Spreading the Good News...

After finding out that I was pregnant, and telling Tilton that he was going to be a Dad, we were so excited about our Little Nugget that we could hardly wait to share the news with everyone else.  But during our hour-long discussion while laying in bed after I shared the good news with my amazing husband, we decided that it would be best to wait until after our first appointment with the doctor... Which if you read my previous post, you will remember that I thought would be sometime that week.  After the disappointment of knowing that we would have to wait three weeks for that first appointment, we decided to go ahead and share the news with our parents and siblings.  And I'm so glad that we did!  As close as I am to my family and as much as we see them, I definitely would have spilled the beans!

So on Thursday, January 3rd, we took the whole day (I was off work) to surprise our families with the news of our growing family! Here are the stories of how we told each person... Enjoy!

Tilton's Dad:  Mike was the first to find out about Little Nugget.  We were planning to go to Paris, KY that afternoon to see Tilton's brother, so we stopped in Lexington first to see Mike.  We met him at his office and told him we were on our way through Lexington and decided to stop in and say "Hi".  We told him that we had a gift for him... Just something small that I had seen when I was out shopping and it reminded me of him.  He sat at his desk and opened it up, and just kind of stared at it for a moment, and so "Oh, that's cool".  It was a Pittsburgh Steelers onsie jersey, but I don't think he realized that initially. (Side note: For those of you that don't know Mike, or Tilton's family, you should just know that they are HUGE Steelers fans.  So we only thought it appropriate to incorporate this into our announcement to Mike).  He sat there for a few more seconds before Tilton yelled out "We're pregnant!"  That's when he realized exactly what it was we'd given him.  And he LOVED it!  

Tilton's Brother: We were planning to meet Trent that afternoon in Paris, KY, where he works to update our cell phone plan and get new phones, so we decided to share the news with him after all of that business was taken care of.  To tell Trent, we decided to incorporate a movie, since Tilton and his dad and brother are movie-fanatics and can quote almost any movie that you throw at them.  We bought a DVD of the movie "Uncle Buck", and used a sharpie marker to cross out the name "Buck" and wrote in "Trent". 
 

 

 

We wrapped it up and told him that it was a small Christmas gift that we had picked up for him but hadn't had a chance to give him since we didn't see him for the holidays.  His reaction was very similar to Mike's... It didn't register right away.  He saw the DVD and said "Uncle Buck, that's cool... Thanks guys... That's really neat... (pause)... Wait, are you guys pregnant?!?!?" It was awesome!  He's super excited to be an uncle, and I'm sure that Little Nugget can't wait to watch movie after movie with him.  No scary movies though, please! :)

Tilton's Mom, Step-dad, and Sister:  On our way back to Louisville, we made a stop in Frankfort to see Shelly, Tony, and Madison.  We were trying to play it cool and seem very non-chalant because we had just seen them 2 days before to celebrate a late Christmas (which at that time we knew we were pregnant, but were able to keep our lips sealed, somehow?).  I told Shelly we were coming back from Lexington, and just wanted to stop in and say "Hi" since we never get to see them.  She didn't ask any questions, but later informed us that she knew something was going on since we were stopping by to see them for the second time that week.  When we arrived we told her that we had a small gift for her that we had forgotten to bring when we exchanged Christmas gifts earlier that week.  She opened the bag, saw what it was, and said "OH MY GOODNESS!"  She didn't pull it out of the bag, so of course Tony and Madison had no idea what was going on.  Tony said "Well Shelly, take it out of the bag so we can see what it is!"  And then she pulled out this:

 

They were all very excited for us!  And get this...Tilton's step-brother Zach and his fiancé Jennifer are pregnant too, and due about 6 weeks before us! So Shelly and Tony are going to be on double-grandparent-duty! Sounds like fun, huh? :)

My Parents:  I thought about this one for a while, and decided to play off of the way that my mom told my dad that she was pregnant with me (she put a baby bottle in the refrigerator and waited for my dad to find it).  So after leaving Frankfort and heading back to Louisville, I told my parents we would be stopping by.  But first we made a pit stop at Homemade Ice Cream and Pie Kitchen and picked up at coconut cream pie to take with us.  My parents and Tjlton and I have sort of made it "our thing" to go and grab a slice of pie every now and again, so we thought it would be fun to incorporate that into our announcement.  The four of us sat down at my parents' table and and started enjoying the pie, and after of few minutes of chatting, Tilton said, "Man this pie is making me thirsty!"  My dad, being the sweet man that he is, started rattling off drink options to Tilton, "Well we have water, or fruit punch, or..." when I cut in and said "I don't know about you guys but I could go for some milk," and sat a baby bottle filled with milk in the center of the table.  My parents both looked at each other and then looked at me, shocked of course.  And after a few seconds of trying to process what just happened, we were all laughing and hugging, and of course a few tears were shed.  My parents were DYING to become grandparents, and being able to give them that gift means so much to us!

My Sister:  I think her reaction was my favorite of all of them! She was stopping by my parents' house that same night to get my old cell phone from me, so I decided to use her cell phone to tell her.  I wrote this little note of a piece of paper...

 

And took a picture of it with the phone.  I set it as the background on the phone, so that when she turned the phone on, that is what she would see.  After she arrived at my parents I handed her the phone, hoping that she would immediately look at the screen, but of course she didn't.  That would be too easy, right?  Instead she just sat the phone down on the table and started talking about something else.  My dad picked up the phone and turned it on so that the screen was showing and then handed it back to her.  But again, she just sat it back down without even looking at it and continued with her story.  Tilton came to the rescue though, and said "What does that say on your phone?"  She picked up the phone, turned the screen on and read "Hope you like your new phone Aunt Alyssa."  She chuckled a little bit, not realizing what she had just read.  But it only took her a split second to realize what it meant before the most awesome reaction took over.  Her jaw dropped to the floor and she squealed with excitement.  I'm so sad that we didn't get a video or picture of it because her expression was PRICELESS!

My Best Girlfriends:  This was a toughie because everyone is spread out across five different states and seven different cities, and with everyone's crazy, hectic schedules it nearly impossible to gather them all together in one location.  So instead of telling them in person like I wanted to, I opted for a more technological announcement.  I sent them all a mass text message that only had this photo in it...

 

And I just waited for the replies... Which only took about 0.2 seconds to start flooding in!  It wasn't the announcement that I had in mind, but for my amazing group of ladies, it was perfect and they loved it!  I can't tell you how blessed our Little Nugget is going to be to have not just one biological aunt (my sister), but to have so many other amazing women to call "Auntie" as well! :)

The rest of our extended family and friends found out a few weeks later and in various ways... Phone calls, during a meeting about the family vacation that we were planning for this summer, and during a UofL basketball game gathering, where I sported this adorable shirt that I had made:

That announcement was really fun too!

Spreading the news of our Little Nugget has been so much fun for us, and seeing everyone's reactions and excitement just proves to me that Tilton and I  are surrounded by the most amazing family and friends that we could ever dream of!  We are so incredibly blessed, and knowing that our sweet little one will be surrounded by all of these people too, makes this whole having your first baby thing a whole lot less scary! 

Until next time...