DIY Virtual Gender Reveal

Secret’s out y’all! We are having a BOY!

Holy crappppp 😮. Deep down I knew it was a boy because this pregnancy has been so different from my first. But, seeing the words BOY in that email still put me into shock. I am just so thankful and blessed to bring another human into this world, and to give Hadleigh another playmate. And we are THRILLED that it is a little boy!

Now, these are weird times we are living in with the pandemic happening across the world. I feel for those who have had to cancel gender reveal parties, baby showers and other fun activities. But luckily, we already knew we would be doing a virtual gender reveal since we live in a different state than most friends and family.

We threw together a pretty last minute gender reveal video and photo shoot. If you find yourself stuck on how to reveal your baby’s gender to friends and family during this quarantine, then keep reading to find out our very simple and very diy virtual gender reveal.

Related post: Tips for surviving the first trimester

How we found out the gender

Originally we wanted to do the Panorama test through my OB office, but decided this time we didn’t want to do any genetic testing. During our first pregnancy we had a terrible experience with genetic testing that unnecessarily scared us and ended with me being induced. You can read more about that here.

To avoid unnecessary stress, we opted out of genetic testing and decided to do the at home Sneak Peek test. The sneak peak test is also a way cheaper option than doing the blood test through your OB. And if you’re too impatient (like me) to wait until your 20 week anatomy scan, you can do the sneak peek test as early as 8 weeks! The company claims to be 99% accurate, plus reviews were good so we decided to go ahead and do it.

There are also some areas that have Sneak Peek locations where you can physically go get lab work done. You can also schedule extra ultrasounds if you want to see baby a couple extra times.

It took about a full week to get results, including having the test shipped to our house, sent back to the lab and the results emailed to us. 

Our DIY gender reveal

After reading the email together, Brendan and I quickly ran through some ideas of how we would do a gender reveal for friends and family. We already knew it would be virtual, so we wanted to record a video of Hadleigh (our 2 year old) doing something cute.

Here is what we did:

• We purchased both pink and blue balloons
• We took a teaser family photo with both color balloons on the bed
• Took photo with just the blue balloons to post on social media (taking photos with toddlers can be difficult – read this post for some tips for taking photos with kids).
• For video – we put blue balloons in a box
• We closed the box with tape and hung it upside down from our deck (since we didn’t have helium)
• We attached a piece of string for Hadleigh to pull open the box

You can see the video here:

After recording, we set up a video chat with friends and family (you can do this with zoom or Facebook Messenger), and showed the video on my computer so we could see their reactions. It was a lot of fun!

More gender reveal ideas

Other ideas you could use as a virtual gender reveal:

• bake a cupcake/cake with the gender color and record little ones eating it (or yourself if you’re a first time mom)
• order confetti popper and record yourselves popping it
• fill balloon with the colored confetti and pop it

While this can be a sad time to be pregnant since we can’t celebrate with friends and family, we can still share in the joy virtually! I am so thankful that social media and the internet are around during times like these!

We are so excited to welcome our baby BOY this September.

Related post: Tips for staying healthy while pregnant

Nursery inspo: 

This can be a scary time to be pregnant, but it doesn’t have to be. Subscribe to the blog for more tips, ideas and comfort while being pregnant during the COVID-19 pandemic.