When it came time to share my pregnancy news with our family and friends, I knew it would come in three waves. First, we’d tell immediate family, because we were living with my parents and I knew I couldn’t keep that secret. Second, our extended families, most likely at Christmas when we were all together. And finally, we would share with the general public (we’re social media people), after the first trimester was well over.

Telling our parents was an idea hatched at 5:00am on a Saturday. I’d taken my first digital test, and the result was clearly positive (after about a week of using up my Wondfo stash). Mr. O and I couldn’t sleep anymore, so we snuck upstairs and headed for the 24-hour Walmart. Like giddy kids awake before the adults on Christmas, we made a beeline for the baby department. Throughout our infertility, we had avoided this section like the plague; now we were practically running. We chose a ‘Here Comes Trouble’ t-shirt for my mom (with monster trucks; she loves them) and a onesie for my MIL, bought oversized gift bags and a ton of pink and blue tissue paper, and then….sat idly in the car until we knew someone would be awake.

We told Mr. O’s mom first. She unwrapped the onesie, examined the ‘Going to Grandma’s’ slogan emblazoned across the front, and looked up at us, puzzled. Then she screamed, jumped out of her chair, and gave us both hugs.

My parents were a little tougher to tell. They opened their gift bag, took out the tiny t-shirt, and smiled blandly. “Oh cute,” my mom said, “a shirt for the dog.” My sister (who was also present) noticed me shaking my head frantically, and then, what felt like hours later, the three of them clued in. Cue tears, shrieking, and hugs all around.

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Telling our extended families at Christmas was really no big deal; we couldn’t think of anything creative, so we sort of just awkwardly blurted out “We’re having a baby.” Looking back, there were a million Pinterest-worthy ways we could have shared the news, but honestly…sometimes simple is the way to go.

We knew we wanted something clever to use as a Facebook/Instagram announcement. I wanted to avoid posting ultrasound pictures; for some reason, they were the hardest photos for infertile-me to deal with. I didn’t want our good news to cause someone else more pain than necessary. I understand that Facebook announcements are at their very core painful to some in the IF world, but I was also using this announcement as a chance to come clean about our IF history. Since Mr. O and I are both shoe-lovers, this is the photo we used. I attached a disclaimer that alluded to our years of struggling, and left it at that.


I’m incredibly thankful that infertility did not dampen the joy we felt in announcing my pregnancy. Though I was full of worries and ‘too-good-to-be-true’ feelings, I knew that at that moment in time I was pregnant. And that was good enough for me.

Did you announce your pregnancy in any special way? What do you think about social media announcements?