~*Announcing your Pregnancy*~

MsBeachNJ

A space to share how you're telling/how you told your partner, family, and/or social media! 

Are you making a big public announcement? Waiting till a gender reveal? Waiting till baby arrives? Share your plans! 

(obvi NOT my pic just a funny one I found online!)

 

etnyah

“3 pumps daddy” 

My H was away on a trip when I found out, so I made him a card with a positive test taped to it and the text “not a Covid test”. He thought it was cute.

I don’t know how we’ll tell anyone else. My brother and a bunch of internet friends/my previous BMB group know, but no one else. Thinking of starting to tell people after the 10 week US if everything looks good.

My family is in Norway so I’ll have to tell them over video chat which is kind of a bummer. Last time I got pregnant right before going home on vacation, so I was able to tell them in person.

returning_bump_member

Not telling family (via phone or in-person) until minimum 13 weeks, for now. It's complicated with the toxic positivity of some and being a trigger for others. 

I don't know if we'll do a social media announcement. I think I will feel comfortable after vitality day but not sure. Fingers crossed we even make it to 24 weeks.

acleverusername

LOL @ 3 pumps daddy. Bahaha. That's pretty racy. 

I'll be using variations of this card from Etsy to tell my FIL and BIL/SIL: https://www.etsy.com/listing/845405497/dog-aunt-uncle-pregnancy-announcement. They all met our cute corgi dog last Christmas, so this seems appropriate. However, I reserve the right to change my mind about my BIL/SIL since they're going through IVF and had 1 failed transfer so far. They're going in for #2 in Sep, and I'm hoping it's successful so we can tell them in this fun way. Otherwise, we'll just call them and tell them gently/kindly over the phone. 

For my own family, I don't talk to my parents, so they won't know. But for my sister, she's coming to visit me in mid-October, so I'm hoping I'm showing a bit by then, and will wear one of those t-shirts with baby coming out of the abdomen t-shirts to the airport. One of these. 

Given that I posted freely on SM about our infertility struggles, I will not be announcing on SM until after birth, since it's been extremely triggering to see friends' announcements over the past couple of years, and I don't want to subject any of my friends who might be going through the same. I've actively Unfollowed friends who post only baby pics in order to manage my mental health. 

ladyofarlington

Oh my! That announcement though! 🤣🤣

We will most likely tell family around DD’s birthday in early October and wait until after the anatomy scan to post on SM. Thinking early December

TW: (which was my DD for the baby I lost in April). End TW

and also near our anniversary.

I’m thinking about potentially making a “baby” stocking to hang over the fireplace in addition to our family stockings. Maybe add a pic of the ultrasound to it and take a picture to share on SM?

Many years ago, not long after DH and I were married, I made the mistake of using generic holiday cards and one of them had stockings hanging in the picture, one of which was labeled “Junior” and my grandma thought that was my way of announcing a pregnancy. It was no where on our radar at the time and I didn’t even realize the faux pas until she asked if we had any news to tell her 🤣🤣 but we all had a good laugh about it afterwards. Unfortunately, said grandma now suffers from dementia and will likely not remember but the rest of the family will! 

nonlinear_function

I told my mom the day I found out, by giving her this card. She didn't get it, lol.

I'm thinking of sharing something like this when the time comes, of course with my own kids. I keep my kids' faces off of social media, so I will have to pose it carefully. We'll see if they will cooperate, haha. 


TW, loss: I have a close friend who lost her pregnancy at 12 weeks this past spring. The day she was going to tell me about the pregnancy, she instead shared the loss. Her body is still getting back to be able to try again, so I am sensitive to her pain. I shared with her that we were going to start trying this summer, in case there was any way I could lessen the pain. She seemed to be expecting it, and happy for me, but I can only imagine it isn't easy. I hope she gets a BFP before I share my news, both for her and selfishly. 

nsk489

@etnyah love the "not a covid test" 🤣🤣 also totally understand how much of a bummer it is to not be able to tell your family in person! I didn't see any of my family in person during my entire 1st pregnancy (bc it was 2020/early 2021 and covid kept us from traveling to see each other). It stunk having to tell them all the news over the phone.

