Baby Fred - Finding Out and Telling People!!

I've officially been working on this post for probably six months... and I'm finally finished with it now that it's almost time for this baby to make his or her appearance! I'm just happy I got it done before the baby decided to join us!

If you don't want to see pictures of plastic sticks I've peed on, you can stop reading now :) 

This is a compilation of how Trent and I found out we were having a baby and a few short stories of how we told some of our family!

Trent and I found out on a Tuesday morning (December 9 to be exact) that I was pregnant. We had decided the night before that the next morning would take a test. For some reason, I went to Target the night before and, while I was there, I decided to just pick up another pregnancy test or two (I must have just had one at home). I stood there in the aisle with the pregnancy tests and just stared at them all for a while, a few people came and went from the aisle while I stood there and picked up and put down several of the boxes. One girl in particular walked down the aisle and picked up something then walked behind me and left around the corner. A second or two later, she popped back around the corner and said, "Just buy the digital one. You won't regret it." I laughed and thanked her for her advice, picked up one of the digital ones, and was on my way!

Tuesday morning, Trent and I woke up like normal. He went downstairs to handle the dogs and I woke up and went into the bathroom to get in the shower. I took the non-digital test and took it (because I decided it would be less devastating to just not see a pink line rather than have the words "NOT PREGNANT" stare back at me!). After I peed on the stick, I laid the test on the counter and stood over it and watched as the control line darkened up and then slowly - oh so slowly - I watched the faintest pink test line show up. I did a little hop-skip and jumped in to the shower with a huge smile on my face!! I said a huge thank you to God because I know that this was all His doing! 

After a few minutes in the shower, I had to check the line again, so I jumped out in the middle of the shower to take another look. It was darker by that time and I couldn't believe it! I pranced right back into the shower to finish. (And the test is still sitting on the shelf in the bathroom - before this, I would have said that's kind of gross, but I love seeing it every day and remembering how that moment felt!!)

I don't think I have ever showered so fast in my life. I washed my hair and shaved (and got out to check the test) all in ten minutes! (And if you know me, you know that's super fast!) I was just so excited to go down and tell Trent the news!

After I was all out of the shower and dried off, I put on my robe and scurried down the stairs to tell Trent. He was in the kitchen leaning on the island eating some cereal. I stood in the doorway between the dining room and the family room and said with a big smile on my face, "I'm pregnant!" I think he said something like "no way" or "you're kidding" or something! (I wouldn't kid about something like that) So I went up to him to show him the test so he could see it for himself!

We both just kind of laughed and he gave me a cute shocked/happy/what did we just do? face... 

Then I ran back upstairs to finish getting ready for the day - smiling the whole time!

Before I left for work, I had to pee again, so I decided to use one of the digital tests I had bought the night before. Before long, there was the word "Pregnant" EEEEE!!!

I sent a picture of it to Trent as I was leaving for work just so he had more confirmation that this was real! His reaction made me smile again!

I called the doctor's office as soon as they opened at 8 to make an appointment for blood tests and to make our first prenatal appointment.

Throughout the day, it was kind of crazy talking to people at work - we'd just be talking about normal, every day things, like we would do any other day and I would be thinking in my head, "They have no idea my whole world just changed!" That was a pretty crazy feeling and it went on like that with everyone we talked to for a few months before we felt comfortable to start telling people!

It's been a pretty crazy, fun and exciting 7 months since we found out, but I can honestly say that I don't think I have ever loved Trent more than during this time!! He's such an amazing husband and I can't wait to experience being parents with him!

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Trent's Parents

The first people we told here Trent's parents and we actually didn't even mean to tell them! We had decided that we weren't going to tell our parents until about mid-January, after we had our first OB appointment, but we knew it might be difficult to do that since we'd be with them for many days at a time during the holidays. Despite the challenge, we decided that would be the best thing to do.

We got to Trent's parents' house on Friday night and by the time Monday rolled around, I had turned down wine and Dr. Pepper and then actually accepted some wine at Trent's grandma's but then had Trent chug it for me while hiding out of site from everyone!

We sat down for supper on Monday evening and the conversation turned to kids for one reason or another. Trent and I instantly looked at leach other and couldn't stop smiling. Then something was said to the effect of "What do you think the timeline is on that?" and after a few moments of hesitation, Trent stutters out "....uh... August?"

Then there were a few confused looks exchanged by Trent's parents followed by one of them saying "What? Are you pregnant?" and me hitting Trent on the arm and saying "Did you really just say that?"

After that, there were hugs and tears and smiling and lots more to talk about!! 

Later that night Trent asked me if telling them was all I had imagined it to be and I told him that it was even better than I had imagined! I love surprises and that was the biggest and best surprise that I was able to be surprised about while being able to surprise other people at the same time! There was no anticipation or nervousness going init to, it just happened and it was great!

