We had decided a while ago that we were going to tell our families at Thanksgiving about the pregnancy. It being our first pregnancy and being afriad something would happen, we wanted to wait until we were further along before sharing the news. So we waited and waited for the days to pass until we could spill the beans! We brainstormed cute ways to tell them, would we just pass them the ultrasound picture or should we come up with something more unique? I had seen lots of ideas on websites and blogs, and found the perfect one for me! I worked with a dear friend, who was sworn to secrecy, to help me make it happen. She did awesome!
We had Thanksgiving dinner with my family at 4pm on Thursday, so we got all our stuff ready and headed to my uncles house in my hometown. People slowly started to filter in and we all stood around inside and chatted while some people were getting things out of the oven and moved to the buffet line.
Grandma was already sitting at the kitchen table surrounded by a few aunts and I looked around, doing a headcount of what aunts were missing and realized they all were in the house. I looked over at my husband, and he nodded like, it's go time! So I went over and asked the ones who were in the living room if they could come in, saying I wanted to talk to everyone about something.
They all gathered in the kitchen and I walked up to the table and said Grandma I have something I want to show you. And then I took off my sweater and told her to read my shirt.
She kind of looked confused and my aunt that was standing beside her started to read it to her. She said "Expecting a little......erjrtkjhkdj!" The rest kind of came out in a blur of tears and screams and excitement, then Grandma said" What....no you aren't....Mendie, are you pregnant....are you serious?" I nodded my head and said "Yes I am!" and she ran up and hugged me and everyone else started to scream and shout it to the men who were sitting in the other room and in the garage. "Mendie's gonna have a baby!!!" I'm really surprised some of you in the central United States didn't hear them screaming!
Grandma started to scold me for not telling her sooner, but I said "would you have been able to keep this a secret?" and she admitted no and was ok with it. She was just happy our dream finally came true. (ps. She has been calling me Little Mama ever since.)
Then everyone came in and started hugging me and crying happy tears, and I was like, whoa..."Pregnant lady needs some air!" Laughing but kinda being serious, once you get in a hug pile, it's hard to get out of it! But it was great, everyone then took turns coming over and congratulating me and hugging me and then making the way over to congratulate my husband. It was great!
When my uncle Jim came in, he gave me a hug and said "Congratulations, Debbie would be thrilled!". I teared up and said "I know she would, I got to tell her. She was actually the first to know." He smiled and said you did and asked when, and I told him. He said, "yes she was still opening her eyes at that point, so I know she heard you." Everyone just smiled when they found out that I shared it with her before she passed on. It was important to me to do that, she was like another Mom to be growing up.
So then after everyone hugged and smiled, we ate and people asked questions like how long we had known (umm, the whole 3 months) and what we wanted (a healthy full term baby). Then we ate. It was nice. I then called my relatives that live in St. Louis and Arizona and told them the news.
After we left my families house, we stopped over at my husbands Grandparents and told them. I think they were kinda in shock. But they were happy, but really I think kinda like wow, for real? We then headed over to his Mom's house. She had just gotten out of the hospital from knee replacement that morning, so his family was going to celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday. But we couldn't wait. So we stopped over there, I took off my sweater again and handed her the ultrasound, and her face brightened up with excitement. She had looked a little pale and in pain when we first got there, but by the time we left, she looked like a brand new woman. Amazing how good news like that can physically change the way you feel! She was thrilled but can't wait 6 more months to hold him/her! She's ready for a little grandbaby!
Asked everyone to keep it hush until my appt yesterday morning. I hadn't been feeling as queasy the last few weeks and I'm a worry wort and just wanted to make sure my bloodwork came back ok and everything was good before telling the world about our news. Went into our appointment, he poked and asked how I was doing squirted some lube on mah belly and brought over a little blue machine. He said, we might not be able to pick anything up today, sometimes it won't be audible on the doppler until 14 wks. But after moving it around a bit and pushing around my belly, we heard the heartbeat. Strong and steady. It was the best sound, calmed my fears and reassured me that everything was fine.
So the news was spread yesterday on here, on facebook and to the rest of my coworkers. All the love and happiness that we have received is overwhelming! I am so thankful to have so many people loving this baby already! I can't wait to share my journey with all of you. Thank you for wanting to experience it with me!
