[jQuery] Animate height from 0px to default w/o flicker

[jQuery] Animate height from 0px to default w/o flicker

I want to animate the height of a box so that it expands from 0px to it's default height.
I've tried
<div style="direction: ltr;"><span class="q">$('#wait').css({height: 0}).animate({ height: 'toggle' }, 3000);
But sometimes the box is visible for a few milliseconds.
I've also tried setting the height to 0 px in the stylesheet:
</span></div>
#wait { height: 0px }
And then switch to the default height using jQuery:
<span class="q">$('#</span>wait').animate({ height: 'toggle' }, 3000);
But that doesn't work at all.
Any other suggestions to remove the flicker?