Because DH is a videographer he really wants to do our social media announcement as a video. We have been trying to come up with ideas for months but it's so hard to come up with something not cliché... so I kind of gave up and decided not to worry if it's original.
What do you guys think of this idea - we would do it shortly before Christmas, the video pans over a decorated mantle with stockings hanging from it, first one for DH, one for me, then one for the cat (cause we're THOSE kind of people), then a tiny one with TBA on it. Over that is text saying " It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags..." and then finally it pans to DH and I, and there's my belly with a tag or text or something and a bow that says "Do not open until May 2018".
So yeah nothing original there but at least it's a combo of many unoriginal things? Is it way too cheesy??
Cute! Instead of "TBA" have you considered just baby ____(your last name)? Makes it seem a bit more personal/human. But just my opinion Sounds like a great idea!
@thunderberry, I love it. I do agree "baby xyz" would be better then TBA. And if you use the wording about it not having tags, I wouldn't put a tag over your belly. I think the bow is cute. And it can be sex specific or just red/green if you're keeping that a secret.
@thunderberry a girl from my last group did this whole baking montage video with her partner and ended with text saying baking until April 2016. It was super cute, even if the bun in the oven thing is cliché. I think cliché is adorable if it works for the couple, and anyone who would judge something like that doesn’t have an opinion that matters.
@babys_2018@suchaglencoco That's a good point, that would be nicer. But part of my problem is I still don't know what last name the baby is going to have!! I have been kind of agonizing about it because I don't really like hyphenated names, but also don't really want to be cut out of my baby's name and think it's kinda sexist that that's the default. I don't want to cut out DH either. I actually have been meaning to ask if other people are dealing with this issue. If we've settled it by the time we do the video I'll do that.
@thunderberry I think most all announcements are cheesy but they're meant to be! Do something that represents your and your H's personalities and/or interests. I think the Christmas idea is cute!
We announced to most people in person but just announced to Fbook on Thanksgiving by saying We are thankful for adding a fourth traveler to our group and posting this pic. We were in Seattle for Thanksgiving. Also, baby's room will be travel theme.
@ivyvines6 I had a friend who did that too! They dressed up very 50s style which made it even cuter
@thunderberry I feel you on the name struggle!! We had that issue too. I didn’t like hyphenated (our last names were too long), I didn’t like the sexism of excluding my name etc.. I like the new trend of family’s making a new last name and everyone changing, but my hubby wasn’t into that. He preferred I just give baby my name. It’s a hard decision! I would have done mine as middle and his as last, but decided last min I would change mine so we all had the same last name. Stereotypes be damned... feminism is about doing whatever you feel is right for you! Hope you find a solution that works for you.
@thunderberry and @holli0801 I considered not taking my Husband's last name but always knew our kids would have his so I also gave in and took his name because I didn't want to be different than my kids, but many kids have different names than their parents these days for many different reasons. I had an identity crisis during the process though lol
Me and SO are not married, and not sure if we ever will end up tying the knot. We are good with where we are at. DS has SO's last name and I'm okay with it. DS has one of my family members name as his middle name and we are also planning the same with this one.
@thunderberry on the name thing I find it absurd that our system is set up the way it is with last names. I think Hispanic culture has the advantage in this arena with hyphenated names being the norm so a child’s last name represents both of their parents. J has his father’s last name, but I’m still going back and forth between whether to hyphen mine or not. I’m concerned about having an identity crisis by changing part of my identity. I wasn’t prepared for that aspect after being with DH for over five years and dreaming of solidifying our relationship as permanent to our families and friends, but.... it’s my name...
I hyphenated my kids' last name. Neither DH nor I changed our last name legally. I use three hyphenated last name as the name that shows up on my email. DH never set that up and it annoys me because people assume I changed my name and he didn't.
I'm glad I have the link to the kids because the total different last name would have been confusing. It's also kind of a pain for everyone to have different last names though. I fully expect my kids to change their last names as adults. Also, sometimes they are alphabetized based on the first part, sometimes based on the last part. Sometimes only one part of the name makes it in. At work, people assume my last name is my married name. It sort of bothers me ghar is either of our parents are listed on something it seems like the connection between them and is is stronger than the one between us.
I still can't imagine changing my name and I'm glad I didn't. On one hand, I wish we'd both legally hyphenated. On the other, glad I don't have to deal with it. So even after all this time, I still don't have a solution to this.
I wanted to chime in with the name discussion because I'm a little different. I didn't see taking DH's last name as a loss in my identity because as America is a patriarchal society anyway, my maiden name was my father's name and DH got his from his father and so on. I definitely wanted us to have the same name and saw it more as two becomes one. I did want to preserve my maiden name, though because I was close to my father who is deceased and I'm a female only child and my mother is remarried. I'm not a fan of hyphenated names just because of length so I chose to add my maiden name as a second middle name. It's a nice secret I have because I don't have to put it down if I don't want to. This reasoning is also why I've though about using the name as a first name for a child.
