Before I got pregnant, I always thought whenever I did get pregnant, I would definitely want to find out everything I could know about the baby as soon as possible. Nowadays, there are so many different tests offered. We were asked if we wanted to do so many different ones at our first appointment, it was so overwhelming. My first thought was that we would definitely do the early blood test to find out the gender. Come to find out, that was offered as early as 10 weeks (which seemed super early to me), and that test was also combined with the chromosomal, genetic, and down syndrome tests. Austin and I went home to think about everything. Did we really want to know all of that? Maybe we wanted to know the gender, because we were antsy and inpatient, but the other test results wouldn’t necessarily do anything for us except cause us to worry the rest of our pregnancy if something was wrong. We decided to forgo the 10-week blood tests. The next appointment, I was told we could find out the gender at 16 weeks through a gender ultrasound scan. There was a separate cost for it, and we may or may not be able to see the results from that scan. At that point, I was so ready to know what we were having and waiting another 4 weeks for the anatomy scan seemed like forever! However, I didn’t want to pay for a scan not knowing if they would 100% be able to give us the official gender results.
I went home again, looked at the calendar, thought a little bit. We knew we wanted to have a gender reveal party, so we decided after going back and forth trying to coordinate with family’s schedules, it just made more sense to wait until 20 weeks to officially find out the gender. We planned a little party for Saturday, May 4th (assuming I could get an anatomy scan appointment sometime earlier that week). Sure enough, Austin and I went in on Monday, April 29th for our anatomy scan. It was so exciting to finally see how much our baby had grown since our last ultrasound at 10 weeks. We got to see the 4 chambers of the heart, little fingers, the head, a precious little nose, a cute tummy and more. Then the ultrasound tech turned the screen to find out the gender, so we wouldn’t see. She put the results in an envelope saying “gender surprise” which I had to later hand off to my sister, and Austin and I went about our day anxiously waiting for Saturday to arrive.
My younger sister and mom had offered to help plan our gender reveal, which I was super thankful. (However, it was at my house and the OCD, control freak in me had to do some shopping, cleaning, and prepping of my own.) A few weeks before the party, I ordered a set of blue and pink confetti and powder canons for the actual reveal. We decided to do everything pink and blue, so I ordered pink and blue cupcakes, donuts, a banner, and lots of decor! We couldn’t have a brunch party without a mimosa bar, duh! (and kiddy champagne for the pregnant lady). We also had tons of food from fruit, veggies, a chik-fil-a platter, cinnamon rolls, pimento cheese sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, and more! Everything was set up and ready by 10:59am, just in time for the first person to walk in right at 11:00am!
Just for fun, I had my guests bring diapers to guess “boy” and wipes to guess “girl”. Everyone started strollin’ in between 11:00 and 11:30 with their guesses which was so fun to see. I loved having my family and a few close friends in my home mingling, enjoying yummy food, and getting to know each other. I had to stop myself to just look around and see all these sweet people in my life who cared enough about Austin, our future baby and me to be celebrating this special day with us.
Around 12:00pm, we had everyone make their way outside, so we could finally do the reveal! I was SO nervous and excited, my heart was beating out of my chest! My sister grabbed the correct color canons and handed them to us on the top of the hill with all of our loved ones circled around. The countdown began…3…2…1….POP! IT’S A GIRL!!!
That moment was up there in best moments of my life! I was and still am so excited and grinning ear to ear. Something in me knew it was a girl the whole time, but Austin and I both had to prepare our minds for a boy too in case our gut feeling was wrong. (All in all, we would not have cared either way about the gender, as we have just prayed for a healthy baby). But everything I had pictured in my head up to that point was all girlie things. Now I get to make those visions a reality!
We walked back inside and my sister had already lit candles on a huge decorated pink cake and had a banner for us that said “IT’S A GIRL!”. (She really pulled this whole thing off!). I was on a high the rest of the party and whole weekend (I actually still feel like I’m dreaming). It felt like my wedding day, it was that special!
Austin and I are so incredibly thankful for everyone who came to celebrate our future baby girl’s life and couldn’t have done it without the help of our families and friends! We cannot wait to meet our sweet princess!
Xoxo, Watson
