how did you tell your family you''re expecting?

[jcrow]

i''d love to hear how you told your family that you''re expecting a baby.

this past weekend we told his parents the news. our first idea was to keep saying the word expecting in normal conversation as many times as we could and see if they''d figure it out. however, we ended up just telling them over dinner in a prayer. hubby led the prayer and it was quite sweet + very memorable.

so, how did you tell your family the news?

 

[somethingshiny]

I called my mom on the phone while the stick was still in my hand. DH didn't even know yet! He was at work and I wanted to tell him in person, but I couldn't wait to share the exciting news. I had one of those digital pregnancy tests that I showed my dad (a couple days later), but he thought my MOM was pregnant! My best friend was at my house when I took the test, and I had her draw on my stomach "Baby" and an arrow in pink and blue. When DH got home at midnight, I was in bed. He saw my stomach when he got in bed. Then, because it was a fairly permanent marker, we decided to freak out his parents and tell them I got new ink (they really hate our tattoos). When I lifted my shirt, their eyes got huge and it didn't register what it said--just how big it was! So, we ended up just telling them.

I think it's funny that if you try to do it in a sneaky way, no one gets it.


btw- I don't think I knew you were expecting, Congratulations!!

 

[NovemberBride]

We had a frame engraved with the wrods "Our First Grandchild" and put the ultrasound pic in the frame. We wrapped it up and gave it to them at dinner.

 

[Sha]

Ha...it was really hard NOT to tell my mother right away, because she knew that DH and I were TTC - and kept asking, "So...has anything happened yet?"

It was really hard to keep it inside, but I didn''t want to say anything officially until after my 12 week appt - which also coincided with Mother''s Day!

On Mother''s Day, DH and I took my parents and younger brother out to lunch. I had bought a Mother''s Day card for Mommy, as usual, but this time I taped the ultrasound pic at the back of her Mother''s Day card, with a note saying, "Soon to Be Grandmother - Dec 2009!" My plan was to give her during dessert. While we were eating lunch, though, the conversation inevitably came around to babies, - and Mommy nudged us and said, "Hey, y''all hurry up and give me some grandbabies...!" I just smiled inside and didn''t say anything. When I eventually gave her the card during dessert, and she saw the ultrasound pic - she didn''t quite know what to make of it, then her face broke into a big smile as she realized what it was! She was so surprised and happy! Said it was the Best Mother''s Day she ever had!

 

[fieryred33143]

Date: 9/30/2009 10:43:38 AM
Author:jcrow
i''d love to hear how you told your family that you''re expecting a baby.

this past weekend we told his parents the news. our first idea was to keep saying the word expecting in normal conversation as many times as we could and see if they''d figure it out. however, we ended up just telling them over dinner in a prayer. hubby led the prayer and it was quite sweet + very memorable.

so, how did you tell your family the news?

Congrats again!

My mom: I called at 5:30AM in tears. She thought something was wrong. I told her I was pregnant and she laughed at me for crying, told me it was about time, and then declared its a girl. lol

His parents: We went to visit them and as we were chatting, FI said "I have some news. We''re having a baby." His mom and dad looked really confused. It was awkward. I thought they were upset. Then his dad goes "what, like a baby baby?" So we said yes and that''s when it hit them. They were so excited.

 

[MustangGal]

Congrats!

Our whole family knew we were TTC, and they live 4 hours away, so we called my mom that day and told her, and then when we called his parent''s house his little brother answered, and didn''t get it when DH called him Uncle. My MIL also didn''t believe it was real until I went to the doc to have it confirmed a few days later

. The next weekend was Father''s Day, so we waited and called my grandfather and my dad on Father''s Day.