For my May 21 baby, I didn't do anything cutesy to tell my husband or our families. Pretty sure I came out of the bathroom holding a pregnancy test and whispering to my husband "are you in a meeting?" bc he was WFH. We told immediate family around 8 weeks and announced to the rest of the world after 1st trimester. My son was due end of May and we announced at Thanksgiving, I wore a shirt that said "little turkey in the oven" and hubby was holding a onesie that said "farm help on the way"

This time, I had my husband run into Walmart for a pregnancy test at some point on a 5 hour car ride in the middle of Pennsylvania lol so again no cute way of telling him. I told my family (parents, siblings, and grandparents) during a family photoshoot on vacation. It was earlier than I'd like to tell them but we were all together (and won't be again until maybe Christmas of next year?). And the reaction pics are pretty epic. I think I'll wait until late Oct to announce to the rest of the world, thinking of getting a shirt like this and doing a Halloween announcement 

iiirene

I cannot keep my pregnancy to myself. I just simply don’t have that capacity to hold in that sort of excitement. I made my son a shirt that says “B is for Big Brother” to tell my mom, dad, and bothers. I called my best friend the morning I took the test. I will likely tell my grandma in person after our first ultrasound. We told my husbands family over FaceTime. Will make a Halloween/fall themed social media announcement in early October but I haven’t made a decision on what it will look like but Pinterest has about a million ideas.   

MsBeachNJ

Love hearing everyone's plans! @nonlinear_function I am thinking of doing a similar "Big Sister Training" pic with my girls, but won't announce on social media for some time.

We have our first appointment on Tuesday - if all goes well, we *may* tell our parents next week, I am still very cautious though because (TW: we experienced a later first tri loss in between my 2 girls so I don't want to get my Mom all excited before I know all is well) I haven't thought about how to tell them yet! This will be my parents 5th grandchild and my inlaws 4th, so we can't really do any of that "promoted to Grandma" stuff that is so cute.  

allykat92

We haven't fully decided on exactly how yet , but we decided to wsit until we are out of the first trimester. It will be the first grandbaby for my husband's family! 

I really want to tell my dad and brother's family at dinner. I thought it would be cute to ask my nieces if they want to see a photo of our new family member (we adopt a lot of pets!) And then show them the ultrasound instead of an animal! For his family we might do an announcement on a Thanksgiving phone call 🤔

All of these ideas from you all are soooo cute!!

etnyah

@nsk489 this was the first time I did anything cutesy with my H! The past three times I waved a pee stick in his face asking if he could also see the second line and then we argued because I could always see it and he couldn’t, lol.

*tw* since two out of my four pregnancies were CPs, it wasn’t really a celebratory announcement to him either, more like a “okay we’ll see if this works out” kind of thing. It was still hard not to tell him when we talked while he was gone though! He had a hunch, we’ve been trying for a while after all. Every month it didn’t work out I was pretty quick to tell him, so he was expecting me to say I got my period again. 

MsBeachNJ

We told my parents this weekend! I picked up a cute picture frame from TJ Maxx that said "Love at First Sight" and put my sonogram picture in it, gave it to my parents as a gift before we went out to dinner with them on Saturday - they were surprised and excited. Apparently my eldest sister has been telling my entire family she thinks I'm pregnant and my mom was vehemently denying it (annoying, but its who my sister is, very involved in other ppls business) so when I told my mom she was surprised that my sister was right. Still have to figure out how/when to tell the rest of my family (we'll tell my in-laws the same way, likely tomorrow).

