Okay. Taking a break from all of these weekly updates... SO. This post may not be the most exciting for a lot of people, however, I just love hearing how other people tell their friends and family about their pregnancy. I was always looking for fun ways to share pregnancy news with people, even before I actually got pregnant. Even if you aren't pregnant now, maybe this will at least provide some inspiration for you when the time comes!
Ryan's Parents - First up is Ryan's mom and dad. Obviously, we wanted to tell as many people in person as possible so the fact that they only live about 4 minutes away made telling them really easy for us to do right away! Ryan and I had both just gotten back into town after being away for the weekend. Of course I took another pregnancy test just to make sure nothing had changed (still positive!) and we headed over to their house as we usually do on Sunday afternoons. The plan was to text Ryan's dad a picture of the pregnancy tests, because I know that he wouldn't be able to see what it was without getting is glasses and (hopefully) asking Ryan's mom to look at it. We sat down on the couch, and while they were in the kitchen Ryan sent the text from my phone. Ryan's dad said "Oh, it's from Stephanie," obviously confused as to why I would be texting him when I was sitting right there. He looked around for his glasses and then said "Really??" Ryan then said "Well did you show mom??" Then he showed Mrs. Kresta who said "YES!" It was all just very silly and we had a good time sharing our news with the grandparents-to-be!
My Sister - Up next is my sister. The plan was for her to come down to Houston for my mom's birthday (2 weeks after we found out) and I would tell them both then. However, my brother-in-law ended up getting really sick with a very complicated case of appendicitis and had to be hospitalized for quite some time. Needless to say my sister was unable to leave Oklahoma. Once I learned of this news, I just knew that I could not keep it a secret from her anymore. We had previously been discussing what to get my mom for her birthday, and ended up just deciding to each get her something small on our own. I decided that rather than call her it would be more fun just to send her the picture and see what happened. Here's what went down:
I can't tell you how much I was smiling while this was happening. I'm sure everyone who was driving around me thought I was a crazy person just laughing and laughing in my car by myself. A short while later she was able to call me.
Ryan's Sisters - Next up we have Ryan's sisters. We had scheduled a mid-week dinner with them both because Jennifer was in Houston at the time. As I mentioned above, Ryan and I had both been out of town the previous weekend for separate Bachelor/Bachelorette parties. Knowing that they would ask us about our weekends, before we got to dinner Ryan had created a "fake" album on my phone with 3 or 4 pictures from the weekend, and then the last picture the pregnancy test picture. So what felt like hours after they both arrived, they finally asked us about our weekend! Jennifer asked about the location of the girls weekend so of course "Oh here are some pictures!" (hehe) Jennifer started scrolling through the pictures as Lindsey looked over her shoulder. She got to the last picture and quickly scrolled back to the previous picture, thinking that wasn't something she was supposed to see. Lindsey immediately got a super surprised look on her face. Once they both looked up and saw the expressions on Ryan and my faces, they knew we had wanted them to see the picture. It was perfect.
