Poll: How Did You Announce the Pregnancy to the Family?

My sister put a Tshirt on her youngest that said I'm the big sister and wiated for someone to notice at a family gathering last Easter. Once they did their was lots of screaming!! I got to hear it all VIA cellpohone.

With my first child I sent out pink and blue notes congratulating everyone on becoming grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. It read Congratulations on the 12th day of February you are going to become a (then whatever fit) then I signed it. My last one I had my oldest daughter read the story The New Baby to everyone when the story was over she then said and my mommy is going to have a baby. I told everyone right away. If you have any children in School I had my oldest daughter take some baby ruth candy bars pass them out and then tell her class mates.

We visited my family for Thanksgiving when I was about 1 1/2 months along. As we were eating dinner the night we arrived, I casually mentioned how nice it was to have a real meal, since I had been snacking the whole way there to stave the morning sickness. It took a second for the news to sink it, but once it did everyone started laughing and thought it was great!

When I found out I was pregnant with my 2nd, my 1st was only about 8 months old. We took a onesie and wrote in marker on the front "I'm going to be..." and on the back "a big sister!" We told my parents that we wanted to show them something funny our daughter did when we were putting on her jammies, and took it from there. When we were expecting our 3rd, I found a package of three matching heart-shaped frames. I put pictures of our daughters in 2 of them and a sonogram in the 3rd. We wrapped them up and gave them to our parents as a surprise.
Our first pregnancy came through in-vitro fertilization, so we announced it immediately. With the other two, we announced after 12 weeks.
Good luck! Have fun!

Our daughter was the first grandchild on both sides so we did a "Happy Birthday Grandma" for my mother-in-law..it took her a while to get it! We did something similar w my parents. W other relatives, we asked "What are you doing in 9 months?" My cousin had his older child tell the grandparents over the phone that he was going to have a brother/sister. We told everyone right away because my sister was getting married the next month. Congrats!

With my first, we just told our families right out and we waited until I was 12 weeks (because we'd already had a miscarriage). With my second, I told my family right away because I just can't keep secrets from them and just told them out right. But we waited to tell my husbands family until I was 11 weeks. I used fabric paint to make my son a shirt that said, "Big Brother March 2005" in pink and blue letters and he wore it to a big family party. They'd read the shirt, then look at me with a big smile and say, "Congratulations!" It was a big hit.

As for how long you should wait, that's totally up to you. My doctor said once they detect a heartbeat (either by ultrasound which they can do early or by doppler which takes longer) the chance of miscarriage is less than 1%. But if you feel strongly about telling them, then go for it and if you want to wait, then it's that much less time they have to wait to see the baby!

It was harder for me to wait with my first pregnancy. I tried to think of some cute way to tell my parents, and let my husband tell his parents. I called my mom to tell her about my new digital camera (our first one) and talked it up, then said that the reason I bought it is so I could email them photos of their newest grandbaby. She cried!
With the second, I sent out an email with a photo of our oldest in a shirt that says, "I'm a big brother." Some family members didn't notice at first, but the others called them to see if they thought it meant what they thought it meant. It was kind of fun, but maybe too subtle.
For the family members who lived closer, I waited until a family gathering (MIL's birthday party) and had our son wear the same tee-shirt with a button-up Hawaiin shirt over it. When she was done unwrapping presents, I said there was one more and had him walk over to her. I told her to unbutton his shirt. Big brother didn't know what was going on, but liked the attention! I was 12 weeks along then. For me, pregnancies go faster the longer you wait to tell people. I waited until I wondered if people were wondering if I was gaining weight, although I could have waited a bit longer before anyone noticed.
My brother sent out cards with a picture on the front of a dinner roll in the oven. At first, I thought it was a new bakery opening in town! But inside it said (of course) "there's a bun in the oven." He'd just printed them off on his computer.
My sister handed everyone a rolled-up certificate tied with a ribbon. Inside it said, "This certificate entitles the bearer to a new niece or nephew" or grandchild or cousin or whatever. I thought that was cute!
Good luck finding a fun way to announce your new bundle!

I can't say that I did anything special,and with my last child I decided to not say anything, except for a select few, I don't get the pregnant belly, I envy the pregnant belly, anyways I wanted to see how far along I could get before people started to notice, can you believe I was 7 months before some people started to wonder, and they only wondered cause my face was heavier. Once some found out the rest found out and then they wondered why I didn't tell them, once I told them they would laugh cause they couldn't believe I could keep it such a secret!