I have a BIG extended family & everyone makes a big deal about pregnancy announcements, I saw them all yesterday but until after my 12 week scan I don't want to tell my 2 daughters about the baby - so I couldn't announce to my entire extended family of 12 nieces/nephews and aunts/uncles, siblings, etc. without having the kids know. I will next see the adults in my family on Oct. 1 but kids won't be there and I want my girls to be the ones to share the news, then I'll see them all on 10/22 - at which point I feel like when I walk in it will be BLATANTLY obvious that I'm pregnant (my boobs are already huge and my belly doesn't fit in regular pants!) but I suppose I have to do my best in wearing a big coat or something until my girls can reveal it (its a first birthday so I don't want to steal the bday child's thunder by announcing early on, I will wait until the cake is done). I will likely have my girls wear Big Sister shirts or something. 

Anyone else share the news lately? How did you do it? Reactions? 

etnyah

We told my family over FaceTime by putting my son in a shirt that said Big Brother. My mom cried she was so happy. Then this weekend my ILs came over, we put the ultrasound pics on the fridge door and waited for them to notice. They didn’t! So we had to show them, lol. They were so happy! Baby is due the day after FIL’s birthday so he’s hoping for a birthday buddy. 

sambo0423

This is something I always thought about doing in a meaningful way, but it turns out I don't have the patience 😝

My husband works out of town, leaving Sunday night and coming home Friday night. It occurred to me to test on a Monday evening and there's no way I could wait until Friday for an in person announcement. I called him and he didn't answer, but he text me to say he was cutting his hair. I said ohh, facetime so I can see it. Then I told him and watched his face light up but he also went silent and like of laughed and rubbed his head a lot. We were trying but the reality of a BFP hits different.  Honestly I'm glad we had some space to process it. We each called our parents the next day to share the news, and I told him he should tell his best friend if he wanted to talk through it with him. I think I was a little over 5 weeks, so pretty early, but I had a loss with a different partner ten years ago and the support of my family and best friends was crucial to getting through it and avoiding triggers. I'm lucky that they're a hedge of protection in that way. I don't put much on SM, but I might share something much farther down the line- I think this is really cute to incorporate the pets.https://www.etsy.com/listing/549670033/dog-baby-announcement-dog-pregnancy

iiirene

scaredunprepared

@iiirene that's adorable!  What a great idea.

acleverusername

@iiirene so clever! Especially with the new film out now! (I so love the original!)

I will recount my sister’s reaction here since I had forgotten we have a specific thread for announcements! It was PRICELESS. She went from having a very quizzical look and asking “are you videoing me?” to shock, surprise, awe when she realized I was wildly pointing to my stomach. Lol. So worth it. She was stumped after that… didn’t even think to ask about due date or anything else. Hahaha. Just perfect.

For the record, this is what I was wearing: 

v_flowers

@iiirene Brilliant announcement and so fun! 

@acleverusername Is there anything better than witnessing genuine surprise and joy?! Such a great way to share the news with your sister! 

iiirene

@acleverusername I love that! So sweet that you got her reaction on video. 

nonlinear_function

The professor has her hands full with this important class. 
"Are you getting this??"
"I don't know my ABCs yet, how can I take notes???" 

trubaby411

We just told my mom in person after we got back from our NT scan. She came over so we could take her to the airport, and for to our house a few minutes before we got home. She asked where we had been, and I said "we had to have some pictures taken" and showed her the top print out from our US. She looked at it and said "oh", and I knew it didn't click what she was looking at so I spread out the other photos from the scan and she looked at me surprisingly and said "are you pregnant?!" She was shocked and very happy. It was cute. I wish I had thought to record it, but I just wasn't prepared. 

etnyah

Aww I love all the announcements! I didn’t really want to do a social media announcement this time, but my H really wanted to so we did. He got our son a cute t-shirt and then we posted the most recent ultrasound picture, nothing too original or exciting but I liked it. 

v_flowers

I guess this is the weekend for announcements! My pants were getting tight, so I thought it was time to spill the beans. I’ll honestly be relieved to not have to hold my stomach in around my co-workers now. 