Just perfect!!

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My Mom

Since we let the news slip to Trent's parents before we had intended to, we made a plan to tell my mom as well while we were visiting for Christmas. We didn't want to tell her until we were alone with her, so that meant we had to wait several days until everyone else was gone from her house. 

Finally, on Sunday, right after Kellsey and Wade left to go home, we had a chance to tell her, so that's what we did with the first chance we got. We had her come to the table and said we had one final present for her. She asked if it was going to make her cry. I don't remember if I said "probably" or "maybe" but really, I knew she was going to... :)

In my mom's newspaper, she does a little section called "Grandma's Brag Book" that has a picture of a grandma with her grandchildren and a little caption explaining who's in the picture and things like that. Since this will be my mom's first grandchild, I decided to make my own little "Grandma's Brag Book" column to give to her since she'll be in the "Grandma Club" now.

I was planning on doing it up nice and making it look like it would in the paper, but since our plans to tell our parents got moved up by a few weeks, I had to improvise. I just used a piece of paper and on the front put "Grandma's Brag Book" and then on the inside, I put our ultrasound picture in there along with a caption that I made up. Since it's been six months since this happened, I've had my mom make up what it may have looked like had I been prepared:

When my mom opened it she looked super shocked and asked if it was for real and started crying. We couldn't tell if it was a happy cry or a mortified cry or sad cry or what... she assures us it was a very happy cry - she was just caught off guard haha.

I also had wrapped up a Christmas bulb ornament that we had found at my Grandma and Grandpa's a few days before when we were out there. It said "Grandma's Make Every Day a Holiday" on it. I just thought it was appropriate since that pertained to her now too!

It was nice to be able to have my mom know so she could understand when I had to leave the kitchen to go lay down or know why I didn't want to eat some things. I don't think she loved having to keep the secret, though!

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Jared and Kenzie

We had to be sure to make a trip home to see my brother and his girlfriend in person to tell them our good news because we didn't have any get-togethers planned. We were on a tight time frame and we actually had to go out to out to their house and pry them out of bed to get them to come out to the living room with us so we could tell them the news. 

I didn't have any real big clever way to tell them (and I think that coming out and saying it is a little awkward in itself) so I was nervous to have to actually say it out loud. 

So, after we were all sitting in the living room, I said, "A few months ago, Trent and I decided we were going to try and have a baby... So we tried... And now we're having one"

And that was that! 

Both of their first words were "I knew it!" 

I'm not convinced that they really "knew" at the right time, but I'm sure they had their suspicions. :)

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Aunt Doreen and Uncle Nick

We stopped and told Nick and Doreen our news right before we had gone out to tell Jared and Kenzie.

My mom said she wanted to bring along the "Grandma" ornament that we had given to her when we told her and use that to tell them the news, so when we walked in, she stood by them and said, "Do you want to see what Trent and Kendra gave to me?"

Then she got the ornament out and showed it to them and as soon as they had a chance to read what the ornament said, the celebration began. I'm pretty sure they had their suspicions because it was kind of random that we had made a point to be sure they were going to be home and ready for us to come see them that early on a Saturday morning (and they kept looking at me and smiling when my mom asked them if the wanted to see what we got her), but it was still good to get the news out in the open!

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Melodie and Russ and the girls

Towards the end of January, all of Trent's family gathered at our house to celebrate Trent's parent's anniversary, so that was the perfect opportunity to tell Trent's sister and her family. 

I had just recently finished a gallery wall that is on our dining room wall that has our parents' and grandparents' wedding pictures on it. It also had a current family picture of us and then I had one leftover frame. I decided to put one of our ultrasound pictures in the extra frame before they arrived at our house and just wait until someone noticed the picture. 

Right after everyone arrived, we all sat down for lunch at the dining room table. Towards the end of lunch, I saw Trent's sister look at the wall for a little bit, she then looked at Trent's mom and then back to the wall and then she looked at me and asked "What is that picture of?"

I smiled and kind of nervously laughed and then said, "That's a picture of our baby." 

After the initial shock wore off, there were tears and smiles and happiness and much more to talk about!! We even got to go to Pottery Barn Kids that day and look at cribs and chairs and other fun stuff like that! :)

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Grandma and Grandpa Kock (and Uncle Dan and Alex, too!)

We made a trip one Saturday to tell people that we hadn't seen since Christmas time because we didn't want to wait any longer to share our news! Our first stop was in Westside where we had breakfast at my mom's with Grandma and Grandpa Kock, Dan and Alex, and Jared. We ate and then before it was time for us to leave and go to our next stop, we gave Grandma and Grandpa the card below.

I don't think they saw it coming either so I think they were surprised and excited :) 

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Trent's Grandma

The second stop on our trip was up to Webster City to tell Trent's Grandma. She thought we were just coming up to have lunch with her, which, of course, would always be a good enough reason to make the trip, but this was extra special!

