Surprise! It’s a BOY!

We were already scheduled for a holiday mini session with Kaitlyn from The Big and Bright when we found out that we were pregnant so we decided to make it a pregnancy announcement family shoot instead! I got the sweetest hand embroidered “big sis” sweater for Lillian from Lettie Lovie, and it is incredible quality and I love how she has room to grow into it as well. It was the sweetest touch for our pregnancy announcement.

Finding out the Gender

We thought that we did not want to find out the gender with our first pregnancy, but we made a last minute decision to find out the gender (essentially in our 20 week ultrasound). Read more about why we changed our mind here. We were feeling very eager to find out the gender this pregnancy, I think because we were just so excited to know whether Lillian would have a little sister or little brother. Based on timing, we realized that we could find out the gender prior to the scheduled photo session, so we made a last minute decision to do a little intimate gender reveal for ourselves.

And can I just say, I am so happy that we did.

Our two pregnancies have each been so different. One required many doctor’s appointments, and another was a spontaneous and perfect surprise. One we found out that we were having a little girl in our 20 week ultrasound on Valentine’s Day, and another we had the sweetest intimate (and perfectly captured) surprise.

What we did:

I got one pink balloon and one blue balloon to bring with us to our photo shoot. I chose to get the big 18 inch round balloons since we were only getting one, and I also love the simplicity of how they look.

We took photos first before we did our surprise gender reveal, and I love that we have those photos before we knew to look back on as well.

We set Lillian up on a little bench because she is still a bit wobbly to stand holding the balloon herself. Side note: I got this cute antique bench off of Facebook Marketplace years ago, and love it so much- it felt very random to buy at the time, but I am so glad that I did!

Brian and I turned our backs while our sweet photographer, looked at the email on my phone and set up the balloon.

Brian and I stood there holding hands in excitement while we waited, and when she said “OK mom and dad” we turned around and our faces tell all of the excitement in the surprise. Whether blue or pink, we would have had the biggest smiles and tears of joy, but it was so sweet and special having the moments of anticipation before turning around.

This is your sign to have the intimate gender reveal

I am so happy that we thought to do this gender reveal at our scheduled mini session because it is so special to be able to look back at our reactions and excitement for this little baby. We captured the most genuine reaction, and it is truly the sweetest moment that we will never forget.