Gender Reveal?
pithymeg
member
Hello!
So we get to find out the gender of our baby in one week!! 
I have decided for a few reasons that I want to know, but I haven't decided if I want everyone else to know (besides my husband).
While knowing will help us focus on a name and take away that awkward feeling of rearranging sentences to avoid calling my baby "it," I don't really want people to shower me with pink and blue things. My nursery/shower theme (Forest Animals), should help prevent that to a point, but others have said that if people know the gender they're less likely to get you the practical things on your registry and more likely to go for the cute gender specific clothes instead.
However, I don't know how good I will be at keeping it a secret or that I won't give it away on my registry anyway.
I've been through a TON of Gender reveals on pinterest and the general web, but many of them only work if you can get together with people, which is a problem since we live half a country away from most of our family and friends right now.
I did come up with one idea though: Scratch Cards.
There is a site (I believe on etsy) that makes scratch cards for showers. They're supposed to be used as a game for the shower, but I was thinking that INSTEAD, I could request they make several scratch off points, kind of like a lotto game, and most of them will just say "It's a" and one will say "It's a girl" or "It's a boy" depending on the gender.
I love this idea and the suspense that would come with all the scratching, but I don't know when to do it.
Should I send them out with the Shower Invites? Letting people know before the shower.
Should I save them for the shower, introducing it like a game when it is really the gender reveal?
OR
Should I hold off entirely and just surprise everyone on Baby's birthday?
What are your thoughts?
Re: Gender Reveal?
As just a fun thing to, doing at the shower would be fun. I would get into the spirit of it - no question. And I DO enjoy finding out the sex of friends babies.
But.... just be careful of your expectations on this. I'm sure your immediate family and perhaps your close friends are really excited to find out what you're having. But at the same time (as I've seen a lot on this forum and other forums) - a lot of people really don't care that much about the sex.
Just in reading your post, you're placing a LOT on this idea of the 'suspense', and how only you and your DH will know, etc. Even if others are excited to find out, no one else is going to be quite as invested as you are.
That's why I say be careful w/ your expectations. And why I feel doing it at the shower is the best place. It's a fun activity to do and an already baby centered event. You don't need to draw it out past that.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Yeah, the only reason I brought the gift thing up was cause I was on another forum on here about whether or not to reveal the baby's gender, and a lot of people seemed really concerned about it like it was "definitely" going to happen that if you say boy or girl all they're thinking is "pink or blue." Plus whenever I bring it up, it seems to be the first thing people tell me -- if you don't tell us the gender, shopping is going to be hard, or if you tell people the gender, they're only going to give you clothes. So I added it into the equation.
This is our first and it's been awhile since I've been shopping for a baby shower, (though I usually aim for a toy) so I'm not really sure what I should weigh in or not.
I do know that if I reveal, I want it to be fun and memorable, even if others don't really care (though that seems to be the only thing people are asking me lately).
But a friend of ours just had a little girl and they didn't tell anyone until the day, so they posted their first family pic from the hospital to Facebook and they were holding a hand written sign that said "It's a girl!" And my husband thought that was really cute.
People who want to buy specific clothes are going to want to know. If you have a lot of these people in your life, then perhaps it's best to not tell them until the shower itself or later.
~Benjamin Franklin
DS dx with celiac disease 5/28/10
Thanks for all the advice ladies!
I think I will wait and reveal at the shower; for those close to me who care it will be exciting and for those who don't, it will just be something else to do.
Besides, I want it to be fun and memorable and sharing it with everyone at once will accomplish that.
I like the idea that someone else pointed out to that it gave them one last little pregnancy secret to share with their husband.
As far as the gifts are concerned, in the end I don't really care what or how much I get, but I've never been a fan of overly girly or overly boyish baby things in general. I was at a shower once where someone gave the MTB a blue outfit and a pink outfit and a receipt so that she could keep the right one and return the wrong one, which I thought was odd. I guess there is also this personal thing that my baby is my baby and I don't care which gender they end up being, so I don't want others to put too much stock into it either.
Keeping it a secret will be difficult but probably worth it. There are lots of close family and friends who are dying to know and ask me regularly when my appointment is.
It won't be exciting. It's interesting and fun, but it's not like they'll be scratching a lottery ticket. As a pp said, keep you expectations low.
Don't do it based on gifts. A gift is a gift, and deciding on telling people or keeping quiet based on the gift giving....is just greedy.
This.
I don't want to sound like a spoil sport, but no one really cares as much about the baby's sex as much as you and your family will care. Everyone will ooh and ahh - "oh a girl!" or "oh a boy!', but seriously, you'll get the same reaction to both. Your idea is cute, but I don't think it should be a motivation for guiding people on the types of gifts you will get. I had a moderately sized shower (about 20 people) and I got a mix of practical things from my registry and clothes and blankets that people just wanted to buy for DS. Even the clothes/blankets that I may not have picked out myself ended up being so helpful to have in the end. In fact, some of the best things I got from people were things I did not register for but instead were things other moms had found really useful.
Scratch offs are super cute, but I wanted to get somewhat of a reaction from my friends and family that I knew I wouldn't be able to see reactions for. So, My husband and I made a video and posted it to facebook so our friends could comment. We got a little crazy.
We did find out and we did tell.
After I knew, I wanted to wait to tell everyone until the Baby was born, but my husband couldn't help himself, so before he could go blab, he gave me an hour to make a Gender Reveal video. I used a Dumbo clip and put it on Youtube.
I'm super happy with my decision. In the end, as you all said, it was just a personal decision anyway. I am happy knowing and this way I get to tell people over and over and over again
They may not be super excited, but I'm excited about sharing the news. In the end telling them -- even when I was planning the scratch off's ect.-- was really more about my excitement about sharing the news than me thinking everyone "cared so much" about what I was having. Certain people, like my mom and mil, cared about as much as I did.
Really I don't care about the gift portion. I mean we're not big on super sporty stuff either, but baby shower gift giving is like anything else. I only brought it up earlier because everyone kept telling me to be concerned about it.
My friend wanted to do a Name reveal at my shower, but that I think I will wait on. People are way more opinionated about names than they are gender.