How We Shared The News

Another pregnancy post  :)  I hadn't started my blog during the early months of pregnancy with Emily.  This time around I really want to make sure and write everything down.  I think it will be so fun for our child to look back and hear how it all happened. . .

Just like with Emily, we knew we only wanted to tell immediate family (with the exception of a close friend or 2) before our first appointment.  Even though I know it doesn't change anything, I worried that telling all our friends and extended family so early would jinx us. 

It worked out perfectly that my parents invited us and Kevin and Julie over for dinner the weekend after we found out.  I stole an idea from my friend Steph and ordered a shirt for Em that said she was going to be a big sister.  We had a different shirt on her when we got there, but once everyone was there, we changed her into her surprise shirt.  She walked around for what seemed like forever (even though it was like 5 min.) before my mom read her shirt.  My mom had looked directly at her shirt several times and didn't say a thing, so I assumed she wasn't actually reading it.  My mom said when she was reading it, she just thought Em was wearing one of Lauren's shirts and thought it was kind of weird I had Em in a shirt that said she was a big sister.  But finally, she said something and we shared the news with everyone.  Everyone was so excited, although not surprised.  I think when your other child gets to be a certain age, everyone just starts expecting you to have another soon.  And since my family had been watching my drinking habits at the last several family dinners, I knew they were expecting it. 

The next weekend my Aunt was in town to celebrate my Grandma's birthday and since we don't see her often, we told her and my Grandma then. 

A few weeks later, after Em's b-day party, Shawn's dad babysat Em so we could go to dinner for my Dad's birthday.  We tried the shirt thing with his dad, but he never read the shirt, so we ended up just telling him.  He was very excited for us.

We told all my extended family (Aunt, Cousins, etc) while we were at dinner at my cousin's house.  I was 10 weeks.  They weren't surprised at all.  In fact, they all had their suspicions and were actually trying to coax me into telling them.  This is because we had dinner with them just a few weeks earlier and I didn't drink (apparently, I can't get away with that in my family  :) ).  I wasn't ready to tell at that point because we hadn't been to our first appt. yet.  Well, when we were at the second dinner and I turned down yet another drink, they all pretty much knew.  We were trying to think of a way to tell them and my cousin started talking about second children, so we told them then.  Only afterwards, did I find out that was their way of getting me to tell them.  :)

We had planned on telling his mom and brother the first weekend in November when we had them over for dinner, but due to some other conflicts, dinner never happened.  So unfortunately, they didn't get to find out before our first appt.  But we did share the news with them on Thanksgiving instead.  So they found out when I was 10 weeks.  His mom was very excited for us!  I think she's hoping for another girl.  She has a sister and thinks Em would love growing up with a sister. 

After our first appt, we started sharing the news with all of our close friends.  I still wasn't planning on telling work or putting it on my blog until I was 12 weeks though.  I wanted 2 appointments to hear the heartbeat and be almost out of the first trimester.  It's fun now that everyone knows!  I felt like I was keeping a huge secret from everyone, so it's almost a relief that I don't have to anymore.