announcing the news

erinpatrick · January 2014

I'm 7 weeks this coming Thursday. I've only told my best friend, my office mate (who just had a miscarriage otherwise we would have been twinsies on due date month), someone that I used to babysit for (she's an adult with kids that I watched) so we aren't super close and a couple of pregnant colleagues that do not live in my state or know anyone else that I know.

As of this coming Saturday, my fiancé and I are announcing the news to my immediate family (mom, dad and brother) but we decided that we would hold off on announcing it to his parents (he's 25 and I'm 33) because it might be a little more shocking. To give a little insight, my parents LOVE my fiance and we've been together since August 2012 -- this pregnancy was a surprise on the day that we found out (January 8) but we are ecstatic for our future and are embracing the excitement that is coming!

My question is two-fold. How did you tell you parents that you were pregnant? And did you do anything special (gifts, etc) for the announcement?

Looking for ideas for Saturday!

biokitty42 · January 2014

For my first pregnancy, I was kind of elaborate. My parents had us over for stir fry one night, and I printed up real-looking custom fortunes and used tweezers to pull the original fortunes out of fortune cookies and replace them with my own. They said things like, "You will meet someone new in October," "Plan a trip to <my hometown> in October," etc. So a little bit subtle.

My dad put two and two together and started congratulating us, and so did my sister and BIL, but my poor mom was just sitting there confused! I handed her my ultrasound picture, and she started crying. It was fun.

This time, I got my BFP two days before Christmas, so I kept it to myself and just wrapped my (cleaned up) pee stick, addressed it to my DH, and snuck it under the tree. That was fun, too, because we had thought we were out this cycle. Everyone was so surprised!

Have fun with your announcement!

ETA: We didn't do gifts or anything like that.

Emmy916 · January 2014

I'm going to give our parents valentines day cards that are for a grandma and grandpa ... Then I got these cute frames from bed bath and beyond that say "coming soon..." And a spot for the ultrasound pic

erinpatrick · January 2014

@Emmy916 - what a cute idea! I guess I am having a hard time waiting to tell my mom (specifically) because I'm so excited and I know that my parents will be so happy to be grandparents (they are both in their 60's). Anyhow, you are only a week behind me and I'm once again second guessing telling before (jan 31) my 8 week/first prenatal doc appt. But I've set up the dinner and I was planning on buying my mom/dad/brother all books (grandma, grandpa and uncle) for them to open and hope they figure it out. My brother is almost 40 and single so I have NO clue how he is going to take the news.

DogfishHead · January 2014

For our first, we called our parents immediately after finding out. Nothing cute or original. Did not even think to do anything. Oops.

erinpatrick · January 2014

@dogfishhead -- simple is sweet. I guess I'm trying to make sure they get a laugh and a cry in there

Emmy916 · January 2014

erinpatrick said:
@Emmy916 - what a cute idea! I guess I am having a hard time waiting to tell my mom (specifically) because I'm so excited and I know that my parents will be so happy to be grandparents (they are both in their 60's). Anyhow, you are only a week behind me and I'm once again second guessing telling before (jan 31) my 8 week/first prenatal doc appt. But I've set up the dinner and I was planning on buying my mom/dad/brother all books (grandma, grandpa and uncle) for them to open and hope they figure it out. My brother is almost 40 and single so I have NO clue how he is going to take the news.

I totally understand. My parents are the same age so they've been waiting! I'm really dying to tell my sister who should be having her first little one any day now!!!!

I'm just being overly cautious after having a MC in September - my RE said everything looked great yesterday but also added it's still early so I will wait until he says so (his pamphlet says after 8 weeks less than 10% of miscarriages happen after this point)

dinodna3 · January 2014

We told my DH parents and grandparents last night. We got everyone around the table and told them we were going to take a picture but I was recording a video. Then my DH said "we having a baby" instead of "say cheese" it took my FIL and MIL a second to get it but then they freaked out. I'm so glad we recorded it because it was so cute to watch everyone's reactions again. For my parents, we are going to put a car seat in the back of our new truck and have my parents come out to look at the new car. And we are gonna put a onesie in the car seat saying "For use in September 2014".

trebekastan · January 2014

We purchased a countdown clock from hallmark that says "coutdown to grandbaby". My mom keeps talking about it... Only 240 days left ect.

