IT’S A GIRL!!! On the one hand I totally knew it (seconds after seeing the positive pregnancy test I had this overwhelming feeling out of nowhere that it was a girl) but Todd has been 100% convinced the baby is a boy so lately I’d been believing it too! We had our 21 week sonogram right before we traveled up to Pennsylvania for the holidays and did the whole “we-don’t-want-to-know-yet-please-write-it-in-a-card” thing so we could do a gender reveal at my parents house on Christmas day. We took our secret card up to a local grocery store that also sold balloons on Christmas Eve to have them fill up the appropriate color balloons (and place them in a few black trash bags for secrecy), and while everything worked out in the end, let’s just say that it was NOT the easiest thing to explain the concept of a “secret gender reveal balloon strategy” to two men in their 60’s in the middle of a produce department.
“Ok, so I need 10 blue balloons if it says boy and 10 pink balloons if it says girl…”
“So you need 20 balloons.”
“No, just 10 balloons. 10 blue if it’s a boy, 10 pink if it’s a girl—”
“Ok so 20 balloons, but how do I know what it is?”
“Just 10 balloons and I have a card that says what it is.”
“Well where’s the card?”
“I have it in my purse.”
“Well I need to see it.”
“Ok, but we don’t want to know what it says…”
(He starts to open the card right next to me)
“I’M SORRY, IS THERE ANYONE ELSE THAT CAN HELP ME?!”
It felt like I was recreating my own version of “Who’s On First” or that I was in the middle of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode and I was playing Larry David. Needless to say, when we came back in to pay for the balloons there were 20 balloons waiting for us. 10 blue and 10 pink. ER. MER. GERD. Todd communicated what we needed to them again and they went around the corner and sorted out just the color that matched the card and put them in the black garbage bags. We had my brother’s friend double check that they actually matched the card that night and she was the one that put them in a giant box for us for the reveal so everyone else could still be surprised. Thanks Jessica!!
While I enjoyed Christmas morning with my family just as much as I normally would, I did feel a little anxious to get to the reveal later in the day. Eventually we had more of our extended family drop by and finally it was showtime!! They brought out this giant gold box with a bow on top and on the count of 3, 2, 1 Todd and I ripped through the top and out sprung pink balloons!! It felt like they took forever to rise out of the box because everything went in slow motion all of the sudden and I just felt this wave of happiness (and shock!) roll over me and I just started to cry. A GIRL! Todd was so surprised that he said all he could think when the balloons came out was, “Huh, why aren’t those blue balloons dark enough?” Ha! For the rest of the night we couldn’t believe it—we were so wrong! I will say though that it’s been fun to poll people throughout the pregnancy to see what others thought it would be, and even from early on we probably had about 85% of people say “girl” so I guess we should have listened to them!
Another reason we were so surprised at the result is that we did one of those gender blood tests that you can order online and it said “boy” on that test. I had come to hear several stories of “those tests are totally not reliable” after we sent in the test so I was trying not to rely on it, but based on how surprised I was at the reveal, I guess I believed it more than I thought I did!
Jacket/ Zara (similar here), Shoes/ Public Desire, Dress/ Forever 21 (similar here), Hat/H&M
We are slowly starting to picture our life with a little Gummergirl come this May, and while I’m still dreaming of a girl version of Todd, he got all googley-eyed over pictures of me as a blondie toddler so I think we have competing images in our brains—I guess we’ll see soon enough! Now to think of some names…
xo. Laura
congratulations! Girls are the best. You should call her May of course.
Thanks! That was actually one of my baby doll names when I was little 🙂
Laura
That story about the guys in the produce department is hilarious! And Todd “Why aren’t these blue balloons dark enough?’ LOL!!