My mom - Last but not least is my mom. I have to say, trying to tell her the news was (to be blunt) a complete nightmare. Here's why: First of all, when Ryan and I found out we were expecting my mom was in Ireland. Then, I realized that her birthday was coming up in less than 2 weeks (which she would be home by that time). Perfect! My sister flies down, we all go to dinner... I'll tell them then! However, Freddie was having a lot of complications and pretty soon after my sister realized she would not be able to come down... my mom decided to go up there to be with them once she returned from Ireland! Meaning that's where she would be spending her birthday. (Keep in mind my sister and Freddie already knew about the pregnancy, but my mom didn't! It was up to them not to accidentally slip. Aaahh!) It was so hard not telling her, but since I already knew how I wanted to share the news, I just couldn't bear NOT telling her face to face. So we had to put it off. By the time my mom had returned from Oklahoma, I had decided to go up there and spend time helping my sister and Freddie out. I was up there for about a week. When I came back, Ryan picked me up from the airport and we decided just to drive down to her apartment because "I had a few errands to run" (not). I didn't want to give her too much notice, so that there wasn't any time to think about it, reschedule, cancel, etc. I just wanted to show up! Well, we got down there and it took us a while to get in touch with her. Turns out, it was the ONE day a week that she is in a class for work and doesn't get home until after 9:00 p.m. It was 7. We decided to grab some food and then after we were done eating decide what to do. We finished eating about 20 minutes later. We both knew that we wouldn't be able to stay down there for another hour and a half+... so we went home. (We had known about the pregnancy for 3 weeks at this point.) I texted my mom the next day and asked her when I could see her to give her her bday present. We scheduled dinner for the following night. Okay, I can handle that. The plan was for Ryan to drive home after work (45 minute commute) and pick me up and then we would be down at her apartment around 6 or 6:15. Well.... 5:00 comes and goes. No word from Ryan. 5:15. 5:30. Nothing. He's still at work. I start to panic. Ryan NEVER has to work late. Like... this NEVER happens. I'm trying REALLY hard not to call him and bother him. I do NOT want to freak out on him because I KNOW that it's not his fault that he has to work late. But I am freaking out. I call him at 5:40 an absolute wreck. I just couldn't stand the thought of putting off telling her AGAIN. At this point, my mom was already talking about rescheduling or even the possibility of waiting another WEEK AND A HALF, when she was planning on coming out to our house for the afternoon. Somehow Ryan understood the words that were actually coming out of my mouth between sobs. He left work right away and came to pick me up. (Side note - I realize that it would have been way faster for Ryan to just meet us there, however I'm not able to wear contacts any more and I am really really uncomfortable driving at night!) We finally ended up getting down there over an hour later than we said we would, picked her up and headed to the restaurant. The plan was to give her a birthday card that said "Happy Birthday Grandma". I wanted to give it to her asap so I decided to wait until the waiter took our drink orders but give it to her before we ordered our food. So the waiter came, took drink orders and then I gave her the card. And she just set it out the table without opening it. Oh my gosh. FINALLY after the waiter came back like, 4 hours later to take our food order she finally opened it. Thank. Goodness. She was pretty surprised, but she said she had a feeling that something was up when we made SUCH an effort to see her on a random Thursday. :) Oh well! It was such an incredible relief to finally finally finally tell her.
My BFF - Okay I know I said my mom was the last one but I lied. I also realize that Katie is not technically "immediate family" but she is basically a sister to me and her family really is my second family. Plus, I also wanted to brag about the super cute way that we told her and her husband Ross about the pregnancy! Katie and I had previously discussed how cool it would be if we both had kids at the same time and they both went to Baylor together. (Yes, we were making plans for 18+ years from now.) We found out in the spring that Katie was expecting her first baby in October! I was SO excited for her. By the time summer rolled around, I realized that (although, I initially thought we might start trying at the end of summer/beginning of fall) I just didn't think I was quite ready yet (or so I thought. The joke was on me though.) My sister was getting married in July and I was able to spend some more time with Katie during these festivities as well. I told her that I decided we would wait for a little while longer before starting a family and that I was sad our kids wouldn't go to Baylor at the same time. (I do realize that our children could decide to attend other colleges, but let's be honest here - why would they?!) So ANYWAY. A few weeks after I found out that I was growing a human, I realized that technically both of our kids would be close enough in age that there was a possibility of them being in the same grade. Awesome. (I will say that it was very hard not to tell her right away - she was in her 9th month of pregnancy and I was in my 1st - I had SO many questions!!!) I knew we would see them towards the end of November, so I decided to make a fake college graduation announcement to give to her then. I had gone to Hobby Lobby and picked out some colored paper, and then my SUPER talented sister helped me out with the design. The result. was. perfect!!! And she was absolutely thrilled.
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