If you missed it, read the beginning of this story, called “Finding Out I’m Pregnant.”
How I Told My Husband He’s Going to Be a Father
After the shock wore off and I ceased gaping at the wonderful pee stick that announced the good news that I was, in fact, for the first time, pregnant, I set down the pregnancy test and skipped into the bedroom. I crawled in bed next to my husband, on HIS side, and said softly, “Honey, I’m pregnant.”
He stirred as my words sunk in. “Really?” he asked.
“Really!” I assured.
“Did you take it twice?” he murmured skeptically and not quite awake yet.
“No silly!” I said giving him a kiss. “You only have ‘1st morning urine’ once a day!”
The rest of the day went about as usual, with the exception of our complete distraction and giddiness. I remember my husband was working from home that day. I spent most of the time in the office with him just so I could be close to him. We both worked quietly, sharing a glance and a smile now and then.
Eventually, we could no longer contain our joy or our silence. We started to talk about who we would tell and when. We knew that it was very early in the pregnancy. We had heard and knew many people that chose to wait for a certain milestone before making the announcement to others. As reasonable as this sounded, we just couldn’t wait! This was our miracle from God and somehow we knew He had granted us this child for the long haul. So we decided to tell our Mothers. We planned to tell his Mother first as she lived nearby and my then tell my Mother later that week, as she was coming to visit. (Good timing, eh?) With our first announcements decided, I set to work creating unique ways of telling them.
Telling His Mom
For his Mother we really outdid ourselves. I created a flyer of sorts with the details of the baby as we knew them. It wasn’t much, as we only knew the month and year the baby was due. As I completed my project, I was fairly pleased with myself and how it turned out. I thought I was finished, but my husband had the brilliant and creative idea to make it look like a piece of junk mail. So I set about part two of my project. Setting the dimensions of the envelope in Microsoft Publisher, I wrote out my mother-in-law’s address, with the words, “Urgent Notice” next to her name. I also wrote a fake return address in the top left corner. To make it look more “official”, I found a picture of a business mailer envelope that had the “Postage Paid” on it. I cropped that part out and pasted it on our “junk mailer”. Then I found a “Top Secret” stamp and put that on there too. I also typed in big red letters, “Open Immediately! Life Changing Event”. On the back of the envelope, I put a small, faded, grey picture of little baby footprints, thinking it would tip her off to the contents of the envelope.
We went over to her house that evening, and snuck the mailer into her mail pile, then feigned nosiness as we flipped through her mail and said, “Mom, what’s this?”
Barely looking it over, she said, “I don’t know. It’s junk. Throw it away!” (It was quite convincing.) I stifled a giggle.
My husband said, “It might be important, Mom.” and handed the envelope to her.
She said, “It’s junk mail.” But began to open it, a little flustered with her son’s pushiness because she was trying to make dinner, and he wanted her to open this envelope. Upon seeing the footprints, she said, “Is this from the Pregnancy Crisis Center?” Then she continued to open it, none the wiser to our scheme.
She pulled out the flyer I made which contained some baby clip art, and asked, “Ready to be a Grandma? Baby Coming to a Son Near You, Fall 2016” It took her a while before it sunk in, then her eyes popped and her mouth dropped open as she looked at me (I was secretly snapping pictures of her with my phone) and said, “You’re Pregnant!” I nodded. “Oh my goodness!” Then she cried, but just like my husband and I had been all that day, she couldn’t stop smiling.
Telling My Mom
With the bar set high, I had a couple days to think up a creative way to tell my mother about my pregnancy. When she came into town, I had everything ready. She sat down on our sofa and I handed her a gift bag with the word “GRANDMA” in colorful, foam letters on it. (She thought it was for her mom, my Grandma.) I said, “Take a look.”
She opened the bag, finding one of my own Childhood Books
Dear Grandma,
Mommy always enjoyed these books when she was a baby, so please read these to me when I arrive this fall.
Love always, your first Grandchild
Without missing a beat, she exclaimed, “REALLY?!”
“YES!” I affirmed.
“Aww!” she exclaimed as she also broke into tears of joy and gave me a hug.
My husband and I made other similar announcements to various family members. It was so much fun working together and thinking up unique ideas that catered to the individual we were telling.
Do you have a unique pregnancy announcement story you’d like to share?
“For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him.”
1 Samuel 1:27