We announced this weekend to family. MH and I took my mom, sister, and niece of for lunch. We waited until the dessert came and I handed her a gift bag and said it was a thank you for helping out with the wedding this summer. When she opened it, it was a picture frame that said Nana (which is what we call grandmother's on my moms side) and the picture part I wrote please hold this spot until June 2018
(with a 5/29 due date, I didn't want anyone getting their hopes up and asking 1000 times have you had the baby yet when clearly ill still be pregnant, or telling me to go have sex or some other idea towards the end of May, so we just told everyone the baby is due in June and when they asked what date in June I told them we're keeping that private so hopefully we don't get all that advice on how to make baby come when I'm only 8 months pregnant like they tend to do too all my cousins.)
My mom got really excited and when my sister saw it, she started crying and was also excited. My niece barely looked up from her tablet to tell me I should name the baby Lucy or Lou? I'm not sure why lol.
We went and told my brother and then told my niece to tell my father when he got home from work.
That night we picked Mil who traveled to see us for Thanksgiving. We gave her a gift that had a Buffalo Bills bib and lovey in it. She just kept asking us this what I think over and over again. Which I found really annoying after we answered the first time. This may be because I'm extremely irritable right now for some reason or it's just annoying to be asked the same question after it was answered.
I had my parents tell the rest of the family at Thanksgiving which everyone was excited about. I don't have a picture because well, I didn't think of it.
@jhysmath that all sounds so nice! I'm glad everyone was excited. Good call telling them June with a 5/29 due date. It is horribly annoying when you get the added pressure from everyone at that stage.
@jhysmath I'm 5/29 too and anticipating a June arrival too. We have been telling people May...secretly I'm hoping I go early even though I'm a teacher and if I make it a few more days it will be the end of the year. My husbands godson was born June 4 and we told the parents our baby could very well share a birthday with him!
Is your husband from Buffalo? I saw the Bills bib and assumed he was. We are from Pittsburgh, but my husband is a die hard Bills fan. We have season tickets and go to all the home games, not as many this year now that I'm pregnant. We plan on splitting our baby in Bills/Steelers gear!
Yes, mh is from the Buffalo area, we live in New England where I'm from and he hates it because everyone is a patriots fan. Friday we drive out 11 hours to see the bills vs patriots game. He goes once a year and gets box seats, this will be my first year going. When we move back to the area in 4 years, I'm going to assume he will have season tickets, though I'm kind of scared to find out how much season box tickets are going to cost him.
I too am a teacher, and I'm thinking of asking our superintendent if I can start maternity leave the week before I'm due seeing how we are allowed to use 6 weeks of sick time to get paid and we'll only have 2 weeks left after my due date and June is crazy and hot and I don't think I'm going to want to be there when I'm huge.
I’m May 30th due date and told my kids the baby is coming in May or June. With my daughter I was right on time so I assumed with my son I would be on time or early but then ended up being a week late, which felt more like a month because I thought I would be early. This time I am telling myself the baby isn’t coming until June 15th so I will for sure be “early” this time.
@jhysmath@mmb4532 My DH is from northern PA, about an hour and a half south of Buffalo, and he’s a huge Bills fan. I’ve always kinda loosely liked the Bucs, being from Florida, but we always never really followed football in my house. He’s so obsessed with the Bills that I actually incorporated something about them into my wedding vows He’s not been enjoying this season to say the least...
@ivyvines6 My husband isn't happy with this season either...lol. But we continue to watch the games, continue to go...he's a die hard fan to say the least. He's committed.
@jhysmath We will be at that game too. We don't have box seats, but sit in the lower bowl on the visiting team side. My husbands had season tickets for 13 years, so even after the baby comes, I would never ask him to give them up. It's the only thing he does for himself. I'm gonna try to make it up until my due date. We can take our sick days during maternity leave so we get paid, so I think I'm gonna take some time off at the beginning of the year too.
@ivyvines6 My husband isn't happy with this season either...lol. But we continue to watch the games, continue to go...he's a die hard fan to say the least. He's committed.
@jhysmath We will be at that game too. We don't have box seats, but sit in the lower bowl on the visiting team side. My husbands had season tickets for 13 years, so even after the baby comes, I would never ask him to give them up. It's the only thing he does for himself. I'm gonna try to make it up until my due date. We can take our sick days during maternity leave so we get paid, so I think I'm gonna take some time off at the beginning of the year too.
+1 for a husband who is a Bills fan. DH has never had much faith in them season to season, but is a dedicated fan none the less. We have the game on in the background right now as we do stuff around the house.
