Breaking the newsYou know the good news, but how should you break the pregnancy to the rest of the world? babyworlders share their cryptic, amusing, and touching experiences.
Give them some proofWomen often instinctively know they are pregnant before a line on a pregnancy test proves this, as Sam states. "My husband and I hadn't been using contraception as I'd had difficulties and chances of getting pregnant were slim. One night, about 7.30pm, I felt really strange and said 'I'm pregnant'. We laughed it off but decided to go to Morrisons' late-night chemist for a test. We got home, and were giggling like kids all the while we were doing the test. We waiting, sat on the bath, then: two lines!" Men, however, often demand more scientific proof than female intuition to accept they're going to be a daddy. Some, like Anne's partner, need to see several tests before they let reality sink in! "My period was only a week late but I am normally regular so that got me wondering. I was shocked when the first test came up positive and my husband would not believe me and made me do another test." Wait till the middle of the night (then wake them up)For some reason, many women, like Amy, feel the urge to do pregnancy tests in the middle of the night. "I suddenly had the urge at 2.00am to do a test. I sat and watched it change all the way through then wandered downstairs and sat looking at my partner for ages. When the tears had subsided a little, I shook him and mumbled, 'Look: two dots'. He nodded and then rolled his head over, still sleeping. Suddenly, his eyes sprung open and he said 'Run that one by me again?' and I said, 'Look: two dots; we're going to have a baby'. He grinned, we hugged, and then both cried; it was truly one of the best moments of my life." Kaye also found herself staring at a stick when she tested for her first pregnancy although she let her husband have a lie in before breaking the news. "I did a test at 4.00am when I was about 55 days late. I sat looking at it for an hour then I called my best friend at 5.00am to tell her! I told Geoff when he woke at around 10am." Refuse alcoholOften, one of the biggest signs that a woman is pregnant is her refusal to touch alcohol. Avi's husband took a little bit of prompting but soon worked out this was the reason why she had turned teetotal. "My husband had gone to watch some football one Sunday and I was going to meet him for dinner later. I'd felt a little unwell for a couple of days I thought I would do a test to 'rule it out'. Not only did the line turn blue but so did the air! I met my husband later on in the pub and he asked me what I wanted to drink. He was so insistent that I have something alcoholic and asked, 'Why are you not drinking?' to which I replied, 'Why do you bloody think I am not drinking?'. His face was a picture!" Hint, hint…A gentler approach is often the case when informing grandparents-to-be of the good news. Some of our members positively loved being cryptic with their announcements. "With our parents," said Avi, "we told them we needed to ask them something, namely: 'How would you like to be grandparents?'. Mum cried and Dad welled up! Then, finding out at 15 ½ weeks, that it was twins was an even bigger surprise!" Sam chose a pretty out-of-the-blue way of announcing her pregnancy too. "I asked my parents, 'Will you be able to look after the baby when I return back to work?'. They were so excited!" Get on the blowerIf you do a pregnancy test at home alone, it is likely that you'll burst if you don't share the news with your nearest and dearest. Anne's mum nearly got the wrong end of the stick before she realised what her daughter was trying to say, "I phoned my mum and said 'Hello grandma'. She started saying 'Sorry, you've dialled the wrong number' then suddenly understood what was going on!" Allie, who had had a few months of negative responses, was understandably over the moon when her home pregnancy test revealed the positive result. "I did a cheap test one morning after a rubbish few days at work. I was so shocked to see the pink line that I rang my husband at work and said, 'The little white stick says you are going to be a daddy', at which point he just laughed and hung up. He did phone back two minutes later though when he'd gone outside and away from his colleagues and I got a much better response." Texting, texting…Finding out that you are pregnant can be an emotional experience and sometimes women feel unable to say those three magic words, 'Darling, I'm pregnant'. This is where modern technology can come in handy to those of us who are not technologically challenged, especially since telegrams are nearly extinct… "I'd only been with my husband for three or four months when I found out I was pregnant," says Tre. "I tried to tell him one night after doing three tests but I just couldn't. I was terrified. The next day I did another two tests just to be sure, then I texted him. I know that is the worst way but I don't think I would have ever told him otherwise. I would have been in labour still saying, 'No I'm not pregnant!'. Hannah's husband was on the road when she saw the lines and couldn't wait to tell him in person. "I texted my husband the first time; he wasn't best pleased but he was taxi driving and I couldn't get through to him and was desperate to tell him." Tie it in with a family eventIf your news happens to coincide with a big family occasion, what better opportunity to tell everyone about your fantastic news? Don't worry about stealing the limelight either, unless you aim to announce it before the vows at your brother's wedding… "On Father's Day I got my dad a card with 'Grandad' on it," reveals Deb. "When he first opened the card he didn't twig - in fact he said, 'You cheeky buggers!'. But after he read the inside it clicked, while my mum and sister were going demented because they'd worked it out!" Unfortunately, pregnancy news isn't always received positively by family members, as was the case with Jillian's family, whom they deliberately avoided telling until fate made them show their hand. "The day of my brother-in-law's wedding I came over all sick and dizzy because of an ear problem, and I couldn't take my usual medication because I was about nine weeks pregnant. My husband went downstairs to tell everyone I wouldn't make it to the wedding. His sister immediately said 'Is Jill pregnant?' and he hesitated too long, so everyone immediately guessed I was. Cue World War III... Eventually everyone else came round to the idea too and now they are all delighted with baby Mark. I wouldn't recommend doing it that way though..." Send them a card (or a calendar)You could always make yours a Hallmark moment by sending your news in a homemade card, as Angie did. "I held off telling our friends for 16 weeks as I knew we were all meeting up just before Christmas. I wrote out all the cards from me, my husband and 'Baby Bump' and also stuck a little photocopy of the scan picture inside the card. I then handed all the cards out at the same time and waited to see who twigged first. The reactions were fantastic!" Katy did something similar with a calendar to her parents. "I told them by wrapping up a baby calendar I'd received free with a pregnancy magazine and writing 'Congratulations granny and grandad' at the top. We found out at the beginning of December and I wanted to tell them at Christmas but we couldn't wait!" Avez-vous un teste de grossesse?We all take out health insurance when we're abroad but don't necessarily expect to be trying to discover whether we are pregnant or not. Phrasebooks also tend not to have useful questions such as 'Do you have a reliable pregnancy test available please?' in them, as Jillian discovered. "When I started to suspect I was pregnant a third time, we were on holiday in France. I snuck off to a pharmacy and tried to buy a pregnancy test but my French is useless and no one there seemed to speak English. I tried miming 'pregnancy test' but they just thought I had tummy problems. Eventually someone who spoke English appeared, and said 'Ah you need a test de grosesse. "I did the test, then waited for a quiet moment to tell my husband. I showed him the test stick and he said, 'Whose is that?!'. I told him it was mine. He looked absolutely horrified. The first thing he said was 'Oh well I guess we're not moving to New Zealand then'." Where to next?
|
