Background
Soon after we had Em, I started hearing about gender reveal parties. I thought it sounded like a lot of fun. Originally I wanted to have all our friends and family over, but thinking about all the work it be, I decided scaling it down to just a few people would be just as fun. We had our ultrasound on Tuesday morning, but decided to have the sono tech write down the gender instead of telling us. Then tonight we had my parents and Shawn's parents over for dinner.
A few weeks ago I had come up with a great idea (I think it's pretty great, anyways :) ) on how to reveal the gender. I had a co-worker monogram 2 onesies for us. One onesie with our girl's name and one with our boy's name (hence why we needed to decide on names so early). Then I gave both onesies along with the sono tech's card to another friend at work and she wrapped up the "right" onesie and just held on to the other one for me. The plan was then for Shawn and I to open up the "gift" the night our parents were here. We thought this was a cute way to not only reveal the gender, but also the name we had decided upon.
We asked both sets of parents to wear either pink or blue depending on whether they thought it was going to be a boy or a girl. Shawn, Em and I did the same thing. Like I said previously, I've been thinking boy all along while Shawn thought girl. However, I think by this time, I had thought boy enough that I had Shawn convinced it was a boy. So Shawn, me, my Dad and Shawn's stepdad all had blue on. Emily, my mom and Shawn's mom all had pink on. My mom really thought it was a boy, but decided if her and my dad wore different colors at least one of them would be right.
The Reveal
Let me first say, I have been so anxious since Tuesday at our appt! I'm not really sure why as the gender really isn't a huge deal to me. I just wanted to make sure the baby was healthy. And I truly would have been happy with either a boy or a girl. I think just the anticipation of it all had me all worked up. I had to give my friend the sono card as soon as I got to work on Tuesday. I didn't want it in my possession at all. I was so afraid I would cheat. And I made sure to tell her I didn't want the package back until Friday.
I tried my best to hold out and not open the "gift" as soon as both sets of parents got there, but the anticipation was killing me! After 45 minutes of visiting (of which the whole time all I could think about was the little package sitting on the counter), I couldn't take it any longer. It was time to open it. :)
So we decided to set the video camera up to record the entire reveal, as well as asked my dad to man my camera. I wanted to capture this moment! I was in charge of opening it up. Part of me just wanted to make sure I was the very first to see it. :) I'll try to figure out how to post the video at some point.
I was really nervous about opening the package. I have no idea why. I think it's because I've pretty much been expecting to see the boy onesie when we opened the box. All along my gut has told me it's a boy. When I got some news about my ultrasound this past week it pretty much confirmed boy in my mind (more on that later). So if I ended up seeing the girl onesie I think I would have been shocked. I would have definitely been happy, but would have been shocked.
But I opened up the package and there was our boy onesie. :) I'm pretty sure our family knew what it was as soon as they saw my reaction. I had just known it would be a boy and the smile on my face was huge!! I then asked them if they wanted to know the baby's name and I turned it around to show them the onesie. His name will be Evan Michael Baxter. I'll write up another post later explaining how we came up with that.
The sono tech had also printed pictures up for us showing the gender. My friend had wrapped those up with our onesie. So we were able to see the proof. :)
The Reaction
Like I said previously, my gut has told me boy all along. So I was super excited to see the boy onesie in there! I think I had convinced Shawn that it would be a boy too, so he was just as excited. Em on the other hand, had a little bit of disappointment. She's been hoping for a baby sister all along. Although I know she will love having a baby brother!
I can't stress enough that all of our family would have been excited no matter which onesie was in the box. But my parents were thrilled to see the boy onesie. After 3 granddaughters, they were excited to find out they were having their first grandson. I think my mom was especially excited. I think even more so because she knew I really wanted a boy. Shawn's stepdad was also excited to hear it was a boy. Shawn's mom was a little bit disappointed. After having 2 sons, 2 nephews, and 2 grandsons, she has loved having a granddaughter. I think she was hoping for another granddaughter.
Shortly after opening the package Shawn and I started making phone calls and texting the rest of our friends and family. I had a list of people that had requested an immediate text. I think all of my friends were really happy for me as most of them knew I had been thinking/wanting a boy really badly. Also, the rest of our family was excited too. I had to joke with my brother that I was glad at least one of us could produce a boy. He would have loved to have had a boy. Now he will have a nephew, the next best thing. I think our family just figured we were due for a boy since it had been 13 years since the last boy in our family. All of Shawn's family and friends were just as excited.
On A Side Note
And for those of you that were wondering what our other name was. Here's a picture of the onesie we didn't open (I had taken pictures of both of them before giving them to by friend to wrap). If this baby had been a girl, her name would have been Caroline Marie (and who knows, maybe we'll still have a baby Caroline one day - several years from now. :) )
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