Telling the Family

I thought about how to tell my family the news. I didn't want to tell my parents at our Christmas Eve celebrations because I thought I should tell them first and not with all of my other family there.  I wanted my Aunt's and Uncle's and my grandparents to know of course, but I felt like my parents should get to know first. That would mean waiting until we were actually at my parents on Christmas day.  Could I really wait through an entire evening with all of the family and not tell?  Then we weren't seeing Kris' family until after Christmas.  How to tell them?  Everything clever I thought of seemed like it wouldn't be so obvious because Kris' brother was having a baby that would be due close to the same time so it may have appeared like we were just celebrating that due date...hmm?

I thought about doing the picture of the pregnancy test in a frame, i suppose that would have been easier to control the timing and how and when the news is received, but it also was sort of done before and I just wanted to do something different.  Also we were literally getting the news ourselves only a week before Christmas and I didn't have a lot of time to get the picture printed and get frames and all of that.  I decided to go with another idea.  I made a Christmas stocking that said "Baby Yates" on top and "Due Sept. 2011" on the body.  Of course it was after I made it that I plugged my info into one of those due date predictor websites and realized it would be due more like the end of August, but the point was still there.  Anyway I figured I would somehow slip into the mix with our stockings on Christmas morning.  Of course the more I thought about this the more I wasn't sure how I could slip it in, I mean the family would be filling these things at some point and I am sure my parents would be up early making breakfast or something.  Maybe this wasn't a good idea...

Kris and I were headed up to my Aunt's on the Thursday before Christmas and stopped at his mom's to get a gift she had for my parents.  We decided to tell her then rather than wait until our Christmas celebration on New Year's day. We visited for a bit and it just wasn't really coming up, but finally Kris just told her our news.  I wasn't sure if it was all excitement or some shock that now she was having two grandchildren at almost the same time.  I know she was happy, but this was definitely a surprise for her I am sure.

We got to my Aunt's late Thursday and chatted for a bit, there were a couple of times I wanted to tell her, but I knew I had to wait and tell my parents first.  Friday when they arrived with my sister, her husband, and my niece I really wanted to tell them.  I realized it was just us and if I told everyone now it would mean less worry about how to do it the next morning and we could share with the rest of the family.  Kris wanted to wait, stick to plan.  I just couldn't.  My parents were looking at the stockings my Aunt had made all of us this year and what designs they had on them and so I slipped my stocking into my moms hands and told her there was just one stocking missing.  She didn't really say anything right away.  I'm not even sure what she finally did say.  I think my parents were kind of expecting this at any time so they weren't completely surprised, but shocked too.  Everyone was really happy.  My poor Uncle Bud was in the kitchen and didn't know what all the hugging and excitement was about.  The rest of the night we just left the stocking hanging over the fire place and let the rest of the family notice it whenever they did.  It was fun to share it with everyone.

I think the rest of the island would have known about it all sooner as well, but both of my parents had the next week off of work, so they weren't there to spread the news to co-workers and friends. By now half the island has heard the news I am sure.

After Christmas when we got home we had dinner with Kris' dad, stepmother, and grandparents.  We went thinking they already knew about his brother and his wife, I guess fortunately we didn't say anything right away when we got to their house, because they actually didn't know about the other pregnancy yet and I am sure I would have made some comment that would have given it away.  We went to dinner and them back to their place.  Ben and Stephanie had gift for them to open that had the picture of their test in it, so we waited for them to tell their news. I tried to let them celebrate and share their news before I said anything, but I was nervous waiting to say something too.  Finally I said we had a gift too and told them.  Again shock, two at the same time, but not twins... The family was all very excited about the news for both of us.

Now that the news was out to the family, my focus was on our appointment.  It seemed like it was still so far off, but the confirmation and peace of mind it would give us was so needed.  I was looking forward to it but also had moments of that what if something is wrong, that worried me.