It's A...

...Beautiful baby!
For baby number 3, we decided we want to try something different, and special in a new way. We are waiting until baby's birthday to find out whether it is a he or a she. We have a couple of reasons for doing this.
1. We have tiny clothes that will work regardless of sex. A lot of people find out and say "well, you have one of each, so it doesn't matter anyway!" This slightly bothers me because I feel like it implies that boys or girls are more desirable (or if we had 2 boys we would "need/want strongly" for it to be a girl), though I am sure that isn't what most people mean. However, in some senses, yes, we have little items either way.
2. There seems to be less hoopla for baby number 3, which is totally understandable and fine. But we are just as excited for this sweet one as we were for Ben and Hadassah! So not finding out until baby emerges is a way to make this feel like a new and exciting experience for us.
3. Not that the baby isn't reward in and of itself, but I feel like this will be another fun incentive to get through the labor process, especially the end when it gets super intense.
4. This pregnancy is seriously flying by, and where I felt a sense of urgency to find out with the first 2, due date doesn't feel very far away with this one, so I feel fine waiting.
The only slight twinge of regret I have in this decision is that I really enjoyed calling our older two by name once we found out sex. But that's okay! This one seems to go by the nickname Ben chose of "Tiny Baby" and we DO have names picked out! Since the main purpose of this blog now is to keep a record of the milestone moments of the first year so I can make a baby book later, I am going to share the names here. In keeping with tradition (for our family) the names we have chosen have elements of the unusual and are Hebrew in origin.
For a boy: Judah Mishael (ME-shy-el). Judah means "praise" and Mishael is the Hebrew form of "Michael" and means "who is like God?" Mishael was the name of Meshach, one of the Hebrews who was thrown into the fiery furnace by the king of Babylon rather than compromising his convictions (don't worry, he survived!). We hope our son will be a strong man of conviction and have a life that is defined by thanksgiving and praise.
For a girl: Elianna (Ellie-ah-nuh) Joy. Elianna means "my God has answered" and...well, Joy is self explanatory. :-) If Tiny Baby is a girl, we hope that her life will be defined by joy, and that she will be able to say "my God has answered" throughout any circumstance where she might find herself.
Either way, TB will probably go by his/her first name. It has been kind of fun to not know. Ben randomly chooses a gender pronoun by which to refer to the baby (sometimes he says "him" and other times "her" or "she."). I am excited to find out if "it's a boy!" or "it's a girl!" in the delivery room in just a few short months! And until then, we are totally taking people's guesses! :-)