Spilling the Beans...

The Facts

We told our families the big news.

His Side

When you find out big information like the fact you’re going to become a father for the first time, you want to tell the world. Unfortunately, it’s become the norm to wait a little while to spill the beans. There is a higher risk of miscarriage in the first 12 weeks or so which makes waiting a safer bet. That waiting is tough, though. 

Telling family, however, is something that we wanted to do sooner. We wanted to wait until we had gotten the first ultrasound, though. This issue we ran into was that we were going to be on vacation with my side of the family on on the week we could schedule the first ultrasound. So, we had to schedule it for the week we got back from vacation. That was terrible because being on vacation with my side of the family would have been the perfect opportunity to tell them. Especially because this would be the first grandkid/great grandkid on my side.

As the week of vacation went on, Kristi didn’t feel her best. She had to opt out of some things that aren’t as safe for pregnant women and she was tired a lot. We decided that we would go ahead and tell them. This made my week!

First we told my parents on the beach after a lackluster dinner out. It certainly made up for the mediocre dinner! They were ecstatic and, of course, had a ton of questions. We had a nice walk down the beach with just them after breaking the news and we got to talk all about it. We were going to wait to tell the rest of the family for another couple of days though. That was the hard part… especially for my mom. 

We told my grandparents by saying “you’re really good grandparents. And you’re going to be great grandparents.” They understood immediately and we excited. This would be the first time any of them were going to have a great grandchild so they will have to cope with the title of “Great Grandma” and “Great Grandpa” but I think they’ll do just fine!

When we got back from vacation, we told Kristi’s mom and she was surprised and excited. She already has two grandkids but, if you saw her reaction, you would realize that she was just as thrilled about this one as she was about her other two. I guess hearing that news never gets old!

You only get to tell your family that you’re having your first child one time and it is such a joy getting to share that moment with them in person. I am very glad we did it the way we did.

Her Side

From the very moment that we found out I was pregnant, we were extremely excited to tell both of our families. While we wanted to tell them immediately, we decided that we would wait until after our first ultrasound appointment at 9 weeks before we told anyone. Well, we soon realized that our vacation with Nolan’s family just so happened to be the week before our first appointment and his entire family would be there. He mentioned wanting to go ahead and tell them, but I was still hesitant. Unfortunately, plans don’t always work out how we want them to, and these weren’t any exception. I was feeling pretty fatigued and foods were very iffy for me. Thank goodness I never got sick, but feeling nauseous was enough torture for me! I didn’t want his family to think I was being a big stick in the mud and we realized that, as our week at the beach went on, it would get harder to conceal our secret. So, we made the decision to tell Nolan’s parents.

Something to note here is that this baby will be a first of many on Nolan’s side of the family; the first grandchild for his parents, and the first great-grandchild on both sides of his family.

So, after dinner one night we decided to walk with Nolan’s parents along the beach back to our place and tell them on the walk. I was so nervous! Not because I didn’t know how they would react, but because I get nervous at basically everything, so thank goodness Nolan likes to talk… We took a picture of them and instead of the normal “1,2,3, cheese,” Nolan switched it to “1,2,3, first time grandparents!” The looks on their faces were priceless and their reactions were awesome!

Later in the week, I finally decided I was okay with telling the rest of Nolan’s family. I didn’t want to deprive him of the opportunity to tell them face-to-face. So, Nolan casually slipped it into conversation with his granny and grandma and grandpa (in separate conversations with each). He mentioned how they are pretty good grandparents, but would be GREAT grandparents. I thought this was a rather clever way to spill the beans! Again, they were ecstatic and it was exciting to finally be telling our families.

As soon as we got back in town from vacation we wanted to tell my mom. We brought her back some taffy (since she loves that stuff!) and decided to put it in a bag to give her. On the outside of the bag I wrote “ To: Grandma… From: Baby Collins”. So, we gave her the bag and waited for her to realize what the outside said. As soon as she realized what it meant, she was also very excited and slightly shocked I think. Her baby is having a baby… that has to be a weird feeling! Words can’t express how glad I was to finally tell my mom.