 

[Jas12]

What a sweet way of telling your In law''s Jcrow. So you haven''t told your own parents yet? Any friends?
How did you tell your DH? I was so excited i just blurted it out, but i think for #2 i''ll do something cutesy

Our way of telling fam:
DH and i had just come home from a long honeymoon abroad when we found out. Part of that honeymoon was a european cruise that actually got cancelled the day we were to leave. As part of our compensation for the cancellation we got a huge credit toward another trip. When we arrived home we had our family over to discuss taking the free cruise all together the following year. Everyone was super excited and planning that trip at the table when i very seriously said " But, there is one big thing we need to consider...... (when i had my parent''s attention) i continued "we''ll have a 6 month old baby to tote around"! My mom was simutaneously shocked and estatic--she jumped up and down crying!! !
And we did bring our son on that euro/africa cruise when he was 6 mos old

I think for number 2 we will get one of those corny t-shirts that say "i am going to be a big brother'' and release my son into a crowded room at a family function

 

[Mara]

ha ha i love reading everyone's stories!!! jas i love the plan for #2!

we were trying to be all stealth with my Mom but it was hard because she comes over to our house a lot to pick up and drop off portia so we had to make sure to not leave ANYTHING around that might make her suspicious. i hid my vitamins, magazines, etc. we wanted to wait until we were at least 6-7 weeks. she was the first we told, we told her and my sister at dinner. they didn't even act surprised!! she was like 'well you said you wanted to this year' and i was like 'WELL it's diff when it actually happens!' i was kind of disappointed there wasn't like crazy screaming. she IS ecstatic btw...she just wasn't SURPRISED.

greg's family was MUCH more surprised...honestly i think they had given up on us. we have been together 9 years and married for 5. i think they thought granddog was as close as they were getting to a warm mammal that we bonded with.

greg told them over the phone..they are all remote so there was no really fun way to let them know in person and we are not that creative i guess hahaa. in hindsight we could have recorded a video or something and sent it.

his mom was visiting us when i was around 12 weeks and i wanted to wait til then to tell her so she'd be surprised in person, but greg couldn't wait the whole time, esp after we went to the 8 week US...he was bursting with the news. overall all the grandparents are over the moon, this is the first grandchild in both our families and they, as they say, 'have been waiting forever'. greg's parents keep telling him to treat me like a queen since i am carrying precious cargo... it cracks me up because it makes me feel just like an incubator!

 

[Hudson_Hawk]

I''m not PG yet but I already have a plan. When I was a teenager/in college, my dad used to always tell me that the best birth control was to hold an aspirin between my knees (read: keep your legs closed). So when DH and I get PG and tell dad, we plan to do it with an empty aspirin bottle.

 

[jcrow]

Jas12 - nope we haven''t told my family or any other of his family yet. and we''ve only told one couple that we know... she''s expecting as well. i think she''s 2 weeks ahead of me. i''m actually designed some cards and will be printing them to send to my immediate family and his immediate family. so that''s how we''ll tell the rest. i just really wanted to tell his parents in person, so we did.

 

[Sha]

Date: 9/30/2009 1:45:42 PM
Author: jcrow
Jas12 - nope we haven''t told my family or any other of his family yet. and we''ve only told one couple that we know... she''s expecting as well. i think she''s 2 weeks ahead of me. i''m actually designed some cards and will be printing them to send to my immediate family and his immediate family. so that''s how we''ll tell the rest. i just really wanted to tell his parents in person, so we did.

Oh, In addition to my earlier post, I had also meant to say "Congrats on the bfp, jcrow!"

 

[tlh]

Date: 9/30/2009 1:40:46 PM
Author: Hudson_Hawk
I''m not PG yet but I already have a plan. When I was a teenager/in college, my dad used to always tell me that the best birth control was to hold an aspirin between my knees (read: keep your legs closed). So when DH and I get PG and tell dad, we plan to do it with an empty aspirin bottle.

That is funny!

 

[MissChi]

First of all, congrats JCrow!!

We told my parents over the phone (because they live out of state) and my husband''s family in person the day we found out. We told the rest of our family and friends when I was about 13 weeks. We incorporated the first ultrasound picture into our XMas card. I remember how excited I was when we put them in the mail!