My husband and I were so excited to share the news of our first pregnancy on Easter, even though I was only 7 weeks pregnant. I put cute little notes (hippity-hoppity, the Easter Bunny is here to say you've got a new grandbaby on the way, or you're going to be an Aunt, Uncle, etc.) and candies inside of plastic Easter eggs. We passed all the eggs out and had my inlaws all open them at the same time. It was so much fun but in hindsight was a little too early to tell. I ended up miscarrying the following week.

With our second pregnancy, we waited until 12 weeks and passed around little bundles of custom M&M's that said "(last name) Baby Due 8/07." That was fun also.

What about putting it in a fourtune cookie? You can warm the cookie up in the microwave, then you can put a new fortune in side the cookie. Just have fun thinking up things.

with our first we sent a valentine in the mail to my parents "from the baby". my mother in law loves to hear gossip, so my husband told her as if it was a scandalous rumor, "you'll never guess who's pregnant!" she guessed everyone but me and laughed when he finally told her. she loved the suspenseful production.

My family has done it a number of ways. Special order fortune cookies announcing the family was too small and needed another one. T-shirts on the siblings stating they were big sisters and brothers. Last of all I wore a t-shirt that said under construction. We also looked into getting special printed M&M's. There are lots of ways try a web search too.

Hi S., First, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!! Second, One of my co-workers scanned a photo of her ultrasound and had it printed on a coffee mug, then had Grandma printed on one and Grandpa on another. She had her parents over for dinner and surprised them with their first official picture of their newest grandbaby. Blessings, T. Creative Memories Consultant, ###-###-####

What a friend of mind did was take a picture of her two kids and put it in a frame and at the bottom left a space and wrote something like "Coming soon to a family near you" or something like that. Then she gave it to her mom as a birthday or mothers day present ( I don't remember which).If your family has a birthday, anniversary etc.. coming up, maybe you could do something like that.

My sister wrapped a little box up with a tiny plastic baby inside that said, you're going to be an Aunt in it and gave it to my Mom and I at the same time. We opened it and were
delighted by the news........ As for timing... not sure, that would be up to you. I usually wait until I'm for sure, well sort of for sure that all will be ok.
Congrats!

For our first, we baked mini cupcakes and served them to my husband's side of the family with "aunt melissa" or "grandma" written on top with frosting....this was their first baby in the family so they got it right away... With our second baby we did two different things: made a tshirt for our first child to wear that said "big brother". It was so fun to see their faces figure it out. To tell them what sex, we gave everyone a blue and a pink M&M and then showed the ultrasound video..they had to decide what sex our baby was and then eat the sex it wasn't, so they had their guess left in their hand....That was fun. My sis in law did a similar way but using apples...leave the stem in if you think it is a boy...out for girl...

I think it is nice to wait until 12 weeks to tell people...They say the vast majority of miscarriages happen in the first 12 weeks...You feel more confident...But everyone is different... GOOD LUCK and HOW FUN FOR YOU!!!

We didn't tell until we found out what we were having (Fetal Fotos can tell as early as 15 weeks). We just had our daughter tell her grandparents she was getting a baby brother for her birthday. THey didn't believe her so she showed them the fotos.

It would be fun to give pictures of the baby at its first ultrasound to your family and friends. It might require wainting longer than you planned to spread the news, but would be a great way to not only tell them about your new addition but also show them. Good Luck!!

The night I took pregnancy test I decided I only wanted my husband to know until we had our first appointment to see if the baby had a heartbeat. I am medic in the military so the next day at work we had this big excercise and I couldnt have my phone on. Needless to say my husband told EVERYONE and I had about 14 messages on my phone when I was able to turn it back on. =)

my sister wrapped bibs up for christmas that said i love my grandma/grandpa on them.

with our first it was unexpected for the family and since we werent married, my in laws were more disappointed than anything. My MIL couldnt quit asking questions and so my hsuband finally said, "mom we're 6 weeks pregnant" I just called and told my parents cheerfully, "btw, I'll be 4 months pregnant on our wedding day!" So, obviously those were not the greatest ways to tell the family.
This time around we had our daughter draw a picture on a little card that said, 'thanks for being the best grandpa/ma" and then it said, "I'm going to be a big sister in March 24, 2008!" We went to church with them that day, so she brought along her crayons and went to go color again on the "card" (it was just something we did on the computer) and they opened it and read it and of course were excited.
THEN when we found out the sex of the baby it was my FIL's birthday. We went to dinner with the whole family. We bought one of those Its a girl balloons and got there early and had the waitress bring it out with his food. My stupid 30 yr old BIL didnt get it and was like, "Why are you giving him a girl balloon for his birthday?!" but my FIL got it and was so excited-we have his ONLY granddaughters!
When I found out I was getting a little brother it was at christmas time. My parents each gave us a baby item in our stockings. One was baby food, another a pacifier, another a bottle, then to make it special for us, we each got to pick which family member we called to tell!
GOOD LUCK!