We have the game on. MH has a head set that he talks to his mom and brother during the game. Sometimes the yelling gets to be a little much, but I sit and watch. Our house in NY is about an hour and a half from Buffalo on the PA border. It's odd for me to see so many Bills fans seeing how I have always lived in patriots territory.
@ivyvines6 looks similar to my view..minus the cutie on his lap until next season! my husband wears head to toe Bills gear on Sundays. He's got the crazy pants, shirt, jacket, hat. So far, so good for this game...although I've heard all week "Bills are gonna lose this weekend" I took a nap the entire second half!
@mmb4532 mine look like he had a heart attack! I'm hoping they do just as well next week while we're there, but seeing the patriots kill the dolphins today doesn't make anything look promising. But hey free food and drinks in the box seats, granted I won't be able to partake in all the free alcohol.
We told our immediate families over Thanksgiving what we are having. DH's side was hardcore team boy because he is the only boy and they want him to carry on the name. So when DH's family came over they kept pushing us to tell them so DH was sitting on the couch with DD, SIL, and FIL and his sister kept saying I know its a boy I just know it. I chimed in while I was cooking and said is that because you want it to be a boy and she was like yea my brother needs a son. I guess DH made a noise or something because she started shouting that HE is having a boy not WE but HE so DH was like woah woah woah I never said that but since you are so excited we are having another girl. Immediately SIL was like ohhh (very soft disappointed tone) your having another girl yay. FIL was just quiet because apparently its a disappointment we are having girls. So that annoyed me but was kind of expected since I knew they were pushing so hard for us to have a boy. A few hours later my family came over and we told them after dinner. My mom was for a boy because she spends wayyyyyy to much money on DD and said if I have another girl she would have to do the same. We had DD attempt to open a gift bag but she wasnt having it she just wanted to go play. So DH and I had a long dramatic pause where I thought my mom would pass out from me taking so long. I then pulled out a onsie that said little sister and my sister laughed because my mom just sat there shocked. She was made for like 10 minutes then jumped on the bandwagon because she had no choice lol. I am just relieved that now I get to stop hearing how this baby is a boy and people are so excited for the boy. Of course the names starting flying around on what to name her.
@knw007 congrats on having a girl! I'm sorry your family showed you their disappointment. It's hard to understand how they could be disappointed in someone so innocent.
@heelsidehero yea it is. DH tried to explain to his family he doesnt care about carrying on the name prior to us even thinking about trying again. After DD was about 6 months his sister kept trying to talk to him about making sure he had a boy to carry on the name. I really dont understand the obsession with needing a son to carry on the name. I am sorry but its a name our girls will still be blood related to "the name" regardless of if they marry and change their name or not.
@knw007 My MIL is team boy soooo much too. She's never directly admitted it, but she refers to the baby as her "grandson". She says it's a Freudian slip because she only has boys, but I think she wants the relive the glory days with her sons. She is way over the top with my husband and his brother. Hangs on them in public and tries to hold their hands. It's toooo much. She even suggested I name my two boys after her sons, so I could have my own set of boys just like hers. She also turned her nose up at every girl name that I have suggested. It's her first grand baby, so now I'm secretly hoping for a girl.
@mmb4532 I know what you mean when our families started being hardcore boy I started wanting it to be a girl even more (guess it was just my hormones) but it got tense anytime I was around either side because of that. That would annoy the crap out of me " your own set just like hers." No thank you. I am sorry your MIL is being like that.
Lots of interesting perspectives on the last name issue! I'm glad I'm not the only person wrestling with it. I may still start a thread on the subject sometime if I ever feel not lazy.
@holli0801 The new combo last name idea is really cute, I think it's neat when people do that. Although one downside is it seems then like you're not really connected with either extended family anymore. Well, I guess that could be an upside or a downside depending There were no combos of our names that sounded less than terrible anyway. Totally agree that at the end of the day people need to do what's right with them, I just hate that the default always seems to go one way.
@ivyvines6 I love the Hispanic way! I wish it was the default everywhere. When people try to argue that hyphenating just makes it too complicated for your kids to figure out what to call their own kids, I like to point out that this has been done without much trouble for generations.
@nanifrog I'm starting to swing back to thinking of hyphenating after all, even if it makes the name kind of long. I've run it by some friends who insist it doesn't sound bad. And it's a good point that the kid can just change it around later if they don't like it.
@charlestonchew I've heard that argument before about how our names come from our father's anyway so how does it make a difference. That makes total sense if that's impacted how you feel about your own name, but in my case while my name may have come from my father originally, I've really felt like I've made it my own! I've always identified strongly with the name, not so much because I connect more with my father's family but just because I've had nicknames associated with it, been called by my last name by lots of people, and just generally felt like it's... me. And since names have been patriarchal basically since the dawn of time, if that will ever change it would have to start somewhere.
Is it weird that we haven't announced yet and I'll be 20 weeks on Monday? My husband said he thinks it's time to tell people. Gulp. I promised we would announce on Monday after our anatomy scan. I took this picture today...
