How We Told Our Family We Were Pregnant

Neal's Family

We were going to middle TN for the weekend to celebrate Christmas with Neal’s family, so we knew we wanted to tell his parents, sister and extended family in person.  We had only found out a few days prior to Christmas and were simply delighted we’d be able to tell his family in person.

Neal’s original idea, bless his heart, was to just give his parents the test wrapped up.  That was until I was like umm eww and he realized oh yea, that’s not a good idea.  So instead, I compiled a picture of the test, me holding the test, and the M&M’s I used to tell Neal we were pregnant - shown below. I also boxed up some of the M&M’s for them.

His mother seemed a little tense about work the next morning and other things happening when we arrived, so we decided to hold off telling them on December 23rd when we got there.  Instead, we waited until Christmas Eve afternoon to tell them.  We said we really wanted to give them a gift early and couldn't wait!  His parents were both so excited for us!  His mother teared up a little and said “It’s a good thing you didn't tell me before work, or I would not have gone in today!”  When Neal’s sister arrived later that evening, his mom asked her if she and her fiancé wanted to see the Christmas present she got to open from us.  Lyndsey caught on quick and said “I knew it!”

The next day, we celebrated Christmas with Neal’s mom’s side of the family.  We were having lunch and sitting at a table with his Uncle Jeff and Grandfather when we decided to tell them the news! They were very excited and so sweet! After all the kids open their presents, his Grandfather stood up to give out the last of the gifts from him, and when he handed us our present he said something along the lines of “To the mommy and daddy to be”, but he was so quiet, the family didn't hear, so Neal stood up afterwards and said he had an announcement and let the family know we were expecting!  Everyone was so very happy and supportive!

My Mother and Her Husband

My mother and her husband live in Massachusetts, my father and his girlfriend live in East TN, and my brother and wife were traveling on their honeymoon in Canada (brr that time of year, but they enjoyed it!). So we told each of them via a special surprise gift and a Skype call.

We had told my parents to wait to open their Christmas presents until we could Skype with them so we could “open together”.  It worked out perfectly!

While talking to mom & Joe, we told them to save the baby announcement gift for last so we could enjoy all the other presents with them before.  It was so fantastic to see how excited they both were when they opened a box with the same picture and the M&M’s we had given to Neal’s family!  My mom actually jumped up and said “OH my gosh, HOORAY!”  And then she proceeded to ask if she could tell my brother and step-brother!  I told her not yet, that I was going to Skype with my brother and would let my step-brother know once we were further along. 

My Brother & His Wife

My mom did ask my brother if he had Skyped with me yet a few days later.  He had not, but caught on quickly since we hardly ever Skype unless we have something cool to show each other which doesn't happen that often.  When we finally did Skype with him, he said, “Severine and I guessed that’s what you wanted to tell us!” He was really excited as well!

My Dad and His Girlfriend (yes he should put a ring on it already...I hope you and Kim are reading this Dad!)

Lastly, we told Dad and Kim.  My father’s birthday is a few days after Christmas, so we used our Skype call with him as an excuse to have us watch him open his birthday present from us, which was a few SCUBA things and one of my favorite books he’d read to me as a child “Morris Goes to School” by B Wiseman.

Dad and Kim sat opening presents and finally they got to the book.  He opened it up and said, “Oh, Morris the Moose and his gumdrops!” in his best Morris voice.  Seriously, my dad rocks at this, I should have recorded the Skype call.  And then he said, “That’s so sweet of you.” Neal and I, stunned at how ignorant my dad was, told him to open the book, and so he did.  He started reading the note, but literally did not catch on until he got to the words “…to your first grand child...” And then his eye’s welled with small tears and he and Kim were so overjoyed! 

I took these pictures of him in his rocker with the book when I went to East TN about a month ago...seriously, my dad is adorable :)

Dads reaction was the most wonderful thing, but we also got him the most unique gift to tell because I’d been thinking about how I wanted to do that for years!

