The Great Gender Reveal

By nature, I am one of those people who “must know it all”. It’s frustrating really and can often be a real challenge in parenting but for the most part, it’s okay. When I got pregnant (with both my kids) the first question on most people’s mind is “are you going to find out [the gender]…” I had an obvious answer. Yes. Both my babies were born on military bases with military health care. Our hospital in particular was EXTREMELY picky on giving out gender shots.. read: would not under any circumstances give a printed shot of your child’s gender (even with a deployed husband who couldn’t be there for the big revel!). I’ve always been creative and I’ve always wanted to do something BIG for when we found out the genders of our kids. My son we got that moment, we had to pay for a private ultrasound but we got it.. and my daughter’s moment fell extremely short. If you are one of the lucky ones to be able to get that moment here are a few creative idea’s to share with friends and family:

First you’ll want to get a sealed photo from your shoot with a WRITTEN gender on the ultrasound (not all people can correctly read an ultrasound image!). Best to just ask your ultrasound technician to put the photo in a sealed envelope then you can take the envelope to whoever is helping you plot your revel!
Holiday’s are a great time to steal the show! If you’re revealing the gender of your baby, have a custom ornament made with the baby’s gender and open it on Christmas morning. Sites like Etsy.com are great for this sort of thing as it’s all handmade sort of items where you can get a personalized item.

A big gender revel trick on the rise is the color cake. Send your ultrasound photo to a baker (or a family friend if you’re cheap like me!) and have them make the inside of the cake the color associated with the gender of the baby. Then when you cut the first piece you’re shown a lovely colored cake of your future bundle of joy!

One of my personal favorites and what I would have done if I had the chance is to take advantage of the revel during a photo shoot. Maternity photos are so fun to have taken and although you might not feel your best you will cherish those photos forever, promise! Have your photographer get some gender colored helium filled balloons and place them in a pretty box. (Usually a cardboard box in non-descript wrapping paper works best!). During your photos, you can then lift the lid of the box and the balloons will float up in either color revealing the gender. It makes for great photo props!

Other great ideas include a homemade onsie that says something cute like “made with sugar and spice and everything nice..” for girls or “made with snakes, snails and puppy dog tails”. If you’re revealing the gender to older siblings you can do a fun game for them to ‘find’ the gender. One family I know put a piece of paper in all different colored balloons and the kids had to pop the balloons to find the paper and then read the name of the baby (to indicate boy or girl.). There are many, many fun things you can do to revel the gender of a new baby, feel free to share some of your favorite ideas here!