Posts Tagged ‘announcement’
Telling everyone vs telling no-one
Ben and I decided back when we were seven weeks pregnant that we wanted to tell close friends and family the good news. The announcement was met with a lot of happiness and on the whole people were happy with the announcement. There were those though that thought it was a bad idea for us to be telling people so soon and their main argument for this was “So much can go wrong in the first twelve weeks. What happens if you lose the baby?” At the time we both thought we were unstoppable, that those sorts of things happened to other people not to us, but it did happen to us.
I’m glad we told everyone because it meant we got to share our joy, however short-lived, with the important people in our lives. We got to talk freely about the pregnancy and baby allowing ourselves to feel some joy and not be ashamed of the circumstances. It was an incredibly joyful time and I think not only brought Ben and I together but also brought our families a little closer together. I know that I definitely feel a lot closer to Ben’s family since the announcement.
Announcing the pregnancy before the week twelve safety zone had passed also meant that we had a lot of support when things did go wrong. My friends understood why I didn’t want to go to Perth Cup with them on New Year’s Day. They understood that it was hard for a few days there to not do anything but watch DVD’s in the dark confines of the house. It also allowed them to help me through this situation because they understood what was going on, nothing was kept in the dark so there was no guessing.
All in all I think we did the right thing in announcing the pregnancy when we did and next time I intend to do the same thing.
Image by Joyseph (Flickr)
After telling Mum I had to wait a bit before I could get the gumption back up to tell Dad. I would have liked to drive down and do it in person but it wasn’t to be.
I wasn’t too worried about it, really. I thought the news would be well received and was delighted with his reply to, “you’re going to be a grandad again… by me!” I imagined him dancing a little jig in the kitchen and telling all the lads down the club about the news.
Dad’s wife was thrilled to bits and we had a chat about all the important things (weeks, moving in, boy/girl, etc) – things that I was only just learning about how important they are now!
It’s great fun telling people the news, I’m really surprised how much excitement it generates, in me and others!
I’m still going through the list of family members to tell them our news. I finally have (what I think is) a valid reason for calling and now chatting away comes so easily. It’s actually getting me more and more excited about the baby, as if that was possible.
Maybe this little life is the replacement switch I needed to connect up the Family thing!
Could the BOOM have been the when the switch was thrown?
Image by Quasimodo (Flickr).
After telling Emma’s parents (and surviving) it was time to go over to my mum’s place to repeat the process. On the way down the freeway we were happily recounting the first attempt. I quietly decided to show her how it’s done (ha)!
Mum was a bit flighty, it’s been more than a month since I saw her last – 7 weeks, in fact. As Announcement Time approached I started to notice all kinds of things that needed my immediate attention. Not least of all the legion of photos of old girlfriends that adorned the dinning room dresser!
Mum did enjoy flashing my old dorky photos from when I was a kid. First bike, first girlfriend, first social ball etc Emma was having a great time. Of course.
So, before we got sucked in to a photo album that I forgot (to set fire to) I jumped in with, “The reason we haven’t seen you since Bali is because we’ve been making a baby!”
Smooth.
Also, not technically accurate; At first it was because of the ginormous head wound Emma was sporting and THEN it was because of the baby…. But that’s another story…
After the double take, it was all giggles and congratulations. I’m a star, Emma is great; let’s go have a cuppa tea.
Woohoo!
Image by g-mikee (flickr).
Well yesterday started as quite a nerve-racking day. We had decided that it was time to tell our parents that we were having a baby. I was a little excited, nervous, scared, uncertain and happy. I had wanted to tell them almost since I had found out because I felt bad that people not as important as them knew I was pregnant. They are very important to me and it only felt right for them to know.
We decided to go to my parents first. Luckily not only were mum and dad home but they were sitting down together for lunch, the grankids were playing downstairs and my sister Mary was out of the house. We sat and chatted about everyday stuff for a few minutes before finally I stammered “We came over to tell you that we are having a baby”.
Mums eyes seriousy rolled back into her head and then back into place again. Dad made a little grunt noise to acknowledge the initial shock of the announcement, then the questions started.
Mum and Dad were worried about what we were going to do and how we felt about the situation. They were really just looking out for both Ben and I and making sure we knew what we had gotten ourselves into. Although I still think the question of “Are you going to stay with her then?” directed to Ben by Mum was a bit redundant seeing as he was sitting right there telling them along with me. I knew what she meant by it though. She was just looking out for me.
Eventually Mum and Dad were excited for us, at least I think they were. Mum was a little put out that my sister’s knew about the baby before she did. Mum loves teling the family about new babies, I think she felt a little cheated out of it.
Eventually we left Mum and Dad’s and headed to Ben’s mum’s place…but I’ll leave Ben to tell you about that.