 

[KimberlyH]

My parents came to visit when I was 7 weeks, I wasn''t ready to tell yet but the morning sickness made it impossible to hide. We gave them each a "gift from Hawaii" and had them unwrap them at the same time. My mom''s was a bib that said "What Happens At Noni''s Stays At Noni''s" and my dad''s was a t-shirt that says "If you think I sleep a lot you should meet my Grandpa". At week 12 I called my sister and told her and then my dad sent an email to extended family and family friends w/ one of my weekly pictures (me standing sideways) next to a picture of him standing sideways that said "Grandpa Born 3/16/53 Grandchild Due 3/15/2010". He was so excited to get to send it out and spent over an hour creating it. Very, very cute of him.

 

[Porridge]

Oh I can add to this! My FSIL (FI''s sis) just announced the news in a lovely way:

She and her hubs came home for the weekend. All of us (they and FI''s family) were sitting around chatting. They let us all talk away for about 20 mins about our insignificant news...then they said "so hey mum and dad...can you come visit in March?" FI''s parents said "well, probably...why?!?" and FSIL said "to visit your first grandchild!" Nobody had a clue they were TTC. Totally unexpected, great way to break it.

 

[Burk]

For our first we had a BBQ with both our families and had gifts for my mom and MIL since it was right around Mother''s Day when we told them. Each got a piece of baby clothing that said something about loving grandma and then a framed u/s pic. My mom already knew (told her the day after I got a BFP) but it was a cute way for everyone else to find out.

Congrats again JCrow!

 

[NYCsparkle]

with my ds we found out on thanksgiving and decided to wait until christmas to tell everyone. my sil was 8 1/2 months preggo and we told her and bil. for christmas they gave my inlaws all gifts from the baby and the last one was a frame with a really cute poem basically saying can''t wait to meet you in july. my mil couldn''t read the poem because she was already crying getting gifts from her soon to be grandchild. so my fil read it outloud and when he got to the part about see you in july he reread it and said to sil...you made a mistake....she laughed and said its not from our baby.....dead silence and then everyone started looking around the room (dh has 4 sibs) then dh said oh thats from ours...screaming and crying all over the room and the best part was it is on video. we did the same at my parents with the same effect..lol

last year we had just taken christmas pics 2 days before thanksgiving of ds so we brought the pics to dinner. everyone was oohing and ahhing over them deciding which one they liked best. then dh said this one is my favorite...and he pulled out the sonogram pic....classic dead silence and then lots of congrats

 

[AmberWaves]

We didn''t tell any family until we had our 10 week appointment. I''m not sure how Paul told his mom, since we tried calling her for three days and her phone was off the hook or uncharged (of all times, right?), so we called the gossip in the family- his sister. We told her she was going to be an aunt and that we want all her baby clothes.

We talked due dates and how I was feeling and that was it.

With my mom, she had come over because we were taking a trip with her and my aunt. When she came in I asked her if she wanted to see something cool. She said sure, and I walked over to the fridge, grabbed the 10w ultrasound picture and gave it to her. She kind of questioned it and asked, "IS THIS YOURS??" We said yes, and she nearly exploded. We did the same when my aunt showed up, too.

With my dad (parents are divorced) I got into his car and shoved the ultrasound picture at him. "Guess who isn''t just getting fatter!", I said. He was shocked, but gave me a big hug, and was hurt we didn''t tell him sooner. I explained we didn''t tell ANYONE sooner, and he was like, "But I''m your DAD!"

 

[jcrow]

ooh! i absolutely love reading all of these neat ways you told your families!

NYCsparkle- so, i''m curious... what sort of gifts did your parents receive from their future grandchildren??

 

[musey]

Date: 9/30/2009 11:12:50 AM
Author: NovemberBride
We had a frame engraved with the wrods 'Our First Grandchild' and put the ultrasound pic in the frame. We wrapped it up and gave it to them at dinner.

Ohhh the thought of this just melts my heart