Some of my closest friends

• Emily - well she found out before Neal, if you read the "How I Told My Husband We Were Pregnant" post!
• Natalie - I wasn't planning on telling Natalie until late January as she had just had an amazing proposal only 2 days after we had found out we were pregnant!  Neal and I had wanted to attend, but a craft fair Lively Happenings was in was rescheduled to that day and it's a looooonnnggg drive when I knew we weren't spending the holidays in East TN.  She was super excited about her engagement, as was I, and her and her fiance took to choosing dates quickly.  She was texting me on my way to Neal's family's house when she said, "Okay it's in August". I knew Natalie wanted me to be a part of her day, so I messaged her fiance telling him I didn't want to tell her b/c this was her moment, and he said no way, I have to tell her b/c they are picking dates quick.  So I ended up calling her and she was so shocked and graciously happy.  Natalie and Chase have quite a few weddings/bridal showers/bachelorette and bachelore parties to work around, so their weeks were limited, but they did end up not going with August, phew! My doctor did tell me 6 hours at full term was a no go when traveling.
• Brittany DC - She was in Disney world and talking about cute gifts and I said, "Oh I picked up a cute one" and sent her a picture of a reindeer onesie sized 3 months and said "It's the perfect size for our newest addition!" She was floored!
• Hope and Dane - sadly Dane was on a boy trip, but I still got to tell Hope over coffee and Skype. Getting Starbucks "together" is one of my favorite things to do.  Hope and I will each get our coffees, her in Knoxville and me in Evansville, and we will call for chats.  Sometimes we Skype, most of the time it's just a phone call, but I told her I wanted to Skype!  So we were chatting away and Hope kept wondering why Neal was on this call, and I said, oh so we got a cool Christmas present, want to see?! And I held up the same reindeer onesie!!!  It was SO exciting for us all!
• Lars and Danielle - The Larsons were coming into town for a wedding Christmas Eve.  She was about 20 or so weeks pregnant with their little girl and cute as a stinking button!  We really wanted to tell them and had them over at our house before going to dinner and I said, oh I need you guys to come back tomorrow before the wedding if you can take some pictures for us, it's really random, but we'd like them holding these signs.  And I held up the signs we used to take our pregnancy announcement photo that said "Guard Dog Duty Starts August 2014" and "You mean I'm no longer the baby?" both of them were SO excited and Dani teared up a little and said "I knew it!"
• Bob & Natasha - I couldn't wait to tell them!  These are our friends we went to Cancun with last year and they have the cutest children ever!  We were all college friends and have stayed really close since. We were on our way to Neal's parents house for Christmas and I begged him to let me tell Bob and Natasha and he finally agreed.  I sent Natasha the picture from the 6ish week picture Neal took of me seen in this post.
• Brittany - She and her family were driving through Evansville so they stopped to have lunch with us at Panera when we got to talking about us starting a family and I said oh let me show you a picture, and I pulled out my phone to show her the same 6ish week one I had sent Natasha.  It was only a few weeks later she messaged me to tell me she too just found out she is pregnant!
• Marlee, Kellie and Lauren all got phone calls!  With Marlee and Kellie we were talking about our favorite Christmas presents and I had said, oh well this year Neal and I found out we are having a baby, so that's probably my best present :)  They were both super thrilled for us, Kellie cried!  With Lauren I had pretty much convinced her we were still trying to conceive.  We literally talked about it for 30 minutes and I just felt so terrible for lying, but I was trying not to tell people until we were more in the clear, but I caved and sent her the same picture I had sent to Bob and Natasha!  She called me back and said "Are you kidding me, you little liar!"  She's great :)
• Jeremy - This is one of Neal's best friends and shortly after we found out we were pregnant, I had picked a crib I wanted.  I couldn't find it anywhere and knew it was custom made.  I sent the picture to Neal's phone as asked if it could be made.  So he showed it to Jeremy and said, "So you think you can help me make this?" Jeremy had some sort of reply along he lines of "For you or someone else?" although it was much more clever and sarcastic than that!  We'll miss Jeremy living here in Evansville!  Oh and we have decided on another crib, I'll be posting nursery inspiration soon!
• Many other family and friends received the postcard we printed shown in the post "Our Biggest Announcement...A Baby Bratton!"

What great ways have you heard to tell close family big news like this?