Bonnesetter27 · January 2014

For my parents we sent them a framed picture of the u/s. For dh's parents we did the "say we're having a baby!" camera idea. This time I am dressing our older son in a t-shirt that says older brother and we are just going to wait until they notice. I would caution you that you might not want to tell a lot of people before your parents. If my parents found out everyone else knew before them they would be very hurt.

linnsey26 · January 2014

For our first, we wrapped up an ultrasound picture in a cheap frame. My mom got it immediately and started crying but my dad glanced at it and said "That isn't a very good photo. I don't even know what I'm looking at." We had to tell him.

allyall10 · January 2014

I have always wanted to wait until 12 weeks to tell anyone. However, with fertility issues and needing IVF, I feel robbed of that. I have to tell parents that I'm having the procedure (or they'd be really hurt), so they know when I will find out. I can't not tell them the second I find out. And it's never been in a fun way. I say, do whatever feels right to you. It's an amazing thing to be able to tell everyone in your special way.

kayemgi · January 2014

We are waiting until after 8 weeks, but that weekend happens to be celebrations for both my dad's birthday and my MIL's birthday, so we bought these shirts in Grandma and Grandpa to wrap up as gifts for them to open. I'm trying to figure out how I can video them opening them without them getting suspicious. I can't wait to see their faces!!

Maggie-Moo · January 2014

lstrejcek said:

We purchased a countdown clock from hallmark that says "coutdown to grandbaby". My mom keeps talking about it... Only 240 days left ect.

For DD, we got a very similar one from Hallmark, it says "countdown til I'm a Grandma." It was Easter, so we could sort of justify having gifts (we don't normally do gifts for Easter, but easier to sell than some random time). For my dad, we got a 6 month hockey jersey for his team. He was super confused and thought it was for the cat, until he saw what my mom's said!

For DH's family, we had a birthday party for his nephew, so we signed the card Aunt me, Uncle DH and baby cousin. It was awesome, and my SIL who read the card was so excited she asked if she could read it aloud while the whole family was trying to figure out what was going on.

For my m/c, we had bought DD a t-shirt that said World's Best Big Sister and had her wear it to my parents' house. They thought it was a hand-me-down fro a friend and didn't notice for half an hour-I almost lost it!

I have my u/s today, so if all goes well today, we are going to my parents afterwards and handing them an envelope with the u/s in it. Direct and to the point this time

90joelashleyhall92 · January 2014

I gave these out to my family and friends...

rdecker18 · January 2014

I am also 7 weeks pregnant! Congrats! my husband and i decided not to tell our friends and only close family first, to tell our parents we had them open a "late" Christmas Present that was a picture frame that said grandma and grandpa on it and inside where the picture goes I wrote Baby then your last name Due and then your due date! hope this helps

carringtonchase · January 2014

I got my first BFP on Sunday night (less than a week ago)... but didn't believe it. The next day I took about 5 or 6... but managed to keep the news from my DH. Apparently we conceived while traveling in Africa, so I went and bought a sofie giraffe and a pair of mini chuck taylors (that match DH's)... wrapped them up and wrote a note with the punch line that said 9 months from now, you'll be changing a lot of diapers. He flipped out (happy flipped out!). I cried. I couldn't even speak I was so happy.

We are going to Hawaii with my family in March... and I really want to hold out and tell everyone (mom, dad, grandparents, brothers) then. I dunno if i'll make it that long. We are putting together a book of A-B-Cs with pictures from our trip to Africa with all the animals as the A-B-Cs (E=elephant, F=flamingo, G=giraffe, etc)... and at the end maybe a note to my parents and grandparents saying we hope you'll read this to Baby G in September! That said... I haven't made it yet... and I'm dying to spill the beans, so that may just be an elaborate plan all for nothing

My sister in law's came up with an awesome way to tell us when she was pregnant. She had a picture of my DH in Madrid in front of the "Tio Pepe" sign... and she photoshopped it to say "Tio DH." I got it immediately and freaked out. Took him a while

rakle99 · January 2014

For DS I called my parents and asked them what they were planning on doing for my mom's bday (his DD was two days before my mom's). They told me they were going camping and I said "That's too bad, I though you'd want to come visit your new grandbaby". He ended up being born on my mom's bday.
This time I called them and told them that I wasn't going to be able to come to my grandpa's 80th bday party because I was probably going to have a newborn.
DH's parents: They had just gotten back from visiting DH's sister and the night they came back I asked them how it was seeing their first grandchild. Then I said "How would you like one closer to home?". This time, we once again got a BFP while they were visiting his sister, and when they came back, DH told them they aren't allowed to travel anymore because anytime they do I get pregnant.
This baby is due around my gpa's bday, so we are going to send him a bday card with an ultrasound picture inside that he has to wait to get his present

cholmes · January 2014

We are having a Valentine's Day Dinner with both of our families, and they'll get cards with a pic of DD holding a sign saying "This little sweetie is being promoted to Big Sister!" I can't wait!

