When you first find out you’re having a baby – before the name discussion, the nursery decorating, or the baby showering – you must decide whether or not you want to find out the gender of your baby. Talk about a tough decision!

So many parents relish in the exciting element of waiting until the baby is born, enjoying “the one true surprise in life” as our friend Colleen Donovan Pohle shared, who waited to find out the gender of her son until birth, telling us “it was awesome to have my husband be the one to tell me!”

And some parents decide to find out right away, allowing them to excitingly and accordingly plan for their little one on the way. For Baby Be Hip’s Colleen, it was a little bit of both, “I knew with baby #1, was surprised with baby #2 and knew with baby #3 and baby #4. I wanted to have the stuff ready ahead of time and of course, the personalized burp cloths with me at the hospital. But, being surprised was totally fun too!” Gender reveal parties are super popular as well as they still carry the surprise, but allow you to plan ahead. We think you can’t go wrong either way, as both are so fun and promise lots of happy memories!

We put the question out to our Facebook friends, who gave us some great insight into what and why parents decide!

• We wanted it to be a surprise. Since we got to pick their birthdays, we wanted something to be a surprise! – Erin O’Brien Howard
  
• With my first I didn’t, and with my second, I didn’t mind either way, but I asked the nurse to write it down, fold it up and I hid it. Knowing my husband, I thought he’d never ask, but on New Years he and my sister begged me to tell them. I didn’t know where I’d hid it so we had a treasure hunt. And what a treasure she is! -Fiona MacLeod
  
• Surprises- nothing else can compare to that excitement for me! – Erin Doughtery
  
• 3 surprises and 2 know births. My strong advice is to go with the surprise! – Ray Hyer
  
• We didn’t ask to know but they slipped and told us, so for the next 2 months we felt as though we were planning for “Andrew”, not “baby”. So much fun that way. -Linda Dolan Farquhar