The Best Gender Reveal Party Ever

Last Friday was the most exciting day for us! Here are the details...

Well, I suppose I should start by telling you about last Thursday, when we went in for our 20-week ultrasound. We were so excited to see how our little babe had grown, and it was such a relief to hear that it was the right size and has all the right parts in all the right places! We had a great tech and right away she asked if we wanted to know what we were having. We told her we'd like her to put it in an envelope. We felt totally confident that she would be able to tell what our baby was and wouldn't ruin the surprise for us! I had to switch positions a few times so she could get a good look, but finally the baby cooperated. I'll admit it was kind of hard when we had to turn away from the screen because it meant that for the first time, someone else would know the sex of our child--but we wouldn't! Eee!

Immediately after, we went to babyGap. We picked out one girl outfit and one boy outfit and asked the cashier to purchase one of them for us. Besides the fact that she had never heard of this before, told me I didn't even look pregnant, couldn't believe we wanted her to know before we did, and then proceeded to open the envelope while we were standing right in front of her (stressful!!!)--it went OK. ;)

We left the store while she took care of business, and Eric picked up the gift bag after we had eaten dinner. I didn't want to go back in there in case she had left the un-purchased outfit in plain sight! I didn't even want to pick up the bag because I thought I'd be able to tell by how much it weighed, considering the boy outfit was a little thicker! :)

The answer is in this bag!

(I knew I wanted to open it at our party, but Eric hid it from me just in case.)

The Big Day

I think it was killing our co-workers to not know yet more than it was us. For me, I knew that finding out was going to make it so real that this would be the last day that our little family felt like it was just the two of us. Even though we were undoubtedly already a family of three, I wanted to embrace the last moments of that with Eric. I also was really trying to prepare myself mentally for either answer. After work, we went home to get ready!

We decorated and finished prepping the food. People started showing up, and the excitement was building! I think I ate five bites before giving up...I was too anxious and just wanted to visit with all our guests! :) I got to catch up with some friends we don't see as often, including a couple who had driven three hours to be there! We introduced our family to our friends and our friends to our family, and got the computer all set up for our six Skypers (and my parents got my brother on the phone).

Finally, it was time for the big reveal! I'm so glad we have this video to capture our emotions and special moment!

is baby williams a boy or a girl? from kelsey williams on Vimeo.

Because we were standing and everyone else was sitting, Eric and I had a split second where we were the only two in the room who knew what we were having. It was awesome! And then we were immediately able to share the news with our family and friends! I loved it!

(Also, I had been saying I was 100% sure it's a girl for a few weeks...I promise I didn't peek! I was just certain!)

The guests hung around for a while, and we opened more gifts and started dreaming about our little girl. I was so excited and still could not believe it! We stayed up pretty late (for us) with our parents, who spent the night, and Eric and I talked about how we were feeling after finding out that we will have a daughter. I will never forget that night!

Then, because Monday was Halloween, I painted this pumpkin over the weekend and we brought it in to announce the news to our co-workers!

It's still setting in that we know what we're having (even though I was so sure it was a girl!), and that we're going to have a daughter. I forget and still call her it most of the time...

I can only imagine how Eric will be wrapped around her little finger! He has already said that he now has two princesses. He is going to be so good with her!

It's fun to take a look back at which gender-predicting superstitions were right for us. Remember how you all voted?