I'm with the folks who said shopping makes them feel hopeful and like this is real. Every time I buy something, it feels like I'm coming a little closer to the reality of having a baby. I don't really worry about jinxing.
I'm confident I'm going to have a baby at some point, I just don't know when.
Still, I don't want to have to look at a complete nursery with crib all set up and stuff. I <i>am</i> slowly getting all the extra junk out of the future nursery (I've been using it for my off-season clothes), but other than that there's just a slowly growing pile of baby stuff.
Our nursery is already painted a neutral color, and the bedding and curtains I like at Ikea are a gender-neutral animal print. Here's a link:
IKEA | Children's textiles | Curtains & drapes | BARNSLIG DJUR | Curtain
I also collect antique copies of Good Housekeeping magazine ... in the 20s and 30s they had these really beautiful paintings of childhood scenes on the covers. My plan is to frame some of these magazines as my nursery artwork, and that will work for either gender.
I'm not one, either, who's super worried about putting my boy in blue or girl in pink. That makes it somewhat easier to find clothes now.
We are planning to have a "Meet the Baby" party/shower after we bring the baby home. But by then I figure we'll already have most of the necessities, since we'll need them to take care of the baby. I had an idea to have a "book shower" - everyone would give a book they loved as a child or that their kids loved, and they could sign the books and write a note inside the cover. I thought that would be a great way to build our child's library (I LOVE books!) and it would be a more meaningful present for people to give. I told this idea to my mom and sister, though, and they didn't like it because they said people would want to give us clothes and diapers and bottles and stuff. Truth is - I'm gonna be picky about that stuff, and books would be less likely to be a waste of money for the gift-givers.
But would that be weird to put a requirement on what type of gift they give? I see it as no different than when a bride has a lingerie shower or whatever.
ETA: Forgot to mention that our facilitator recommends not buying a carseat ahead of time. They say it's easier to just run out and buy one when you go get your baby. So our plan is to buy an infant carseat and some baby necessities then. The carseat we already bought is a convertible one (Britax Marathon) for when he/she is a bit older. This is all assuming we get a newborn. We're open to up to age 2, so that would change the whole ballgame!