My sister in law gave her mom a personalized calendar for Chrismtas (from shutterfly.com) where you put your own pictures in it and insert all of the birthdays. She put a note on the due date that said, "Grandbaby #3 Due!!" It was perfect. You can start those calendars from any month you want and I think they're really cute too!

Hi S.
First I've had five children and I found that waiting to tell others as long as possible seemd to make the pregnancy go faster-in reality I know that it didn't but there was less time telling people all the details!!! Make it fun for you own children first! One fun idea we did was that we got a bunch of baby food choices-the GOOD ones of course- and made of fun game of taste testing them and see if the kids could figure out the flavors and then we told them that they would be helping with meals for a new little one!! Sunshine

I painted little hand prints and "Baby '04" on Christmas ornaments, wrapped them up and gave them as Christmas gifts. I know we are well past Christmas but you could do something similar with Easter eggs. Congratulations.

One thought I had on telling the family about our second, which I didn't end up doing, was to get a "big brother" t-shirt for my son. That might be fun.

My husband and I took my parents out for dinner and he had the servers bring dessert and sing happy birhtday to "baby #3". It was funny to watch them try and figure out what was going on. I took a while to sink in!

I just helped my sis come up with something for her 3rd. They were having a St Patties day gathering... (early so if you wanted to there is still time)
A POT of Gold Cheesecake
She made a cheesecake and implanted little plastic baby charms (baby, binki, bottle etc) in each pre-sliced piece. Then she put vanilla wafers on top, to look like gold pieces. She said it went over very well.

It was Thanksgiving. We had one child already. We found pics on the internet and made a picture of a "Daddy" Turkey (the biggest), "Mommy" Turkey (a little smaller), "Kylaya" a baby chick (my daughter that we had already) and a nest with a golden egg in it, with a "?" under it. We posted it on the fridge and waited for people to notice and figure it out.

Being Easter or Spring, you could do something similar with Chickens! :-)

For my first one, I made a baseball cap for my husband that said "I'm going to be a daddy in November"-- it was pink and blue, since we didn't know if it was boy or girl yet. He just wore it to our parents and we waited until they noticed. Since you are already a mommy and daddy, maybe you could put a T-shirt on your youngest that says "I'm going to be a big sister (or brother) in (the month that you are due)" That would be fun!

I found out at my annual appointment, was a complete surpeise to me! That was 2 days before our 10-year anniversary so I took a home pregnancy test and put the "positive" stick in a big gift bag to give to my husband for our anniversary. When he first opened it he thought it was a nose hair shaver!!!

To tell our parents we bought baby picture frames, found cute baby pictures on the internet then used Photoshop to put me and my and my husband's heads on the baby pictures. My parent's cried when they figured it out and my MIL hyper-ventilated. It was so cute!

We announced ours at christmas, I think you should wait for a family get together or holiday (Easter is coming up!) it made the get together so much more exciting and it was fun to announce it to everyone at the same time. We got great-grandparents poems, and then onesies and bibs that said something about grandma and grandpa ("grandma thinks im priceless" "I love grandpa") and we had them all open their gifts at the same time!

I had a friend who took a picture of her open oven with a hamburger bun inside and then passed it around to see if anyone would get it. It took awhile, but was great when they did. The reactions were great.

As for me, with my second child, I put on a tee shirt on my son that said, "I have a secret" on the front and on the back it said "I'm going to be a big brother". That was fun too.

We found out we were pregnant right before Father's Day so I bought a bib that said "I Love Grandpa" on it and a father's day card from a grandchild. We were having a family get together and I gave it to my dad to unwrap in front of everyone. It took him a minute to get it, but once he did he was so excited.

With our first, we were still in college, so I made up this (ridiculous) story about needing to videotape people's reaction to spontaneous gift-giving for a sociology project. I wrapped up a bib-and-burper set that said "Daddy's Little Angel" with the pregnancy test and gave it to my husband. He just about swallowed his teeth. (We were fairly-newly-wed broke college students). Then we did the same thing to our parents, but with a card instead in the box.