I KNEW from the moment I found out I was pregnant that it was a boy. The people making the cupcakes for our gender reveal put pink in them instead of blue, and my sister didn’t find out until she went to pick them up 1 hour before the party. They didn’t have time to remake them, so they just injected them with blue and hoped for the best. Well, when I bit into mine, I saw pink. I almost started crying because I was disappointed that my motherly instincts were so off. My husband’s cupcake showed blue, so that just added to the confusion. I had about two seconds where I was terrified we were having twins before I remembered we were there and had only heard one heartbeat. Eventually my sister explained what happened and that it was, indeed, a boy. It was confusing at the time, but it’s pretty funny now!
That’s hilarious!! I guess I knew too but then got talked out of it…should have stuck with my gut I guess!!
Laura 🙂
So happy for you! We are expecting our girl in June. We already have two boys and I figured this one was a boy too, wrong! Let us know if you have any great resources for baby names. We are stumped. Yay for girls!!
Congrats to you too! Oh man, girl names are SO hard!! I literally just look up lists of hundreds of them and say no to every one!
Laura 🙂
How exciting!! Congrats! Can’t wait to see you pull together the gummergirl’s nursery. 🙂
Thank you! I need to start on that soon I guess!
Laura 🙂
When my daughter was born she looked just like her dad (dark curly hair) but then it all fell out and now she’s a blonde mini me! So maybe you’ll get both 😉 congrats!
Best of both worlds!!
Laura 🙂
Congratulations! We are having our first child in May, too – a girl! I was secretly hoping that you would have a girl so that I could see how precious you dress her! 🙂 I love SO many names and then when it came time to name her, I was stumped. I was pulling for Elowyn, but my husband vetoed it so we went with my second favorite – Elliette 🙂
Can’t wait to see how beautiful your little one will be!
Aw, congrats!! I’m the opposite on names, I think girl names are so much harder!
Laura 🙂
That’s so great! Now you can have pink and pretty things (at least for the nursery until Bebe decides what she likes XD) congrats you too!
Congrats!
Congrats Laura! I am due a couple of weeks after you and while reading all of your pregnancy posts I’ve been nodding my head in agreement. Our experiences have been very similar, right down to the morning sickness meds! I’ve been super curious to see your gender reveal. I very much feel like I’m having a girl too, so we will see!
Congrats to you too! Glad I could be your preggo buddy!
Laura 🙂
Haha, that balloon story is too funny. Congratulations to you and your family! How exciting! 🙂
http://www.wonderlandsam.com
That’s a cute way to gender reveal. I remember back in 2014 when I was pregnant with my girl, I knew from the moment of conception she was a girl. Hubby really wanted a boy. It was our first, and really he didn’t want kids at all. Until the moment she was born…and he was absolutely in love with her. He gets googly-eyed watching her and it’s the sweetest ever. She’s definitely a 50/50 of both of us. I’m 17 weeks with #2 and have a feeling it’s a boy, and now he’s like…”really? 🙁 ” he totally wants another girl. Congratulations and best of luck with the rest of your pregnancy and labor.
Aw, so sweet! I know he will be in love at first sight too so I’m not too worried. Congrats on #2!
Laura 🙂
OMG hahahah that balloon encounter is too funny for words! I would have acted the exact same way 🙂
Yay!! Congratulations Laura!! 😀 Having a girl will go perfectly with your obsession of pale pink!
P.S. are there any pictures from the party? I always love seeing the faces of the parents when they first see the color!
Congratulations Laura! Well wishes from Malaysia – that’s the other side of the globe.
I”ve been your blog silent reader for a while and couldn’t let this one without dropping words.
My husband and I decided not to know our second baby gender until I gave birth. She’s now 5 month and all along I’ve ‘known’ indeed, it’s a SHE.
Aw, thanks Yanti! So glad to have you as a reader and congrats to you too!
Laura 🙂
Aww yay! Think of all the extra pink you get to play with – and there is already a fun amount of pink in your home now!
Congratulations!
I knew with all three of my pregnancies they were girls… I was right. Its odd how you”know.” I love picking out girl names but there are some amzibg boy names out there.
Congrats from Williamsburg, Virginia! Home to my girls, Douglas, Sage and Ava Victoria and Colonial of course!