A Non-Gender Neutral Registry When You're Team Green!

One question we got a lot when we announced that we were going Team Green this pregnancy was, "What about a registry?" Luckily for us, a registry isn't necessary. We have more than enough to welcome another bundle of joy. However, having a few new items for this baby is a fun idea. But how do you register for fun items when you don't know what you're having?

I was SURE there had to be something out there for parents who weren't finding out their baby's gender until birth. Were parents doomed to have only gender neutral items once on Team Green? There had to be a better way. I was on a mission!

Using the amazing research skills God gave us mamas, I went to the internet in search of an option for gender-clueless parents! And to my delighted surprise, I hit the jackpot!!

Not Finding Out, www.notfindingout.com, is an online registry where parents who aren't finding out can register for gender specific items while not knowing. Each item has a version for a baby girl as well as a baby boy. Your friends and family get the joy of shopping your registry without knowing baby's gender either. They simply select an item to purchase and once the sweet baby is born, Not Finding Out sends the parents all the wonderful gender specific items purchased!

As a registrant and expecting parent, we get the fun part of selecting all the fun items we need and would like for our sweet baby. Once set up with a login and registry on Not Finding Out, a welcome package is sent to the parent that includes a "Shhh, Card". The parents bring the "Shhh, Card" to their care provider to have the gender discretely written and sent back to Not Finding Out in a pre-addressed, pre-stamped envelope! NO ONE has to know baby's gender but the care provider and Not Finding Out. It's fantastic!

Registry items range from clothing, blankets, and bedding to furniture, strollers, and car seats. All the items available on a traditional registry are offered at Not Finding Out. Even fun items such as gift sets, highchair covers and lovies are featured on Not Finding Out's product list. Most items include a boy and girl option unless both aren't available.

When someone purchases an item from your registry, they are given two options: to select the option THEY want or to select the "NFO Option", which means the gender specific item will be sent to the parents after the baby is born. Once an item has been purchased, a beautifully wrapped Gift Preview Card is sent to the parent or the guest to bring to the baby shower to give to the mother. The Gift Preview Card shows both the boy and girl option of the item as to not give away the surprise. At checkout, guests are given one last option to have the Gift Preview Card and the pruchased item sent to them to deliver or directly to the parents. If they chose the "NFO Option", the items will be sent directly to the parents after delivery!

For parents who are choosing to leave baby's gender a surprise until the delivery room, Not Finding Out is an excellent registry option! What a fun way to select gender specific items without knowing and without spoiling the surprise for family and friends. I am SO excited to select a couple of fun items for Baby #5!!

To Know or Not To Know

By now it is no surprise we are pregnant with our fifth child. Shocking? You have no idea! Typically well-planned and tried for, our babies have been an expected addition. But this baby? Sweet baby #5? He or she has had a mind of their own... from conception. This baby has been unplanned... yet never for a second unloved. Danny and I are over the MOON excited about this new addition.

That being said, it seems only fitting that we follow this surprise baby's lead... and leave him or her as a surprise as well! Yes - you read that right. Danny and I have decided to leave baby #5's gender up to the imagination until the wonderful day he or she is born.

You might be screaming in your head, "Why? What are you thinking? I HAVE to know!!" Some feedback I've gotten so far has ranged from not being able to set up a proper nursery to not being able to connect with the child. All well-meaning comments by friends and family and yet... it hasn't changed our decision to leave baby's gender as a surprise.

Let me try to explain myself...

1. We have 4 beautiful munchkins already and at least one of each gender. We have more than enough gender specific items to go around. I plan to wash 2-3 weeks worth of clothes for both genders to have them ready to go, and of course I will bring a gender specific outfit for each to the hospital to come home in.

2. This is our last. For sure. Although I am sure some will take bets that we will end up having another, this really is our last baby. And we've always wanted to wait to find out - so what better time than now? Rather - no other time than now?

3. I want to make this pregnancy special, just how all the others had a special element to them. Our first pregnancy was magical all in itself, our second was our first boy, our third was our rainbow baby (baby after a loss), and our fourth we did fun things we'd never done before, like a gender reveal and a sip and see. I feel like we've done it all... except this.

4. As if a baby at the end of it all isn't enough, waiting to hear the doctor announce, "It's a BOY!" or "It's a GIRL!" will make pushing all the more exciting! The wait throughout the pregnancy will be fun - filled with old wives' tales, fun gender prediction tests, and tons of pools! (I hope you win some money!)

5. The biggest reason I have chosen to wait to find out the gender of this sweet little bambino is to avoid gender disappointment. When I found Griffin was a boy, I cried in denial for a week. I was so sure he was a girl - that the ultrasound was done too early and the tech was seeing the umbilical cord. I read article after article about women who had been told they were having a boy to find out weeks or months later they indeed were having a girl. It was awful... spending a week mourning the loss of a child that never existed. and I refuse... REFUSE... to do that again. Gender disappointment is REAL, even if people don't want to talk about it. People always said to me, "Why are you upset? A healthy baby is all that matters!" And OF COURSE they were right. That doesn't mean I wasn't still upset. Waiting until the birth of our sweet baby will leave no room for gender disappointment. When I see his or her chubby cherub cheeks and big blue eyes, there will be room for no other feeling than LOVE.

Waiting to find out the gender of our baby seems to be rare today. Please don't misunderstand - this doesn't make us any better or stronger of a parent than anyone else. This is simply our decision... and we couldn't be happier!

Let the speculation BEGIN!