absolutely no idea what to put on my baby registry other than things like bottles, formula, diapers, and wipes. Others have also suggested asking for gift cards for things like uber eats/doordash. As every parent has told me “you’re not going to want to even think about making your own food for at least a month!” lol.
One SIL and my sister are completely done having kids so I am getting everything from them - clothes, high chair, cribs, pack n play, monitors, stroller, car seats, and so on. I know people will give me clothes whether I ask for them or not lol. The other SIL isn’t sure if she’s having more or not but since I have the biggest house, everyone is storing baby stuff here anyway until the next person needs them.
Another vote for Hanna Anderson but it is pricy. Thankfully the grandmas loved them and gifted. I’m with you though in not going nuts with clothes as they get outgrown in a blink of an eye. We loved the discount rack at Old Navy when our D was little.
@bgbg4us , I have a daughter and a son, both at college. Every night at bedtime, I text them both “Goodnight sweeties!”, so I’m not sure what sex a sweetie is, lol.
Primary.com is another place for high quality non-gendered clothes. They’re very basic and less expensive than Hanna Andersson, although I loved Hanna for my kids, and even had some of the adult things for myself.
Regarding the hand-me-down car seat and crib, make sure these are compliant with current regulations. And car seats do “expire,” even if they haven’t been in crashes, because of plastic fatigue, so check the date on yours.
If you’re on Facebook at all, you’re probably getting a lot of “must have” ads for baby stuff, with thousands of testimonials in the comments sections. Ignore these. A lot of them are nonsense, or for products that haven’t been shown to be safe, such as a bumper that molds around your baby to prevent him/her from getting a flat head. Yes. I’m the curmudgeon who posts “Check with your pediatrician before buying this” in the comments section every time I see an ad for this crap. Those advertisers hate me and always delete my comment!
And if you’re going with cloth diapers, PM me. I now know more than I would ever wish, thanks to my daughter, who did ALL THE RESEARCH EVER before choosing them for my 4 month old grandson.
@Massmomm my niblings are 2, 1, < 1. Everything major is less than 3 years old - most less than a year old.
I have ads blocked and I mostly ignore everything. I’ve seen enough anti-vaxxers to know not to trust a darn thing fb parents say lol
In theory, I’d love to do cloth diapers but realistically I don’t think it’s possible. Our washer is downstairs and I can’t go up and down the stairs easily. Plus basically everyone we know who were deadset on them gave up within the first month. If we decide to try though, I’ll definitely PM you.
^^^Yep, @romanigypsyeyes , I can’t believe my daughter has held out on the cloth for this long! She bought some of her stash from people who gave up on them the first few weeks. But after the initial costs ($19.95 PER DIAPER for the best ones), they are saving money. I just know I couldn’t do this.
I’m in the less is more camp when it comes to babies. Half the gadgets aren’t really needed, IMO, and a lot of the rest is very short lived so that’s great you are getting hand me downs.
Building a library of books is a good gift suggestion. And from family at least, contributions to the college fund!
In our house it’s pumpkin, baby bear, and sweetpea used for both genders.
I did cloth diapers back in the day but had a diaper service which made it super simple. Only used disposable when traveling or away from home for awhile. A lot of my concern was about toxins/chemicals in disposables but it seems they have better disposable options these days.
I used a diaper service for D3. They delivered clean diapers and took away the used ones, in a bag they provided. I had to buy diaper covers, which can be expensive, but you save money in the long run. Diaper covers today are really nice, not the “plastic pants” of old.
We chose not to know the gender of our firstborn. With our second, we ended up knowing because there were some issues and we were having extra ultrasounds. It became hard not to know!
I agree that the whole gendered everything for babies and little kids is weirdly overemphasized. Why should every little thing you buy be specifically for boys or else for girls?
You will definitely not need many new baby-sized clothes if you have all those hand-me-downs so try to think of things you might like for later on, or decorations or furniture for the room, (love the sci-fi theme!), and the idea of building a library is good, too.
We used diaper service and loved it (with wraps) so if you think people would contribute to that, you could put it on your registry.
They are all made of natural material. A simple dress can be worn with tights and flats. You can also wear them after the baby is born. I wear them for work because I can dress them up or down.
I could only wear dresses when in the last stages of pregnancy. I am 5’5" and small boned, but my first kid was 9 lbs, 9 oz. She turned the tip of my sternum perpendicular, and I could not bear anything touching my torso.
I’m convinced the fetish about boy clothes and girl clothes is to let the world know gender, before the baby really shows much of those traits. Like, “He’s a boy! Can’t you see he’s dressed in blue?”
Strikes me that Romani won’t care.
In German, a baby is an “it.”
Supposedly, a variety of colors in the bedroom or near the crib is a developmental stimulant. A good one. Have no word of authority on that.
I’ve made the mistake of calling the baby “they” as a gender neutral pronoun and too many people have thought twins (reasonably!). So now I just refer to it as the parasite and let people get angry about that instead ? Honestly, as soon as you have a fetus in the uterus, your body is suddenly seen as everyone’s to comment on.
It’s truly just bizarre how gendered everything is. I knew it was bad but I had no idea HOW bad it was until I started building my registry. They had gender specific baby bottles! WHY?!
Ok now that I’ve got that off my chest, what the heck is a diaper service?
The one I used was a laundry for cloth diapers. They had them washed in some hospital sterilized washing system and you could contract to have a delivery and pick up once a week or so. That was 24 years ago though!