returning_bump_member

Since our 2nd wedding anniversary is tomorrow, and it's pregnancy and infant loss awareness month, my husband wanted to announce on social media. Not sure how the post is going to go, but I made a quick graphic to add at the end. 

yelaklu13

We posted to SM with this picture at 14 weeks and told our immediate family with some lottery ticket scratch offs from Etsy where the prize was that we were expecting! Right at 12 weeks! My daughter who is 8 was last of our family to find out with a shirt that said big sister and she was so confused, said she didn’t get it and went to bed so I had to go in and spell out that I was pregnant and then she was excited. Very happy I didn’t film that, because it was a little disappointing at first n

MsBeachNJ

LOVE all of these announcements!! I haven't asked his opinion on it yet - but my husband rarely cares about these things, I'm thinking we'll take our announcement pic in front of Magic Kingdom Castle when we go in November. Close friends & Family will obvi know by then, but think it will make for cute pics!

scaredunprepared

We were going to announce tomorrow at our son's baptism/birthday party, but now I'm getting nervous.  I haven't felt movement in a long time, so of course I'm worried something is wrong.  Anatomy scan is Monday, so now I want to wait until after that.  Next time we will be around family is probably going to be Christmas, though, and I feel like that's a long time to wait.  I'm kind of upset because I was looking forward to announcing tomorrow, but I really want to wait until we know everything is ok.  Mixed feelings over here.  Seems to be the theme of this pregnancy!

acleverusername

@scaredunprepared I totally get the feeling. I probably would do the same in your case. You don’t have access to a Doppler to check HB?

etnyah

@scaredunprepared ugh I’m sorry, that’s a crap situation! Hopefully the lack of movement just means a chill baby, but the nervousness is completely understandable. I’ve never used a Doppler but agree with @acleverusername, if you don’t have one maybe ask your local fb mom group for one to borrow? I see people do that here all the time. 

scaredunprepared

@acleverusername and @etnyah no doppler, but hubby suggested I go to a third party ultrasound clinic for reassurance.  So I booked an appointment for tomorrow morning an hour before our son's baptism. 

Hopefully I get the peace of mind I need to go ahead with the announcement after that, but hubby says it's up to me if I want to announce or not.  So thankful he was able to think of a solution and that they had an appointment available!  And so thankful hubby recognized how excited I was to announce, and he realized this was really messing with my head.

etnyah

@scaredunprepared oh that’s a great idea, I didn’t realize those were open Sundays. So glad you were able to get in so quickly, hopefully everything is okay in there. Pregnancy really does mess with your head. Keep us posted!!

nsk489

@scaredunprepared glad you were able to get an appointment!!

trubaby411

@scaredunprepared I'm so glad they were able to get you in quickly! I hope all goes well tomorrow 🤞

acleverusername

@scaredunprepared please keep us posted. Hopefully you get that much needed peace of mind!

scaredunprepared

Baby looks great!!!  Phew.  Going to go ahead and announce today   thanks for all the support!!!

etnyah

@scaredunprepared the best news!! Hope today goes really well, I’m so glad you got to ease your worries!

acleverusername

@scaredunprepared how did the announcement go? 

scaredunprepared

@etnyah and @acleverusername it was a huge success.  The party was a blast, everyone had a good time.  I was disappointed my parents left early (LAME) so they missed the announcement, but everyone was very surprised.  Only one person actuality read our son's shirt without us having to basically spell it out for them, tho🤦‍♀️

ladyofarlington

We haven’t announced on SM yet (and will wait until after my anatomy scan on Thursday). We shared with my in laws by wearing these shirts when they were visiting for DD’s birthday in October. 

I also sent a few very close friends / relatives this picture via text message. 

We had grand plans of making it to a pumpkin patch for better photos, but rain did not cooperate haha.

scaredunprepared

@ladyofarlington super cute!!!  I'm sorry rain put a damper in your plans, though.

scaredunprepared

Finally made the "official" announcement.