Facebook, Gender and Clothes?

Please feel free to give me your thoughts and opinions on these subjects.  These are thoughts that have been "marinating" for a while.  I've always had thoughts, like I'm sure every adult does, "When I have a kid I will..."  "When I have a kid I won't..." And the reality is that we won't know until we have that kid and begin to find that whole family balance and what we can, can't, will, and won't tolerate!  I just don't know how I'm going to react to things and here are the things that I've been thinking about as we get further along in this pregnancy and closer to finding out who my passenger is and closer to "D-Day".

Facebook:  The older I get and the more I look at Facebook the less I like it.  And yes, this comes from a person that checks it at least twice a day, sometimes more depending on what is going on with my day!  I LOVE being able to keep up with family that is out of town and dear friends that live far away.  I LOVE being able to see pictures of them and their families and what they are doing with their lives now.  I HATE some of the train wreck people on there and yet I can't seem to delete them because they are kind of fun/funny to watch and make me feel better about myself and my life (sad but true).  And so while I just said that I LOVE seeing my far away friends and pictures of them and their families I have had ZERO desire to post my news (Baby, new job, etc.) on FB and really don't feel like anyone posting my news either.  It is OUR news (Jeff HATES all social media and hates that I have a FB account).  I feel like it is OUR choice whether to say anything on social media and whether we post anything pertaining to us.  For some reason I am loving having this bit of information semi-private.  It's not a secret.  We want the world to know but we want the world to know the old fashioned way, calling, visiting, e-mailing, texting.  I just don't feel ready for social media...and then I have this other thought.  This little nugget is too small to make the decision about whether he/she wants their life splashed across social media.  What if this kid runs for president?  What if this kid becomes an admiral, general, preacher, doctor, lawyer, environmental advocate...ANYTHING.  Does this professional adult really want the world to be able to see silly baby pictures of him/her in the bathtub?  Dressed for Halloween?  I just don't know!  I want to share this joy with my friends and family and I want to respect who this person may become one day.  These are super deep thoughts about social media, I know...but that's what I'm thinking about lately!  What's your take on these things?

Gender Reveal:  So, I really feel the desire to NOT find out.  Jeff wants to find out.  Jeff Lester can keep a secret.  He can rival Fort Knox.  I'm pretty sure if Jeff Lester were ever kidnapped and dosed with truth serum he still wouldn't give up his secrets.  He's that good.  But if the doctor, nurse, ultrasound tech tells him I know it will eat at me for the remaining months that he knows and I don't! So, since he wants to know so badly I feel like we should find out.  I feel the need for him to make some decisions about this baby, too and we will eventually find out so why not in December instead of April?  Now, the second part of this is if we know do we tell others?  I kind of want to keep it private (just the two of us).  We can know and we can buy bedding and the bigger items and we can register for lots of yellow and green things for everything else and the world can be surprised in April.  Well, I have a big mouth!  Yep, even I know it.  And I know that I would say, "Well, his room is almost ready" or "She's going to be..." and just blow that right out of the water.  Why I want to hold and cherish this nugget of information is beyond me...but I do.  And then there is the "fairness" of telling people.  Who do we tell first?  Do we have a party?  Do we ask our family to keep our secret?  I do feel if we decide to tell our family what we're having then we won't ask them to keep it a secret.  I can't ask them to do something I'm not sure I can do myself!  So, we'll probably find out and probably tell our family at Christmas and then tell our extended family and friends the way we told them we were expecting.

Names:  I really do think we might keep the name to ourselves.  Again, don't know why.  I just think we've told everything else, we might as well savor something before the world gets to know.  I have a lot of friends that haven't told the names of their passengers and I didn't get it at first and now I do!  Different reasons from different people. One friend didn't want her family to bash the name she and her husband picked so they didn't tell.  Another friend didn't tell because she didn't want a bunch of monogrammed clothes that she couldn't pass down to other possible future children.  I kind of like both of their reasoning.  I'm not saying there will be future babies...or there won't.  I'm just saying that if we have a kid now we might want to be able to share clothes with friends and family members and by not having names and monograms on them we can actually share.  Another thing that a friend said is that she and her husband didn't share what they were having because they didn't want to get a sea of blue items or a sea of pink.  They wanted bottles, diapers, and other useful items.  She was telling me that when people know what you're having they ditch the registry and buy the cutsie things they want instead of what you need.  And yet another friend said the style of your child is something that you get to choose and when people know what you're having they seem to want to buy clothes for your kids when in reality you probably don't like anything they buy.  Which brings me to my next topic..clothes.

Clothes:  If this is a girl there will be no sequins or rhinestones or a lot of other things...we're having a daughter, not a stripper.  If this is a boy, no jon-jon embroidered mess.  I told a friend once long ago that I thought it looked like people really wanted a girl and dressed their boy in those frilly clothes to try and compensate for the gender they didn't get.  So, save your money folks.  Well dress him or her in the clothes we feel are appropriate for their gender and age!

See, I'm thinking of all these things and we've got SO long to go!  I don't know how I'll actually feel, react and be by the time we get to find out, pick a name and deliver this nugget.  I just don't know but these are some of the random thoughts that are rumbling through my head!