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Due to the coronavirus, a lot of you Mummy-to-be's will sadly be finding out the gender of your baby alone at your 20 week NHS scan as they aren't currently allowing partners in with you. I know how devastated most of you would be about this as it's such a special time for you both to hear if you're having a boy or a girl. I believe every hospital has different regulations and it's at the sonographers discretion so you may get lucky, but the usual practice is that they're not allowed to write the gender down for you (just so they have no comeback if it's wrong).
Now, just because it's a rubbish situation that you have to find out alone, it doesn't mean it has to be an overall bad experience. So I've come up with a way to turn that negative into a positive. You'll find out during your scan, but that doesn't mean it has to take the excitement out of it, so put that excitement into a fun little task to tell Daddy, and any other children you may have.
I know you can't do the usual gender reveal ideas as you haven't got time to get a coloured cake make, or get coloured confetti etc.. although you could if you bought one of each colour and then had Daddy pop the correct colour at home, there's an idea?
Anyway, I'm quite creative (you'd like to think so doing my job wouldn't you?) and I don't tend to do things by halves, I like going all out when I'm doing something so I've made an amazing 'scavenger hunt' for you to do at home, so not only will it be fun, but it'll build up the suspense and make it extra exciting for you watching Daddy complete the tasks. Not only that, but it's really enjoyable for children if they got involved too, just like an Easter egg hunt!!
I've not just given you the idea, I've actually made the cards for you. I've made two files, one with the layout and order of each one, explaining to you where each one goes and what the clue is. And the other file is the printable file, which are ready sized in order. All you'll need is a printer.
I can imagine when you get home from the hospital you won't want to spend time making this, you'll be too keen to tell Daddy. So I'd advise to make this first and either A, quickly run around the house as he's getting in the car on your way to the hospital so it's waiting for him when you get home (as it starts in the hall way). Or B, tell him to wait in the car and as soon as you're home. It'd definitely be great to come home to it though. You could even tell him you didn't find out the gender as you didn't want to find out alone, making this even more of a surprise!
I've tried to make these locations pretty standard which is in every house or flat. But if they don't suit your home or if you don't want to do the full scavenger hunt, you can just print the very last card off, you'll see...
File 1: Layout & Order
And a close up to show you what it looks like. You have the info on the left which you don't print, this is just to help you.
File 2: Printables. This tells you step by step how to make them, what you'll need with instructions and they're all print ready files.
Step 1: Print your file off. You'll obviously need access to a printer with ink and paper. And you'll ether need scissors or a guillotine. If you want to make it extra fancy, either print on card or mount the paper onto card. Luckily I had pink and blue card lying around in the office but any card will do. If you want to put them in envelopes and you have some, use those too. I didn't put mine in envelopes but it's nice to put the end few in them.
Step 2: Once cut out, mount them onto the card. I just used folded sellotape.
Step 3: Once stuck on the card, then cut out the cards again leaving card around the edges.
Step 4: All done and looking pretty. That all should have taken you around 20 minutes. Now refer back to your 'order & layout' sheet so you know which order to put them in.
Step 5: Go and scatter them around the house in the designated spaces. I've taken photos of each spot with what each one says...
So after 5 minutes of him running around the house, finally, he'll think he's worked it all out..
Until... (there is a boy and a girl version attached). Notice the backward text on the second card in the envelope?
This is what it spells out in a mirror. Boy...
And girl...
How cool is this? Like I said, I'm pretty out there with my ideas and if I'm going to do something like this, I'm going to make sure it's amazing. This has 4 challenges, first a scavenger hunt, which includes a guess the blank quiz, a mirror reversal, and an acrostic (where the first letter of each sentence spells out a word) so it's all kinds of fun.
If you think it's a bit too long for you. You can just print the very last card off. You can also print it the correct way if you don't want to include a mirror.
So, not only have you now made an original crappy situation bloomin' awesome. You've made it even more memorable. What are you going to remember more? Lying on the hospital bed being told 'boy/ girl' or a crazy fun experience that you made yourself? I know which one would make the better story... also, you can't film a sonographer telling you the gender, but you can film Daddy doing this so your child can see when he/ she is older. Something else to add to his/ hers time capsule of things you had to do differently whilst pregnant due to being pregnant in the middle of COVID-19.
I did make each poem etc myself so please do give me credit if you post anything about it online! If you want to tell your friends to do it, pretty please only share this link with them to download their own version, do not share yours, thank you!!
And finally, you're probably wondering how you get hold of this? Just click here!
I can't wait to hear how it went!! Good luck and enjoy x