One of the first questions you get asked once you announce your pregnancy is whether or not you’ll find out the sex before the baby comes. People have incredibly strong opinions on this topic. Some are adamant that you shouldn’t ruin the surprise, others feel that it really helps to know the sex so you can do some forward planning and to mentally prepare for bub’s arrival. You can also have one of those American style parties where you get to take self indulgence to the max and invite all your friends over so that you can reveal the sex in some amusing novelty way. All your friends’ husbands love that one because it’s a great exercise in pretending to care.

Garrett and I chose an option that falls half way between the two – we know our baby’s sex but we’ve decided not to share it with our friends and families until it arrives. Most are fine with not knowing, some, including my parents, are really looking forward to finding out on the day and are pleased that we haven’t spilled the pink or blue beans just yet.

Others are taking our decision as a personal insult. As if we are purposely and gleefully torturing them. These are the people who as kids would always sneak in and open their present before Christmas Day. The suspense of not knowing is like an itch that must be scratched. It gnaws at them, it drives them crazy. They devise tactics to pry the information from us. They wait for us to slip up with a ‘he’ or ‘she’ in conversation, they beg, they plead, they promise not to reveal the information to anyone else on the planet.

One friend declared “but how will I know what colour to buy???” Because in these modern times dressing a child in green, yellow, white or red is just completely unthinkable.

Anybody peeking into the little wardrobe we’ve started stockpiling for our baby will get no hint either.

And there’s a reason for this.

Hubby, in his excitement about being a Dad and being able, for a short time at least, to dress a human being other than himself, has decided that our child be exclusively dressed in miniature novelty outfits. I found this out when a very small Disney character costume arrived in the mail. It’s not gender specific, and kinda cute.

But since then a very small banana costume has also turned up. And, it seems I will also be introducing the little darling to his or her aunts and uncles dressed as… wait for it… a cow.

Garrett finds this completely hilarious and cannot wait for the baby to be born so that he can choose the ensemble each day. Sites like eBay and punkbabyclothes.net are getting some heavy action from our credit cards. I should be grateful that he is getting involved in the lead-up to our greatest ever achievement, but I can’t help but feel that I might be uncomfortable as the only woman in mothers’ group toting a small one in a onesie proclaiming “Pimpin’ ain’t easy”. There’s also the little creation pictured above that has been discovered on etsy.com. Once again, I’ve had to draw the line.

Did you find out the sex of your child to make the planning easier? How far have you let your husband’s crazy ideas go?