The anticipated reveal
When we found out we were pregnant, it was the most exciting thing that's happened to us thus far- aside from getting married, of course! The first thing that you think about is "I wonder what we're going to have!?" The time it takes leading up to finding out your baby's gender gives you the feeling of being on so many roller coasters! You think of so many old wives tales, look at your stomach to see how your showing, and check out your ultrasounds for the Ramsy Theory. There is just so much excitement that goes along with this experience! For us, we wanted our little ones gender to be a surprise. No, I know what you're thinking, you think we waited out ALL the way until the end... excuse my language, but hell no! I would never be able to do that.
Since I was a kid, I couldn't even handle waiting until Christmas morning to find out what Santa had for me under the tree. I was the naughty kid, I was the kid who searched the house for presents along with unwrapping presents at night and re taping!- Sorry mom and dad! With that confession being confessed, I most definitely couldn't wait that long to find out the gender of our first born! After discussing with my husband that we should have the gender of our baby be a surprise, I was so excited to see that he was totally on board. I knew that it was going to be hard to go into our gender appointment and NOT look on the screen to see, but the excitement of finding out with all of our friends and family made it SO worth it.
We were finding out our baby's gender at our 20 week ultrasound, It was so exciting! At our appointment, I had my mom come with us- wasn't she lucky! She had to promise that she wasn't going to tell us, keep a poker face, and absolutely not tell anyone else. We went to our appointment, and it was so exciting- I know we weren't finding out ourselves, but we couldn't wait to see our little peanut and maybe even open an eye or two. When we were at our appointment, we let the technician know that we weren't finding our the gender, and to just let my mom know what the baby was. During the ultrasound, I could've SWORN I saw 3 lines. Knowing me, of course before my appointment I went and studied a million different ultrasounds from google- I know, I'm bad, worst person ever for any type of surprise. I knew our baby was going to be a girl, I was so confident about seeing 3 lines- it was a little ridiculous. I wonder if I was right or if I was wrong? Our appointment finished and the technician walked out to let my mom know. Boy did that lady hide it well, I swore I thought I could've read her face, but I wasn't able to... she had one good poker face, surprisingly. When we got home from our appointment, I was so excited to jump onto Pinterest to find gender reveal ideas. I wanted to find something that was cute, fun, and memorable. After suffering from a miscarriage and carrying on to have my rainbow baby, I wanted this to be something special for my husband and I to always remember. I saw the cutest cardboard box idea, I had to make one, and we had to do this! The gender reveal was basically a large cardboard box from home depot with blue and pink polka dots all over it. The front of the box read "It's A...." inside a big black heart with white writing. It was adorable, and I couldn't wait to start making the box for our very own gender reveal! After I found the perfect idea, I started to work on it immediately.
Every 4th of July, our families go down to Palm Springs to celebrate all together. This time around, the timing worked out great and we were able to have our gender reveal in Palm Springs since it was only a week after our appointment! The best part about being in Palm Springs for our gender reveal was that all of our friends and family were going to be with us to celebrate such a great memory. Luckily, not only was my family there, but my family from Dubai was in town for vacation so they were able to be in Palm Springs too. When I found the cardboard box idea on Pinterest, the way you find out the gender is when you open the box. Before our reveal, my parents and my cousin ran to Party City too stuff the cardboard box with balloons the color of the babies gender so that when we were to open the box, a bunch of balloons will fly out! (Exciting, eh? ;) ) The anticipation was killing me, LITERALLY! The time in our hotel room leading up to our big event was so exciting, I wanted everything to be perfect (control freak here). I found the perfect little white dress from Zara, which showed my little to nothing bump perfectly and paired it with wedges. I was so ready to celebrate.
We had our gender reveal on the hotels courtyard by the pool and when we came down stairs to the location, all of our family and friends were there waiting for us- it was so exciting. My family and best friend had decorated the area so nicely, it was such a surprise. Not only did they fill the box balloons, but they also surprised me with such fun favors. They paired our gender reveal with "Team Boy" "Team Girl" sunglasses, gender poppers, boy and girl color gender pins, daddy to be hat for dad, mommy to be crown for mom, and more. It was so sweet how they went out of their way to surprise us with all of the party favors, it was so unexpected! Before we did our gender reveal, we took tons of pictures with our friends and family, it was awesome because we had a group of almost 40! One of my biggest memories of my gender reveal were the party gender poppers... Remember, I still didn't know the gender since we were supposed to open the box to find out! Well, funny story here (Just kidding, I was crying and was so sad when it happened, I felt like my gender reveal was ruined- HELLO HORMONES!) While we were taking a group photo, one of our friends grabbed one of the poppers probably not realizing that we were waiting to open the box and ended POPPING ONE OF THE POPPERS! I really just wanted to die inside at that moment... I remember taking that photo and looking in the corner of my eye and seeing blue, just a whole bunch of blue. I'm such a control freak, and wanted everything to be perfect, so when this happened you can only imagine how traumatic it was (Crazy preggo lady!) My face in the group photos of when that popper was popped is an absolute classic, it's hilarious. It's hilarious now, but wasn't so hilarious then. I cried, and I cried... remember I was hormonal. I remember my mom and cousin telling me that the poppers were mixed with pink and blue, but I knew it wasn't true- why would they buy mixed (Laughing and crying emoji here, because reading back on it, this is hilarious.)
It was time! When it came time to open up our gender reveal box (FINALLY) It was so exciting! There was so much unknown- What were we having? Was the popper right? Is our baby a boy or a girl? My whole pregnancy, due to to old wives tales, I was so convinced we were having a girl (especially during our last ultrasound) It was time to open our box, the anticipation was killing us. The box was sealed with layers of tape to hold in the balloons. When we started ripping off the tape, we got closer and closer to the last strip. We were finally at our last strip of tape, we ripped it off and the balloons started to float out. IT'S A BOY! The box reveal was adorable- blue balloons floated out, and there was one extra large balloon which read "Baby boy!" along with a bunch of baby clothes attached to the bottom. It was such an exciting moment, and my husband and I were thrilled (especially my husband) All of our friends and family were screaming and cheering with excitement, it was such a memorable moment. I remember being so excited, but still couldn't get that damn popper out of my head and how I kind of knew beforehand. It was so exciting finally knowing what we were having, and now we can enjoy setting things up for our new arrival! After we had the gender reveal, we had a reservation at the restaurant at our hotel (CAVA) where my family and best friend decorated the room. This was such a surprise, and I had no idea they were doing this. My heart was filled with joy, and it made my little pregnant heart feel so loved and special. It was so beautiful, everything about it! All of the tables were decorated with pink and blue baby decorations, balloons, and even a cake! The cake my best friend had made was delicious, I wish I could have more of it.
My family made this surprise and weekend so special for my husband and I- I can't thank them enough for all that they did, even though I was crazy hormonal. Having our gender reveal with all of our friends and family was such a blessing. Waiting to find out the gender was hard, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Thank you for reading!
Xo
Pardon my Baby
