The Big Reveal

So like I said before, we did not plan the whole pregnancy test well. Mainly because we had to wait to share the news with our families.  It's funny too because our families are pretty different in their reactions. Telling our parents about being pregnant for the first time is something that I wish I could relive again and again.

Friday night, we had planned on coming home and telling Patrick's side of the family. We had rush ordered a shirt for Cooper to wear that said "I'm going to be the big brother". But on our way back to Orange Park from Gainesville (and as things usually work out), plans were being changed. Allison, Andrew, Lila and Drew were originally to come over to Patrick's parents. But then for bed-time sake, the plans changed for us to go to their house and bring pizza. So we were going to be rushed out the door as soon as we got to Patrick's parents (which meant no time for Cooper to get dressed!). We did our best to explain that after a long week, we didn't want to be rushed. After being persistent about not hurrying once we got there, we finally arrived and told Patrick's parents and Robert that we bought Cooper a Halloween costume and we wanted them to see it.

So they were all waiting when he made his way from the bedroom. It took a while for everyone to read it. There were 3 other dogs around trying to play with Coop and his shirt got all bunched and he was moving a lot. It felt like 30 minutes before anyone could decipher it. I think Patrick's dad read it first and got the biggest little kid grin you could ever hope to see on a grown man! And was soon followed by the screaming and hugging of his mom.  Robert is a great uncle to Lila and Drew and was just as excited for a new baby as this baby will be to have him as an uncle.

We wanted a fun way to tell the rest of the family, so we figured we'd let Lila tell Andrew and Allison. We coached her on exactly what to say and told her to make sure that her mom and dad were together when she told them. When we finally arrived to Andrew's (I had to drive because Anna was so incredibly giddy), we all got out of the car. Allison was complaining about the tile in the bathroom being laid the wrong way, which Anna and I had followed her to look at. It of course looked fine to me (and to this day, I'm not sure if it was laid wrong or not). Apparently, she just wanted to get Anna away from everyone to tell her that she thought I was pregnant (how she knew or why she thought at 5 weeks I was pregnant is beyond me). I had walked away and was standing in the kitchen waiting for Andrew and Allison to come together so Lila could share the news. Patrick, Andrew and Lila were still making their way through the front door when I heard Lila tell Andrew: "I'm going to have a cousin". Andrew promptly looked at me and the cat was let out of the bag. (And a big parenting note to self, after Lila was the flower girl at our wedding and wouldn't go down the aisle without Allison and her own way of telling the story after we coached her many times on how we wanted it to go down; the lesson learned is that it's nearly impossible to make an under 5 year old to do exactly what you have in mind. The good news is she's cute as can be so you're never upset by the way it all turns out!) Needless to say, I left with a boat load of pregnancy books and magazines that night and was excited to tell my parent's the next day.

Patrick had to get back to Gainesville to study for a test. So I called and asked to have lunch over there with my mom and dad. First thing, entering the house, my mom had a to-do list for Patrick, which involved fixing a TV among 2-3 other things. She worked him quite hard as we anxiously awaited the right time to sneak out and put Cooper's shirt on one more time. Literally 30 minutes after we had arrived, lunch was ready and I put a stop to everything to show them the shirt. We let Cooper go back into the kitchen dressed. They had an even harder time reading the shirt for some reason.

My dad's first comment was: "so you're getting another dog". When we answered no; I think my mom finally got it and asked: "does this mean what I think it means?" And of course I started crying as we said yes. Which then threw the two of them for a loop and took about 5 minutes for us to finally get around to sitting down for lunch. Throughout lunch, my mom asked a ton of questions, my dad said nothing. And when I say, he said nothing, I literally did not hear a peep from him for about 30 minutes. Which is not unexpected for my dad; he has never been a chatterbox. But it was quite obvious that he was in shock. Finally after we had finished up lunch, he came to and managed to get out: "The end of April is a long way away".  :)

We also went over to my brother's house to see my new nephew and share the news with them. When I told them that Daniel would have a cousin at the end of April, my sister-in-law figured it out right away. My brother had to ask: "who's pregnant?". Which would be a reasonable question if my brother had more than one sibling....

Sharing the news with family has seriously been one of the most joyous times in my life. I cried and laughed at the same time. They were really taken aback too because we really hadn't told anyone we were thinking about kids in the near future. Both of our parent's have been such wonderful grandparents and Patrick and I can't wait to see them with our baby in April!