Sharing the News

 As our family and friends receive their mail today, our exciting news will officially be spreading! By tomorrow's end, all of our family and friends should have received our announcement and all of our loved ones will know there is someone new to love on the way! So I thought I would share with all of you how we decided to share our news. 

Now, I know many of you are probably already thinking to yourself..."You are only 9 weeks along....you didn't wait until 13 weeks to tell!?" And that is something I definitely wanted to address/explain...that first trimester 'veil of secrecy' that nowadays is so widely accepted, and even expected. We decided not to wait the entire first trimester to start sharing our news. But we did make this decision with careful thought and planning, and in a gradual way that seemed right to us.

Of course, we knew that our parents and siblings would be the first to know. We decided we would wait until after our first appointment with my OB/GYN to tell them. This way, the pregnancy was confirmed, and after a pelvic exam, we knew everything was looking good so far. That appointment was on Friday, January 9 at 6 weeks and 1 day. So we went ahead with a plan to tell my parents and sister that Sunday evening, and Greg's mom and brother, and his long-term girlfriend, that Wednesday evening, (the next night Greg would have off work.) For us, this timing just seemed right. I knew the 6 week mark was when any symptoms would start becoming more prevalent, and with as much as I visit my parent's, it would be too hard (and not to mention frustrating) to have to hide. My sister was also home from college for winter break at this time, so we would be able to share the news with her in person. And of course, we also knew that if anything were to happen with this pregnancy, these would be the people we would want to know, and receive support from. The ones who we love and trust the most...the grandparents and aunts and uncle-to-be!

The planner in me searched YouTube for ideas on announcing pregnancy to parents months before we were even trying to conceive. In my search I found one idea that stuck with me, which was to gift them the Grandmother and Grandfather Figurines from Willow Tree . The couple in the video wrapped the gifts and let their parents open them, waiting for them to figure out why they would be receiving that gift. When Greg and I got engaged, the first gift we received was from my parents and it was the 'Promise' Willow Tree figurine. My mom has a collection of this series displayed in her house, so I thought there would be no better, full circle way to tell them that now, they were going to be grandparents.

That left my sister and Greg's brother to decide upon. We wanted to find a gift for each of them to open along with our parents. For my sister, we decided on the Alex and Ani 'Aunt' Bangle Bracelet . If you aren't familiar with Alex and Ani, is it a new charm bracelet concept that is growing in popularity. Each bangle has a charm, and you stack the bangles on your arm. My sister has gifted these bracelets to me for my birthday and Christmas, and I thought this was a great way for her to start her own collection. For Greg's brother, we got this shirt that says 'This Guy Is Going To Be An Uncle" (This is going to come in handy for him later on as well, as I am getting Greg and my dad matching ones that say 'Daddy' and 'Grandpa' for Greg's beer and diaper party.)

Next to find out would be the rest of our family members (grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins) and our closest friends. 'Close friends' to us is basically code for anyone that was in our wedding party and their spouse/significant other, plus about 5 other couples. It's a system we have that we use for sending out Christmas cards, party invites, etc. We don't have to discuss with each other who falls into this category...we just know. We decided very early on that we wanted to send out a photo card for this announcement. As I often make chalkboards in my free time, we knew we would include the chalkboard with a fun saying and have ourselves in the photo as well. With Valentine's Day being so close to the end of my 1st trimester (at 11 weeks, 2 days, we decided a Valentine's Day announcement would be perfect.

The original plan was to send the cards out just a day or two before Valentine's Day. However, life doesn't always go as planned, and the two beloved men in my life (ahem...husband...father....) were a little overly excited and let our news slip early to a few people. Now a good rule of thumb that my mom has always told me (and I think is safe to assume to be very true) is to figure that for every one person you told something to, they will tell two more. With that in mind, I figured that we had better spring into action a little sooner, before the news started spreading further by others' word of mouth. It has been more stressful lately trying to make sure people don't know or find out, than to just tell them. And so, we settled on sending them out after I hit the 9 week mark. At 9 weeks, the baby graduates from embryo to fetus and the possibility of miscarriage flat-lines to 2% through the rest of the trimester. At this point, we've beaten a lot of the odds, and had a successful first ultrasound. We know the baby is measuring on-point and have been told that everything looks perfect. So, we feel comfortable sharing our news with all those closest to us.

This past week has been a mad rush to make the chalkboard, take the picture, order the prints and get them sent out. But we made it! We decided on this design from Shutterfly, and the saying "There's more to love this Valentine's Day...baby Kazak is on the way!" for the chalkboard sign. (I also want to make a quick side note that while our grandparents will be receiving this announcement, we did decide to let them know beforehand. Greg's mom told her parents, and I recently called my grandma to tell her personally. We didn't feel right letting these very special people find out at the same time as everyone else.) Everyone else should be receiving them today, or tomorrow for any out-of-towners!

Finally, there is the social media world to consider. We decided they will definitely wait until Valentine's Day, on which we will post the same picture we used on the photo card. Until then, Greg and I have both changed our settings so any posts to our timelines are seen only by us. (just in case a family member or friend decides to congratulate us through social media.) We aren't ready for EVERYONE we know, to know just yet.