Sharing the Good News

The story of telling my parents they're going to be grandparents...

JP and I had agreed to wait to the 20th (when he flew in to Houston) to tell my family the big news because he wanted to be there, but I ended up telling everyone the night I flew in on the 16th. The whole fam, and my grandparents, were out to dinner for my sister's 21st birthday. My sister mentioned she wouldn't be coming home until the 23rd, and I knew I wouldn't see my grandparents again during the holidays, so I snuck to the bathroom and called JP. He gave me the go-ahead to tell them that night. After the official birthday celebration was over I said, "I have a bit of an announcement- I'm 8 weeks pregnant!". And the response was... SHOCK. Total shock and disbelief. Apparently we did a good job hiding out family plans.

Luckily my grandparents were there and were immediately joyous. My dad said something like "how did this happen?". My mom just looked shocked. I had a VERY hard time convincing everyone it wasn't an accident or unplanned. My siblings didn't look like they really cared. All-in-all it was not exactly the reaction I had planned. I called JP and said "I'm not sure people are happy." He responded that he was glad he was safely back in Chicago. The rest of the night and at brunch the next morning, we pretty much talked about other things. It was really quite strange.

Later, my mom told me that August 9th (my due date) was exactly the same due date of her first pregnancy which she miscarried at 14 weeks. I think that partially explains why she looked like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on her when I told them. I just don't think she can get excited until we've had our first ultrasound and see the baby's heart beat.

A couple friends and I watched "Father of the Bride II" the week before I went home and I guess I was expecting my family to be more like Nina (the mom) than George. I have a family of Georges. The good thing is that George did come around and ended up more excited than anyone. I'm guessing that will happen here. The downside to their reaction was that it totally killed any desire I had to tell anyone else. I never called any aunts and uncles and in the end my grandma "accidentally" told everyone.

JP's parents were immediately quite excited (he is 2 years older, so maybe that helps? 25 seems like more of a parenting age than 23?). I can already tell that planning holidays and baby visits are going to be a giant pain in the neck with two new sets of grandparents in different parts of the US. His grandmother's response was "Well, for Heaven's sake!" - not sure what that means, but I'll take it as happiness :)

Anyway, it was an interesting visit home. Our ultrasound is tomorrow and we can't wait. I have all our Christmas (really New Year's) cards addressed, stamped, and written in, but I didn't want to mail them with the news until we had that appointment. For one of the only times in my life, I'm hoping my life does not mirror my mother's. I won't even print out the Christmas letter (although it is written- including a sentence about how amazing it was to see the heartbeat ;) I'll post the news tomorrow!