I've witnessed people come up with fun ways to announce their pregnancies. Me? I just sort of blurt things out at the first possible opportunity. But really, it's the news itself that's so exciting. It's not the information delivery mechanism, it's the reaction, and I feel like the reaction is always the same no matter how the news is communicated. So, I wanted to know the best thing other moms heard after announcing their pregnancy to their friends and family, regardless of how they actually made the announcement. Get out the tissues, guys, because some of these reactions are amazing.
My favorite reaction story, on paper, isn't actually all that exciting compared to some of those of my fellow moms. However, I'll try. We were out to dinner with my husband's best friend and his wife (who is a friend of mine). When they asked how I'd been doing I told them that I had been to the doctor that day and they had found, "This weird, but benign growth." They looked puzzled and concerned before I whipped out an ultrasound picture and said, "See, they took a picture of it!" My husband's friend laughed and gave him one of those warm, manly hugs. His wife, who is normally a warm but tough, no-nonsense kinda gal, jumped up like she'd had electric shock and started happy crying.
I just feel like her reaction was the first reflection of exactly what I was feeling. It wasn't the elated excitement of my parents or the excited shell-shock of my partner. It was the overwhelming joy (and weepiness) I felt from the instant I took the pregnancy test. What gave other moms the warm fuzzies? Did you get your tissues, because here we go:
Erica
"My dad pumped him fist in the air and shouted, 'Yessss!' My sister hit me (smacked my arm) and then immediately said, 'Oh my gosh I shouldn't have done that!' We told my mother-in-law by taping an ultrasound photo in her menu at a restaurant. Her response was, 'Someone left a sonogram picture in here!'"
"Maeve"
"'Congratulations! Do you know who the father is?'" [Said by an] awful former coworker. And for the record, yes, yes I do."
[Writer's note: Obviously "Maeve" is answer in the spirit of sarcasm, which is always cool with me.]
Laurie
When we told my parents my mother asked if it was an April fools joke. It was May 6th.
Amanda
"I was freaking out a bit since I had just moved a 1,000 miles from my home and family and my 'baby daddy' and I hadn't been dating long. I called my mom because that's what you do when you're freaking out. She very calmly (odd for her) told me to calm down that I was, '26, not 16' and would meet this challenge just like everything else in my life. It was perfect. It was possibly the best pep talk she's ever given and one I clearly remember more than a decade later."
Jane
"A few weeks before my wedding, my dad almost died. After successfully managing his diabetes for 20 years, it went out of control and my mom and brother had to rush him to the ER. It was awful and to add to it, he lost his vision shortly after that. About a month after my wedding, he was to the point that he felt that it was best if he just passed on because he felt like a shell of a person and a burden. That's around the time I found out I was pregnant and when I told my parents, they both cried and my dad basically was determined to be there to meet his first grandchild. Basically, he tells me that finding out I was pregnant gave him the will to fight on. Thankfully, by the time my daughter was born, he had gotten the procedure to get his sight back and was doing much better."
Maggie
"We called my in laws to tell them and as soon as they heard they dropped the phone and started screaming and celebrating. They danced around and celebrated for ten minutes until they remembered we were still on the phone. My husband and I were just listening and laughing. It did ease any fears we had in that moment."
Kim
My mother-in-law, who doesn't speak English that well, just kept saying, 'Thank you, thank you, thank you,' for like a minute straight.
Jen
"My husband and I were both late to the game, marriage wise and with having kids. We waited until we found each other. He was 41 and I was 36 when we got pregnant. Our respective parents thought they would never have grandkids. Poor folks! Well, when we told my father-in-law, he was so over the moon he said nothing. Just started sobbing and then kissed me! Then he kept crying and kissing me. It was so sweet."
Jillian
"[People I knew well telling me] that I was going to be an incredible mom. Thing is, hearing it said so confidently by someone who knows everything about you is what makes it so meaningful. These people know the depths on my immaturity and selfishness. If they believe I can do it then I could too."
Terri
When I told my brother I was pregnant with my fourth, his only response was, 'Ugh. Again?'
[Writer's Note: Terri, you might want to chat with Maeve.]
"Dolores"
"The heartbeat on the ultrasound. I'd had a miscarriage before that we never told anyone about because we'd never had a chance to tell anyone I was pregnant in the first place. So when I got pregnant again we told right away because the pain of keeping the pregnancy and the loss was so awful I didn't want to go through it again. Still, there was a fear that we'd announced too early and then we'd have to talk about miscarriage which, I'm sure, is a horrible pain of its own. But hearing that heartbeat whirring away was incredible."
Emily
"I found out I was pregnant with my daughter right before I was getting on a plane to go see my mom who was heavy into her second round with ovarian cancer. I wrote her a birthday card from me and the thing living in my womb and handed it to her on her birthday as she was all chemo-ed out. She hugged me and said, 'We are having a baby. I'm going to have granddaughter.' I had already had a miscarriage and was only seven weeks pregnant, we didn't know it was a girl yet, but she willed that little granddaughter into existence at that moment."