14 months later, we graduated, and at graduation dinner, we showed everyone our 6-month-old son's onesie that said "I'm a BIG BROTHER January 2003" to announce little sister!

With the next two, they were pretty planned and expected, so the family was calling us asking if we knew yet.

Now with each one, I make my husband a card that says, "You've got a friend in me.

We told everyone immediately with our first, but thought it would be fun to surprise everyone with our second. We made a slideshow of our first boy. The end of the slideshow had a picture of our second boy and we zoomed in on the date it was done.......then, just in case some were a little slow, we put on there that it wasn't our first boy, it was his brother....

My MIL has photos of all her grandkids on her bookshelves. When my SIL found out she was pregnant, she put an empty picture frame up and waited for my MIL to notice. It was hilarious to see the confusion on her face, "What is ... oh my gosh!" Then she got it! It was a cute and subtle way to spread the news.

The first baby (which we lost- but was the 1st grandbaby)), one set of parents I sent a picture via cell phone of the positive pregnancy test and my Pregnancy Week by Week book and waited for her phone call back! It was fun. Another set, we put that same picture as the back ground on my laptop and took it over to their house, then I had them come over to see something...an funny e-mail I think...and just kind of kept it on the background until they realized it. The other set, we wrote on my belly with facepaint "Baby Bump" and then I told my mom-in-law and sister-in-law that I had a wierd rash I wanted their opinion on (I have a close relationship to them obvioiusly!!!). That was the most fun one!!! The second baby (my son), we just called everyone since it was an emotional time, but for both pregnancies we told as soon as we found out we were pregnant because we are bad at keeping secrets and we eat at parents houses quite often so it's hard to just all of a sudden stop eating or drinking certain things I normally eat and drink and not have them figure it out. The second time, we told because everyone needed the pick-up and we didn't want to treat this new pregnancy differently since we were still so excited about it! My MIL even guessed we were pregnant the second time before we told...she says she could just detect the change in me.

For my husband, I made a 'baby' dinner of baby carrots, baby shrimp, baby dill pickles, baby portions of main course and dessert. He figured it out very quickly, but you could do the same sort of thing for your family.

S., 25, mom of Tyrrone, 4 months, and an angel in heaven

My husband and I waited until 10 weeks to tell everyone. The first people we told were my parents. We met them for lunch, then gave them each a book to unwrap. Inside, was the book "Why I love Grandma/Grandpa". They were a little confused until they opened the book up to the first page and it said "TO: Grandma/Grandpa" "FROM: Baby (last name)". They cried! CONGRATS TO YOU! :)

Hi S. B, I'm a mother of 4 grown children, ages, 41,40,31,and 27. So it's been awhile since "I" had to tell anyone, myself. But my oldest child,a daughter, sent me a cookie bouquet with a pregnant teddy bear cookie in front. It was for her surprise baby, and he is now almost 3.

I'd wait until you are about 2 to 3 months along to tell people.

Congratulations
Pat C

Hi S. --

For my 3rd, we had t-shirts made for my other two boys that said "Big Brother" on the front of them. We were 4 mos. when we visited the relatives (in another state) and had the boys wear the shirts but not say anything. My kids were the only grandchildren at that time so they were paid a lot of attention. It took my mother in law most of the day to figure it out -- she just kept saying: "'Big Brother,' how cute." Until the boys started saying: "Do you get it, Nana?!" Eventually she got it, and everyone else, too. It was fun and the boys loved wearing their shirts for quite awhile.

Congratulations on your pregnancy and good luck!
A. :)

Okay I got a bag of blue and pink jelly beans and got a card that said "I am spilling the beans". I also didn't wait long but it's up to you. When do you feel comfortable?

When we found out we were pregnant with our 4th and last I wanted to do something a little different to make the announcement. I found this fun poem, framed and wrapped it and presented it to each of the grandparents.
They loved it!

I do not have a face to see,
or put inside a frame.

I do not have soft cheeks to kiss;
I don't yet have a name.

You can't hold my tiny hands,
nor whisper in my ear.
It's still too soon to sing a song,
or cuddle me so near.

But all will change come April 10th,
when they say I'm due.
I'm your new grandson or granddaughter;
I can't wait till I meet you.

All I ask between now and then
is your patience while I grow.
I promise I'll be worth the wait,
because of all the love we'll know.

So as you're waiting patiently,
please pray lots of prayers for me.
I cannot wait to be a part
of this wonderful family!

Hope that helps!