Baby #2 Gender Reveal.... It's a...?!

For baby #2, we were originally on the fence on if we were going to do anything or not for the gender reveal. After a little thought, we decided to have one for few reasons:

1.) Our families live far away so this was an opportunity to keep them connected and feel like they were a part of our journey too!

2.) In case this was our last baby, we wanted to make the most of it.

3.) It is a fun way to incorporate our daughter.

4.) It gave us fun photos and a video that both siblings could enjoy in the years ahead.

In hindsight, we are SO glad we did this! It was definitely worth the little planning that went into it, and we'll have a keepsake for years to come!

Being very last minute these days and having 0 to no energy living in a constant state of 1st trimester exhaustion combined with chasing a wild toddler around, I knew this would have to be low-key and require minimal planning. I resorted to trusty Amazon to send my supplies in 2 days!

First thing I ordered were these super fun and colorful 12" Gender Reveal Confetti Cannons. They come in a package with 2 Pink & 2 Blue cannons. We found out the gender a day before we took the photos, but if we could do it again, we would have a friend of ours find out for us, and then give us the appropriate cannons. There is a card that says which canons are which (the confetti color corresponds to either a small #1 or #2 on the cannons so a friend could hand us the right ones without us knowing which number meant what).

Next we ordered both pink and blue balloons. I wish I would have found these earlier as they are a great deal! Check out this set of 60 12-inch balloons (on Amazon) which includes 20 confetti balloons!

If you prefer more color and pattern variety or want to make a balloon arch or have leftover balloons to spare for future birthdays, you can also buy this 60 12-inch Blue Balloons Variety Pack and 60 12-inch Pink Balloons Variety Pack.

Next I made a cute and simple saying on our letterboard sign. I also came up with 2 sayings after the gender reveal to quickly change the letter board to (depending on if it would be a boy or girl). I had the letters ready to go and knew the spacing (I tried it out ahead of time since I knew us last-minute people would be fighting to capture the good light before sunset).

The below Rustic Wooden Letterboard Sign (on Amazon) is such a great size and I love the look! Wish I would have seen this option before I bought my plain white version. If you like options, you can also check out these new Double-Sided Letter Board Signs (on Amazon) which give you a grey felt side and a black felt side!

The night before I rummaged through our closets to try and find coordinating outfits. First challenge is that when you're 3 months pregnant with your 2nd baby, your midsection hasn't formed a cute baby bump yet and is still in the in-between frumpy stage of looking like I consumed one too many Thanksgiving dinners. So finding clothes in my closet that actually fit proved to be a challenging one, let alone outfits that coordinated with one another. After trying on one-too-many outfits and getting annoyed that my last-minute self didn't think ahead to find coordinating outfits, I remembered my stretchy, tried-and-true peach dress (which has been a staple at many favorite moments in my life). Thankfully it zipped (almost all the way!) and even more thankfully, I found my go-to jean jacket to hide the unzipped section... #momsecrets

So after some creative juices started flowing at 12:30am, I was able to come up with an outfit combination for myself, hubs, and daughter in coral/peach, white, and blue to match the balloons. #yayforthesmallwins

The next day I used this gem of an invention, the Electric Air Balloon Pump (on Amazon)

where I had the balloons blown up in no time. This has been worth its weight as I plan on using this for all the birthday parties and festivities to come.

Hubby moved our kitchen table and made way for the memory to be made. When hubs came home from work, we were dressed and ready to go! Here is a picture of the setup with our daughter looking oh so happy, having no clue that baby #2 would soon rock her only child status... Check out these "Oh Baby" Balloons (on Amazon) which come in gold, silver, and rose gold. They are perfect for a gender reveal party or baby shower! I had actually saved these from one of Everley's baby showers.

We had a small amount of light left by the time hubs came home, but we made it work! Thank you to my neighbor and amazing friend Melodie who came over last minute to take a few photos while the confetti was bursting in the air since I didn't want to rely on my timer/burst mode to capture this shot... We are so grateful for you! If we had planned more than 2 days in advance, I would have invited some of our friends to stop by and had some light appetizers out, but 2 days before meant keeping it simple!

Here was our daughter's guess... and probably what she was actually hoping for...

And here are some of the photos! We had to take a few before shots with our letter board sign and the blue and peach balloons!

Before the big reveal... We had to of course include Miya (our fur baby) since she will be promoted to even bigger sister status! We didn't make her stay around for the confetti though since we knew the loud noise would scare her.

Here we are before the big reveal... Hopefully the cannons work... and hopefully they gave us the right color!

And for the reveal... It's a.....

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Thanks again to one of my favorites for capturing the live confetti shots for us (and to your adorable kiddos who made it even more fun!) Whoever thought making snow angels was fun hasn't tried making confetti angels!

Of course I had to capture some cute shots of E with all the confetti and balloons! She's finally gotten over her fear of balloons too - hooray!

This is what happens when your mom is a photographer... you can't just stop with one photo...

She has a long way to go to know she can't step on baby brother... The way she manhandles her dolls, she will definitely need a lot of practice before baby boy makes his debut!

Everley loves giving kisses and hugs, and when we asked her to give her baby brother hugs and kisses... she proceeded to kiss and hug the sign... (#heartsmiling)

Just a few more of Daddy and daughter!

Of course I needed in on that cheesin' action!

And it wouldn't be a pregnancy without at least 1 baby bump picture. This is officially our 1st baby bump pic we've taken for baby #2, taken around 12 weeks. My goal for this pregnancy is a photo every trimester so I'm 1/3 of the way there!

Cheers to mini frumpy bumps and almost making it to 2nd trimester!! If that doesn't put a cheesy smile on my face, I don't know what would!

What a day!! Cuddles for Dad... and that's a wrap!

To see the live footage (iPhone quality, brace yourself) of our confetti cannon gender reveal... Here it is!

Thanks for reading and sharing in our joy!!