We arrived and chatted for a little while at her house and then right before it was time to head out to eat, Trent gave me that "Well... just tell her already!!" look. I don't know why I get so nervous to tell people, but I think it's the whole just coming out and saying it thing that makes me feel all weird about it! 

So finally, I just said, "We have something to tell you." (Or Trent said it, I don't 100% remember - I was too nervous!) and she guessed it right away!! There were hugs all around and she was super excited for us! It gave us plenty to talk about over lunch and definitely made it okay that I mostly just had cheeseballs at lunch :)

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Kellsey and Wade

Our final stop on our trip around the western half of Iowa was to see Kellsey and Wade. We were supposed to have supper with them, but there was a bad storm coming (which we ended up driving home in) and I really don't think I could have ate any more that day anyways after a big breakfast in Westside and lunch in Webster City! So we just ended up stopping by their apartment for a little while to tell them.

I knew since Christmas time how I wanted to tell Kellsey because I knew that she would really appreciate it and get it. :) 

Around Christmas, Old Navy had a commercial with Julia Louis-Dreyfus where she has what she thinks should be her nieces' and nephews' "favorite present from their favorite aunt" and it's a horse named Esteban! Kellsey and I quoted that commercial a few times over Christmas, so I then knew what I was going to do to tell her we were having a baby!

You can see the commercial here if you don't know what I'm referring to:

I bought a little white horse and wrapped him up with a ribbon and a tag that said "Esteban" on it and gave it to Kellsey with a note that said, "So you can try to be the favorite aunt in August."

I think it's safe to say that she was pretty surprised when she opened the gift and realized what it was for. I was so happy that she was surprised because I was afraid she was onto us!! (Wade said he knew, so I'm glad he didn't tell either! haha)

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Jocelyn

We usually have lunch with Joce once a week, so we were going to use that time one week to tell her the news. The week that we planned on telling her, Betsy (her roommate) was going to come and have supper with us as well. We weren't quite ready to tell people outside of family yet, so we had to try to figure out a way to tell Jocelyn alone.

We decided we'd invite her over for supper the night before our official "family supper" was planned for that week. We told her Trent was making enchiladas and that she should come have some. She got kind of suspicious and said she felt like she was being trapped and we were going to tell her some bad news. She said she thought we were going to tell her we were moving or something like that.

So, when I got home from work and told Trent that Jocelyn was onto us and suspecting some sort of news, of course he played right into that. When she got to our house, he told her that we were moving. He said he got a job in Wisconsin and was moving in two weeks and that I was going to stay back in Omaha until we sold our house and then join him. Trent did all the talking because there was no way that I was going to get anything out without ruining it. So I just stood there and watched her get really sad and upset and then finally just say, "Well, let's just eat so I can go home cuz I don't like this." or something like that! 

It didn't take long for us to tell her we were just kidding and to tell her that we DID have some news to share though. I then told her that we were going to have a baby!! Of course, there was some hesitation in her believing us since we had just got done tricking her into thinking some other big news was real, but soon enough, we got her to believe us and she was super excited! 

I did feel a little bad about the little roller coaster of emotions we had brought her on :) But it was still fun!

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Aunt Barb,  Meghan, Molly, and Steph

I decided to tell my Aunt Barb and my cousins on my mom's side at our annual girls weekend that we had in February. We all met in Des Moines at a nail place and I had my mom show up with a T-shirt on that read "Great Moms Get Promoted to Grandmas"

As soon as she walked in and took off her coat, my cousin, Molly, noticed it and asked which one of us was pregnant, either Kellsey or myself! She sure has eagle eyes :)

We had a fun weekend all hanging out together and I even got to do my first shopping for some maternity clothes! Turns out my cousin's wife, Steph was also pregnant at that time! I'm sure that wasn't a fun secret for her to have to keep while we were talking about me being pregnant too!

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Grandma and Grandpa Jons

The last family members that I got to tell were Grandma and Grandpa Jons. Millie and I actually made a stop to see them at the nursing home one weekend and told them the news.

It was nice to see them both smile when we told them! It isn't always easy to get a smile out of Grandma, so that really made me happy. She even told us a little about what she remembered about being pregnant. :)

I am still hoping to see them one more time before the baby arrives so they are able to see how big I've gotten, but we'll see if I make it out of Omaha before then!! 

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There were several other family members and friends that we wanted to be able to tell ourselves, but we just didn't have the chance to see before we thought the news would get out, so we either texted them or called them or sent them messages to share the good news. Everyone was very happy for us and it was always fun to share it with more and more people!

And now, here we are, a month away from the date when this baby is due to join us out here on the outside of my belly and then we'll have some even better news to share with everyone!! I just can't wait :)