erinpatrick · January 2014

@cholmes I LOVE the video idea. I may just do that as well!

thank you so much for the cutest idea

Good luck to you!

fruitloop151 · January 2014

my mother's birthday was in January, I told her that her gift isn't coming until February... I plan to put a bun in our oven and tell her that her gift is somewhere in our kitchen and she has to find it. I am going to take video of her reaction. She lacks common sense more often than not, so I'm hoping she figures it out when she finds it

For my husband's parents, I am going to give them a Valentine's Day card and address it to Grandma & Grandpa and write "See you in September!" at the bottom

MMason12 · January 2014

We are going to have some photos taken by a friend using pregnancy announcement photo props I design and sell at the beginning of February. After our 8 week ultrasound were going to give one to our parents framed.

BeccaOC · January 2014

I am dying to tell a few people... But I think it's still too early (7 weeks today). Had a bad ski trip with friends last weekend since I couldn't drink or go in the hottub or drink caffinated coffee, and I was kind of a bitch because I was moody about all the things I couldn't do, so they may be suspicious.

Anyways I'm excited to tell my parents this/next week. It's my Dad's birthday so I'm sending him a Grandfather card and Gradfather mug with a picture of us in our fav football team jerseys with a team onsie and wrote in the card, this off-season we'll be adding to our team!

Doing something similar for other family/parents but with valentines day cards and a bit different gifts to surprise them. So excited!

lily8543 · January 2014

You all are so creative. We announced at Christmas with a wrapped u/s pic with my first pg. This just seems so new and early I am hesitant to tell anyone but DH. I guess it doesn't seem real yet.

Woody87 · January 2014

So funny!!

LTMama · January 2014

We didn't really do anything crazy last time. Both sets of our parents are overseas, so we had to tell them via Skype, otherwise I would have wanted to do something cute like an ultrasound pic presented somehow. We waited til we heard the heartbeat via doppler at 9 weeks, then just told them. Then we called siblings and told them.

This time, I already told my mom bcs she's awesomely emotionally supportive, but we haven't told anyone else in the family yet. We'll wait again til we hear a heartbeat, then it'll be Skype again

smr08 · January 2014

Oooh! This is our first! DH's parents have 4 grandkids already (and will now have 5 within 5 years) but this will be my parents first! My parents' birthdays are a week apart, and were right after we found out. I'm super close to my mom and stepdad so there was no way I could keep it from them. I wrapped up a single present for them for their birthday and told them they had to open it together. Inside there was a onesie that said "I love lolly and pop" (what they want to be called), 2 newborn diapers, little ornaments that say Lolly & Pop, baby socks, and "happy birthday" letters written in crayon from the baby's perspective. I video taped them opening it - they were super shocked! We did the same thing for his parents and my sisters. To tell his brother & sister we are going to put our younger nephew in a shirt that says big cousin! For everyone else, we are doing customized "valentines day" cards with a little poem that says "roses are red, violets are blue, September 2014 is when our little miracle is due"

MrsLaLaBug · January 2014

my first pregnancy I waited until I was around 11-12-ish weeks, which actually happened to fall right around mother's day. We gave both my mom and my MIL framed sonogram pictures. Here they thought they were opening a random mother's day gift - we caught both reactions on video. Priceless.

colleenm18 · January 2014

I told my mom this past weekend. I had ordered my pup a shirt that said Only Child Big Sister and had her wear it over to my moms house. She was beyond excited!

trebekastan · January 2014

I just saw this on pintrest and thought it was very cute. The card reads "Dear grandmomma & granddaddy, please hold this for me incase I need it when I come visit! Knowing mom, she'll probably forget! See you in June! Love Baby Bratz"

Want a personalized experience?

announcing the news

Re: announcing the news

Choose Another Board

Search Boards