Thursday, January 26, 2012

Easter Gender Announcement

I have my 13 week ultrasound next week. (The image below is NOT either of my kiddos, just a cool 13 week image from science photo library)  I will officially be done with the first trimester (which is when I tend to feel sick-ish), I will get to see an image of a real baby instead of the small speck I saw at the 7 week ultra sound (it is AMAZING how much growth happens early on), and I hear from a few friends that they actually found out the gender of their baby at 13 weeks.  
Its a long shot, most of the early gender discoveries are of boys, which are anatomically more obvious, but it has me thinking about how I want to find out and how I want to share that news. One of the things that has been SO different with this pregnancy is the easy access to amazing creative ideas.  When I was pregnant with Lydia, I had internet and some access to google images (it was often blocked at work) but had not yet discovered blogging or the many creative blogs that are a constant source of inspiration for me now.  Now with the advent of Pinterest, I don't even have to read all the blogs, I can just search for Pin-worthy ideas like this gender reveal from Kelly Anderson Photography.
I think that by 20 weeks I will have an idea of what I want to do for a gender reveal, wether that is a clever way to tell family or a clever way for me to find out.  For now I will just share how we revealed Lydia's gender.  First of all, when I was pregnant with Lydia I swore up and down that I wasn't going to find outthe gender.  I made my midwife write it in BIG letters on my chart so there wouldn't be any mix ups.  We told our families that we weren't going to find out.  And then a few weeks before my 20 week ultrasound, I started fantasizing about finding out and orchestrating some kind of a fun reveal.   
I realized that I was leaving town for a week in London immediately after my 20 week appointment and that we would return Easter weekend. Visions of Easter egg gender announcements danced in my head.  Because of our trip, I knew I wouldn't have much time to craft after I found out the gender, so here is what I did.
I bought a pack of those little chenille Easter chicks at a hobby store.  I think they came twelve to a pack and I can't remember if I used them all or what I did with the extras.
I bought some golden plastic Easter eggs. I wanted the idea of Easter grass, but something a little more natural and bird's nest like.  I bought something mossy instead of paper or plastic grass.  I went ahead and assembled my project prior to my doctor's appointment, when I still didn't know what we were having.  I put some thick craft glue in the bottom of the bottom half of the egg.  I shoved in a wad of mossy grass to fill the bottom half of the egg.  I put a little glue on the chick's feet and glued it to the mossy grass. I checked to be sure the top of the egg would still fit and I even think I used the top to help hold the chick in place overnight while the glue set.  At this point I had a unisex chick in a golden egg.  Prior to my ultrasound, I cut out pink banners and blue banners from scrapbook paper.  I went ahead and hand lettered little signs that said "It's a girl" and "It's a boy".  As soon as I got the word that Lydia was a girl, I threw away the boy stuff and glued one pink banner and a few pink flowers to each chick.  I placed each egg in a gift bag and set them aside to casually hand out to family on Easter.  I was even able to put one egg in the mail to my parents in Idaho before we left for London, so that they could join in on the fun!  Here is the only picture that I have of the gender announcement Easter Egg.

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