If you couldn’t guess from the title, yes, the Smith family is growing from two to three. We’re pregnant! It’s such a relief to finally share this news with you all. It’s been a huge challenge to bite my tongue, but we had to tell our families before we could break the news to the universe, of course.
I’ve had so many baby-related blog post ideas brewing in my head, but had to hold them in until I could announce the big news. But that’s also great news for you all because that means there’s lots of fresh content coming your way!
How I found out
Over the past year, I’ve been trying different birth control pills that cooperated with my body and didn’t have terrible side effects. Because of that, my hormones and period have been out of whack for a long time and it was normal for me to be 4-5 days late and I wouldn’t stress.
Between the inconsistent birth control–and, honestly, forgetting a few days–things just kind of happened. But it’s a happy mistake! Mr. Smith and I both want children, it’s just coming a little sooner than we thought it might. But I’m a firm believer in “if you wait for the right time, there will never be a right time.” So I think right now we’re as prepared as we could ever be.
For a few weeks, I was deep in the planning process for our wedding reception and didn’t really notice my period was late until I so happened to check my ovulation app on my phone. Welp, turns out I was eight days late which has never happened before.
I had one or two pregnancy tests already, so I took them but they both gave me a funny reading. You know how they’re supposed to give you two vertical lines for ‘pregnant’ and one line for ‘not pregnant’? Well, mine gave me one vertical line and another horizontal line. I didn’t even think this was possible, so I googled a little bit and found it was just a faulty test.
I didn’t have the patience to wait another few days, so I snuck out that night to Walgreens to buy a digital test and 2-3 standard tests. One of them would have to be able to read something by now–I had already missed my period so it wasn’t too early.
I took all the tests, waited anxiously, and found out that, yep, we’re having a baby! I was excited, shocked, nervous and every other emotion possible. I’ve always dreamt of being a mom, but I also don’t do anything without serious planning. It took me a little bit to believe what I was looking at, but after a few minutes, I knew I couldn’t wait any longer to tell Mr. Smith.
Telling Mr. Smith
The timing could not have been a bigger coincidence. I found out two days before our wedding ceremony (so there went my plans to drink champagne!) But, it was also a perfect excuse to break the news to Alex with a gift that I initially played off as being a “pre-wedding present.”
Right after seeing the results of the digital test, I ran to the store to pick up an inconspicuous Father’s Day card, gift bag, and two pairs of baby shoes–one pink pair and one blue pair. I made sure the card was one from the “from wife” section of the greeting cards so that the front didn’t say anything like “You’re the best dad!” because I didn’t want it to be obvious the second he opened the envelope.
I put the baby shoes and positive pregnancy test in the gift bag, sealed the card, and set it out on the bed before calling Alex upstairs to “help me with something.” I was sitting on the bed when he came in and his first thought after seeing the bag was, “What is this? This better not be lingerie.” lmao.
I told him to just sit down and read the card first because I wanted to give him something before our wedding day. He opened the card and read until the end where it said something like, “Thank you for being a wonderful example for our growing family” and he just looked up at me like…
Him: “What does this mean? Does this mean…”
Me: “What do you think it means?”
Him: “Are you…”
Me: “Haha, just open the bag.”
He pulled out the baby shoes one at a time, each time looking up at me with big eyes and smile getting wider. He read the pregnancy test, threw it back in the bag and then grabbed my arms and just said, “oh my god, you ARE pregnant!”
He threw himself back on the bed and we immediately started talking about all the details like names, what the baby’s going to look like, and everything we’re going to have to figure out. I was so nervous because I had no idea how he’d take the news, but he was even more excited than I was. He was already getting so impatient for all the ways our lives would soon be changing.
Sharing the news with our parents
I was even more nervous to share the news with our parents, mine especially, because I feel like they still think of me as their baby and that I’m too young. But honestly, it went wonderfully.
My parents live about 14 hours away in Michigan, so, unfortunately, telling them in person wasn’t a realistic option. This was really hard for me because I’ve watched all those pregnancy announcement videos where parents freak out, cry, and jump up and down, and I wouldn’t get that in-person experience. But I also couldn’t wait for our upcoming visit, when I’d be 15 weeks.
So, after our 11-week appointment, when heard the heartbeat and confirmed the baby was healthy, we called my dad on facetime who was conveniently standing right with my mom. We talked about the normal stuff like work, life and the construction on their home. He took a second to “show me something” which was their new front porch he built and that gave me the perfect opportunity to show them something, too.
I said, “Oh, I have something too!” and I turned the camera around to a newborn onesie sitting on the table that said “coming soon…”
My mom understood immediately, started screaming with excitement and then fell into my dad’s chest, who had a big, beaming smile. We talked about due dates and how I’m feeling and shared the excitement for the next few minutes. It was a short call, but it was such a relief to know they were just as excited as I’d hope they’d be.
Earlier that same day, we stopped by Alex’s mom’s house to tell her the news. Alex and I talked that it was his job to break to news to his mom (just as it was my job to break the news to my parents) so this didn’t go quite as cute as my parents haha. He was nervous and doesn’t usually know how to tell someone big news, so he waited for an opportunity that would require him to say the very least possible.
I still had a gauze bandage on my arm from the doctors, and his mom asked if I had given blood and Alex jumped in real quick like, “yeah she did, cause she’s pregnant.” And that was about it lmao. His mom was excited, but she’s not the type of person to jump up and down or squeal. She congratulated us about 15 times and I knew she was grateful to be having another grandchild.
It’s going to be such a fun adventure and I’m so glad I have the opportunity to document it all on this blog. I may not be as active as I’d like, but the excitement of a little baby is the motivation I’ll need to post more often.
I’ve always thought that being a mom would make me feel more like myself because having children is something I felt like I was “destined” to do, as cheesy as that sounds. The idea of getting to be the influence and creator of a human’s childhood just sounds like the most magical thing to me. I get emotional just thinking about how much being a mom already means to me.
I’m extra af when it comes to everything, so I know having a child is just going to amplify this. Birthday parties, school lunches, holidays, all the things that I have the opportunity to make special for our baby is so exciting. I just cannot wait to share everything with you all!
