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.