OUR PREGNANCY ANNOUNCEMENT TO FAMILY! What a dayyyy!!
It seems like forever ago that we told our families about our pregnancy.
It was something that was literally keeping me up at nights, mainly because it wasn’t the kind of announcement I had planned my whole life.
When you think about telling your pregnancy announcement to family, you don’t normally think about following that up with “But we had fertility issues and struggled to get pregnant for almost two years…”
But, I also wasn’t going to announce our pregnancy without telling them the whole story. And no, our families did not know about our struggles. Only a few very close friends knew what we were going through. We didn’t want to burden our families with this, however, at the time of announcing our pregnancy, we did want to fill them in on everything we had been through thus far.
Anyway, this post is about HOW we told them, which is very cute BTW. I will definitely get into our infertility struggles when the time is right.
So, as most of you know, Andrew’s family is from Thunder Bay. His parents and two (of four) sister still live there. We wanted to make sure we were telling them in person. My family lives here so that was going to be easy. We had booked our trip to Thunder Bay for when I was going to be 13 weeks pregnant.
At about 9-10 weeks we decided on how we were going to tell them. Our families are big coffee/tea drinkers, so we thought making them customized coffee mugs would be cute, while having coffee beans and the 12-week ultrasound picture rolled up in there.
I went on Etsy and browsed for a while. Lots of customizable mugs were made with vinyl paper text, which I was not into. I wanted something etched in because I wanted them to have this keepsake forever. After all, my parents were going to be first-time grandparents.
I found these fun coffee mugs on Etsy, and right away messaged the company. They were amazing to deal with. I actually designed the mug myself and sent him the artwork. Within 2 days the mugs were shipped and in my hands about 4 days later. I also didn’t want a typical coffee mug, I wanted thick glass mugs. These were perfect. Each mug said “nonna, nonno, papa, and nana” on them, along with “EST. 2022.” at the bottom in smaller letter
The company on Etsy is called Epi Cut, however, it looks like they don’t do coffee mugs anymore. They do wine glasses, champagne glasses, beer mugs, etc.
If you’re looking for similar coffee mugs to mine, here are some really good ones! AuthenticallyAnissa and SnarkyMoose.
HOW WE TOLD MY PARENTS:
We went over to have dinner with my family, and had the mugs in individual gift boxes in a bag. One for my mom, dad, and sister. Once we got there, we poured some drinks. (I had to pretend drink for a few minutes) and then we grabbed the bag, and told them we had some “small” gifts for them. They were a bit surprised because we wouldn’t normally give them small gifts on a random Wednesday evening. LOL.
We handed each of them the boxes and told them to open it up. My sister was the first to note the “auntie” on the mug and gasped, followed by my mom, and then by my dad. There was A LOT of screaming and shouting, followed by some tears and hugs all around. It was a special moment that I will never forget. The happiness in their faces were everything. It was like nothing else mattered at that moment, except this wonderful news. (We have their reactions on video too!)
Once they digested the news, we told them about our fertility struggles and explained in detail what we had been going through. It was difficult for me to get this all out, even though I had probably rehearsed it about 9084 times in my head.
HOW WE TOLD ANDREW’S PARENTS:
The week after telling my parents we were set to head to Thunder Bay. I was a bit nervous about flying so early into my pregnancy, but everyone including my doctor said that at 13 weeks, I was totally okay. The flight was only 2 hours.
Once we arrived, the fun immediately began. Andrew has a very big (Italian) family. They love their wine and cheese. Andrew and I had also planned on doing a gender reveal once we were there with his family in person, and mine on Zoom. I had my best friend, Victoria call into a cake shop in Thunder Bay and get a cake made with either pink or blue icing in the centre. Neither Andrew or I knew the gender yet! That afternoon, we went to go pick up the cake and managed to hide it in one of the fridges. (Yes, there are multiple fridges in this household) I wanted to smash through that cake to find out what I was having that very second LOL. But I held off.
That night, while everyone was together, the wine was flowing, I was yet again pretend-drinking….we decided it was time.
We did the same thing we did with my parents. Pulled out the gift boxes and handed it over to Andrew’s parents. It took them a second because when they saw “nonna” and “nonno” on the cups, they didn’t immediately react. They are already grandparents, and thought we were just bringing them cute gifts. Once they unrolled the ultrasound picture is when it all clicked in. More tears, hugs, and kisses all around. Another unforgettable moment.
THE GENDER REVEAL:
After all the commotion we told everyone we had another surprise for them…and that there was a cake sitting in the fridge with the baby’s gender inside it. Everyone freaked out!
We ran to grab the cake, called up my parents on Zoom and were ready to find out WHAT THE GENDER WAS!!
On three, we cut into the cake to find out we’re HAVING A GIRL.
My heart. Oh, my heart.
Obviously it didn’t mater what we were having, but finding out it was a girl and that Andrew was going to be a “girl dad” just had me in allll the feels.
Anyway, that was how our pregnancy announcement to family went. I loved that it was so intimate. The cups were also such a great idea, because they will have those forever.
We also got ourselves a couple mugs….they say “MILF” and “DILF” LOL. I meannnn, you gotta have some fun, amiright?!
Do you guys have any fun baby announcements you’d like to share? I’d love to know! Share them in the comments.
Xx, kim
+ Check out our Chic & Modern Wedding Announcement Cards.
