Waiting the Old-Fashioned Way

Now that we've made the announcement, I am so glad that Stephen and I waited to tell our families about our baby until the first trimester was over. Since this is our first baby, we really wanted to wait until the biggest chance of miscarriage was over before sharing the news. Now that I'm almost done with my twelfth week, I feel much more confident about getting our families excited about the new addition. I would have hated to get everyone excited and then have to worry about what if something happened. I also think that if our parents had known how sick I was, they would have been really worried, which wouldn't have done anyone much good since they're hours away from us. However, had we lived in the same town, it would have been impossible to keep it a secret for so long and I would have wanted them to come over and help out when I felt so bad. I was seriously wishing my mom could just move in with us for a few of the worst weeks and take over!

But there were other perks to waiting, too. It was actually really fun to have this special secret between the two of us and to work through all the emotions of it together before getting other people involved. One of my preggo books said that no matter how much you wanted or planned for a baby, you're likely to experience the whole spectrum of emotions after you actually get pregnant. I think that's the perfect way to describe it, even for someone like me, who adores children and has wanted children forever. After finding out I was pg, I went through disbelief and shock, to fear, to stress, to worry, then made a round through the misery of the first trimester pregnancy symptoms. But at this point, Stephen and I are both just really, really excited, and hopefully our tour of the continuum of emotions is at a standstill. We have had plenty of time to adjust mentally to the change that will be coming in our lives, and have come to terms with all the things that could happen along the way. We've also had time to sort of bond with the baby and develop a loving fondness for it. It's so nice to be sharing the news now while we're excited, adjusted, and confident, as opposed to two months ago, when I was scared to death. I don't know if we'll want to wait this long to tell about the next time we get pregnant, but I am definitely glad we waited to tell this time.