While telling our families didn’t work out exactly how I had envisioned (especially when it came to my siblings), I’m so excited to be able to share this special moment in our lives with all of them.

Finding out the big secret...

The Facts

We found out that we are expecting our first child.

His Side

Ever since we joined a local gym, I have been getting out of bed at the way-to-early hour of 6:30. To some people, this may be a normal time to get out of bed and start the day. Not to me. Normally, I get to the gym a little before 7 and spend an hour or so working out. Then I’ll get home, have a snack and make our lunches that we will take to work. April 27th was different.

As I was finishing up on the treadmill, Kristi texted me to ask when I was going to head home. This may not seem like a strange question, but sometimes it isn’t common for her to even be out of bed and awake enough to text me. If she is up at that time, she’s busy getting ready for work. So, I thought something was up. I didn’t know what but my mind was working as I drove home.

We were in our second month of trying to conceive so I thought maybe she’s pregnant! But then I thought that probably wasn’t it. I figured it would take more than two months. When I got home, though, I was in for a wonderful surprise. I gave Kristi a kiss and she told me she got me a card. So I opened it, and as I read it, the message became clear. She also happened to be taking video of the big reveal so you can see it all over my face as the realization hits me. 

Needless to say, I was excited and couldn’t think about much else at work that day. I knew we were in for a big, thrilling journey that would change our lives forever.

Her Side

The Monday morning in question started out like most others. Nolan got out of bed to go to the gym at a ridiculously early hour (well, technically, anything before 8:00am falls into this category for me) and I stayed in bed so I could get a little bit more rest before the work week was to kick off. On this particular morning I had already told myself I would take a test just for fun… and no, I’m not talking about one of those millions of “tests” or quizzes you can take on Facebook at any given moment… I’m talking about a pregnancy test. Let me tell you how I expected that morning to pan out. I thought I would roll out of bed, take the aforementioned test, and continue to get ready for the morning just as normal because I fully expected it to say “NOT PREGNANT”. Boy was I in for a surprise when a short 3 minutes later that little stick said “PREGNANT”. I thought for a moment that my eyes were deceiving me and I was still in a fog from just waking up. So, I blinked a few times and squinted to make sure I read it correctly. Sure enough, it was there plain as day… PREGNANT. 

Moments after I found out the results, I texted Nolan to see when he would be home from the gym as I couldn’t contain my excitement or the news for much longer. By the time he got home I had a card ready for him that would share the good news. I acted pretty nonchalant (if I do say so myself) when he walked in the door and I acted as if I had come across a card that had been stowed away for a while that I wanted to give him. I managed to set up my phone to capture his reaction and it was glorious. You can see the look on his face as he realized what the card was saying… He is going to be a DAD!  I will NEVER forget that moment.

Now, after the shock of everything began to wear off I started to question the accuracy of the test I had taken. Yes, the company boasts the 99.9% accuracy of its test, but that .01% is what I was honing in on. So, I scheduled an appointment that day for a blood test with my doctor just to make sure I didn’t take the 1 in a million test that was faulty. Just as the doctor and I suspected, the blood test confirmed that I am indeed pregnant. I guess at this point I should admit that I took another home test later in the week because I still didn’t quite believe it. Nolan thought I was insane, but kindly kept all comments to himself… and yes, it still said PREGNANT.

Later that week I set up my OB/GYN appointment to have our first ultrasound. When they told me they like to set up the first appointment for somewhere between 8 and 10 weeks, I was disappointed. So, for a solid month all I had to go on was a home test and a blood test… well, and the occasional nauseous feeling and extreme aversion to certain foods, I guess. But other than that, I was forced to put my faith in the accuracy of those tests.

So, my first lesson(s) on this journey of being pregnant are trust and patience. Two things that aren’t always easy for me to embrace, but are proving to be extremely important for my sanity.

Words can’t express how excited Nolan and I are to be on this new journey in life together. To think that by the end of the year (if all goes well) I will be a mom and he will be a dad is something I can’t even begin to comprehend!