Morgan Baby Gender Reveal

If you follow me on Instagram (samaraevangeline) or are on my Facebook friends list, you've seen this:

Yep. I'm pregnant.

Now, I don't want this blog to turn into "everything baby". However, since it is a big part of my life right now, and for those of you who may be embarking on parenthood, I thought a few posts, here and there, might be of some interest to you all. 

My husband and I found out exactly two days after his birthday (April 8th) that we were expecting a baby in December. What a (late) birthday present! We kept everything secret until about week 13. And let me tell you, that was not easy. Not only was I sick around the clock, I had zero energy, was applying for, testing for, interviewing for, getting and learning a new job and finishing my Finance (major yawn) final at school. It was all I could do to make it through April and May. On the other side, though, good things awaited. 

For starters, I downloaded this adorable and fun IPhone app--Cute Fruit--that made me look forward to Fridays even more. (We enter a new week of pregnancy every Friday, so it updates on Fridays.) The app gives you a picture of a fruit that is comparable to your baby for that week of pregnancy. 

Cute, right?

I also entered the very strange world of shopping for maternity clothes. Oh, don't get me wrong, I was one of those women who was dead set against maternity clothes because of what I thought maternity clothes represented--huge frocks with ducks, ugly colors, tent-like clothing and clothing that looked like  a floral department threw up on it. Um, no thanks.

Something told me to look, though. I thought, if the celebrities can do it and look fashionable, then who am I to turn my nose up at maternity clothes. 

OK, I don't have a gazillion bucks to buy couture maternity clothes, but I found some really adorable things to wear that don't scream "I'm pregnant and have resultantly lost all my fashion sense!!"

And then, just very recently, we decided to do a mini-gender reveal with my immediate family. 

Gender Reveal! 

I didn't want to have a gender reveal baby shower because I feel it's less fun (and more difficult) to buy for a baby when you don't know the sex of the baby. I also didn't want to turn this gender reveal party into a huge party where all our friends and guests come and feel obligated to buy yet more presents (because they already are buying for your baby shower) for us--"Yay. Celebrate us. AGAIN!" Tacky.

What I did want to do, though, was something no one in my family had done yet and create a unique way to find out together as a family what the sex of the baby was going to be.

So, after our 20 week ultrasound, we had the ultrasound tech (who was AWESOME, by the way, and turned off the monitor at all the right moments) seal the results of the baby's sex in an envelope. She was the ONLY person that knew--not even my doctor knew because as she said, she didn't like to "cheat". 

We took the sealed results straight over to my friend Scott at Events to Rent. Scott and his partner did the decór for our beautiful wedding and were kind enough to help us out with the most important party decoration--the box containing the results of our ultrasound. That's right. My event decorator was the second person to know the sex of the baby. Oh, don't you judge me! ;-)

Here I am handing over the results to Scott!

Luckily, Wednesday through Sunday (the day of our gender reveal) was insane between work, my niece's birthday party, and preparing for our mini-gender reveal, that I didn't have much time to think about the fact that we had the results sitting on a CD in my husband's car. 

Finally, the day of the reveal arrived and we hurried to get all the last minute items together and get to my mom's. 

Scott delivered the very important package.

He did such a wonderful job and it was EXACTLY as we pictured!

We dubbed our little, private event, "Mimosas and Balloons". I'd seen mimosa bars all over Pinterest and couldn't wait to make my own little version of it. 

 Along with mimosas (and a "sparkling mimosa" for me), we munched on some light appetizers.

Originally, I'd planned this to be outside with little stations, but the rain kept us inside. This makeshift station included some of the top Old Wives' Tales and where my symptoms laid as far as boy or girl.

We also laid out framed ultrasound pictures from 8 weeks and 20 weeks to give "hints". (You really can't tell at all from the ultrasound pics, but it was fun.)

And over to the right, there was a vase filled with little wooden dowels, topped off with cream-colored lips or a black mustache for people to choose from, depending on if they thought the balloons would be BLUE or PINK when we opened the box!

My cutie pie niece Ava posing by the box!

After we sipped on mimosas, had some light food and played the guessing game, we took a family picture with our guesses! (Thomas and I really had no clue, so we went with a girl guess.)

We had just one thing left to do--OPEN THE BOX!!

Fortunately, the little prayer my mom said was heard. The skies cleared and the sun came out!

It was a bit chilly for a July afternoon, but it was still beautiful outside and the anticipation was killing me!

When we opened the gorgeous box made by our wonderful friends at Events to Rent, this is what we discovered.

It's a bit of work and takes a great deal of discipline to not cheat and find out the sex of your baby, but it is OH SO WORTH IT.

It's a boy! 

We have three adorable little girls on my side of the family and our baby will be the first boy. We can't wait to spoil him!! (Within total reason, of course.) :) 

Cheers,

Samara