The Big Reveal

The time was here. November 26th, 2013. 71 days after finding out we are having a baby. 71 days of hiding my hunger, my non-drinking, my ultrasound pics. 71 freaking days.

The Gatewood's arrived on Monday around 2pm. We invited my parents over for dinner on Tuesday night. We used the excuse that the Gatewood's wanted to have them over to thank them for hosting Thanksgiving in 2 days. Here was the plan:

Kyle made a video of our NYC pics on his Mac. He put it to music and at the very end, he slid in a video of Dr. Butler doing the doppler on my stomach at 12 weeks. I wanted to show the video practically the moment my parents walked in but Kyle told me to be patient. Yeah, 71 days of patience was wearing off. We opened a bottle of wine and I waited. Eventually we sat down to dinner and now I was back into hiding mode. I even poured a little wine out in the bathroom sink. Once dinner was over, Kyle casually mentioned that we should watch the video he made. As far as I could tell, no one had a clue what was about to happen...

My parents sat on the couch, Kyle's parents sat in our large recliner. Kyle discreetly put the iPad on record and started the video.

You can hear my mom yell, " I knew it!" I asked her if she knew and she said that she had been suspicious for a few weeks. There were a few things that tipped her off but she didn't want to say anything because she didn't want to ruin any surprise that I had planned. I can't thank her enough for that! I had a very specific plan on how to tell the parents and I would have been so sad if it was blown before my plan fell apart.

It was such a huge relief to finally tell our parents. I almost felt lighter and refreshed afterwards. Now we had so much to talk about!

Up next...telling the rest of the family at Thanksgiving on Thursday.

We weren't really sure how we wanted to tell and we threw out a few ideas but it seemed like showing the video to a large group of people would be difficult so I decided to let my dad announce it during the prayer before the meal. This would be the only time that everyone was quiet and paying attention.

I wish I had video of my dad doing the prayer and choking up almost immediately. No one but my mom, Kyle and myself knew what was going on. As soon as he got out the big part "thank you for Baby Gatewood that is coming in May" the room went crazy. My aunt was crying and ran to me. I really have no idea what else was going on in that moment! I finally made it over to my brother and his family and got plenty of hugs and the sweetest part of all, my 4 yr old niece pulled my shirt up and put her hand on my belly.

Now it was time to celebrate, talk about all the things that had been going on, and EAT!