@justsuzie it's not weird at all. Some people wait until the end, or the birth! We delayed telling people too and are still "announcing it". Most of our friends and family know but not in the social media world. I love your announcement! Super cute! I think it's a great idea to announce and celebrate your news after the anatomy scan
Re: How Will you or how did you announce??
Sounds like a great idea!
We announced to most people in person but just announced to Fbook on Thanksgiving by saying We are thankful for adding a fourth traveler to our group and posting this pic. We were in Seattle for Thanksgiving. Also, baby's room will be travel theme.
@thunderberry I feel you on the name struggle!! We had that issue too. I didn’t like hyphenated (our last names were too long), I didn’t like the sexism of excluding my name etc.. I like the new trend of family’s making a new last name and everyone changing, but my hubby wasn’t into that. He preferred I just give baby my name. It’s a hard decision! I would have done mine as middle and his as last, but decided last min I would change mine so we all had the same last name. Stereotypes be damned... feminism is about doing whatever you feel is right for you! Hope you find a solution that works for you.
I'm glad I have the link to the kids because the total different last name would have been confusing. It's also kind of a pain for everyone to have different last names though. I fully expect my kids to change their last names as adults. Also, sometimes they are alphabetized based on the first part, sometimes based on the last part. Sometimes only one part of the name makes it in. At work, people assume my last name is my married name. It sort of bothers me ghar is either of our parents are listed on something it seems like the connection between them and is is stronger than the one between us.
I still can't imagine changing my name and I'm glad I didn't. On one hand, I wish we'd both legally hyphenated. On the other, glad I don't have to deal with it. So even after all this time, I still don't have a solution to this.
My mom got really excited and when my sister saw it, she started crying and was also excited. My niece barely looked up from her tablet to tell me I should name the baby Lucy or Lou? I'm not sure why lol.
We went and told my brother and then told my niece to tell my father when he got home from work.
That night we picked Mil who traveled to see us for Thanksgiving. We gave her a gift that had a Buffalo Bills bib and lovey in it. She just kept asking us this what I think over and over again. Which I found really annoying after we answered the first time. This may be because I'm extremely irritable right now for some reason or it's just annoying to be asked the same question after it was answered.
I had my parents tell the rest of the family at Thanksgiving which everyone was excited about. I don't have a picture because well, I didn't think of it.
Is your husband from Buffalo? I saw the Bills bib and assumed he was. We are from Pittsburgh, but my husband is a die hard Bills fan. We have season tickets and go to all the home games, not as many this year now that I'm pregnant. We plan on splitting our baby in Bills/Steelers gear!
I too am a teacher, and I'm thinking of asking our superintendent if I can start maternity leave the week before I'm due seeing how we are allowed to use 6 weeks of sick time to get paid and we'll only have 2 weeks left after my due date and June is crazy and hot and I don't think I'm going to want to be there when I'm huge.
@jhysmath We will be at that game too. We don't have box seats, but sit in the lower bowl on the visiting team side. My husbands had season tickets for 13 years, so even after the baby comes, I would never ask him to give them up. It's the only thing he does for himself. I'm gonna try to make it up until my due date. We can take our sick days during maternity leave so we get paid, so I think I'm gonna take some time off at the beginning of the year too.
My current view
Lots of interesting perspectives on the last name issue! I'm glad I'm not the only person wrestling with it. I may still start a thread on the subject sometime if I ever feel not lazy.
@holli0801 The new combo last name idea is really cute, I think it's neat when people do that. Although one downside is it seems then like you're not really connected with either extended family anymore. Well, I guess that could be an upside or a downside depending
There were no combos of our names that sounded less than terrible anyway. Totally agree that at the end of the day people need to do what's right with them, I just hate that the default always seems to go one way.
@ivyvines6 I love the Hispanic way! I wish it was the default everywhere. When people try to argue that hyphenating just makes it too complicated for your kids to figure out what to call their own kids, I like to point out that this has been done without much trouble for generations.
@nanifrog I'm starting to swing back to thinking of hyphenating after all, even if it makes the name kind of long. I've run it by some friends who insist it doesn't sound bad. And it's a good point that the kid can just change it around later if they don't like it.
@charlestonchew I've heard that argument before about how our names come from our father's anyway so how does it make a difference. That makes total sense if that's impacted how you feel about your own name, but in my case while my name may have come from my father originally, I've really felt like I've made it my own! I've always identified strongly with the name, not so much because I connect more with my father's family but just because I've had nicknames associated with it, been called by my last name by lots of people, and just generally felt like it's... me. And since names have been patriarchal basically since the dawn of time, if that will ever change it would have to start somewhere.
I love your announcement! Super cute! I think it's a great idea to announce and celebrate your news after the anatomy scan