the sweet life of a southern wife: throwback thursdays: dont jynx anything

This weeks Throwback Thursday is all about how we told family and friends about our great news.

When I was pregnant I was definitely one of those types that was scared to tell anyone just in case it might jynx something. You see, I have a very dear friend of mine who went through the excitement of finding out, telling everyone, and then suffering from a miscarriage. I saw how hard it was on her to have to tell people she was no longer pregnant. The sadness in her voice and her eyes was enough to scare the crap out of me if I were to ever get pregnant. So I promised myself that when I did get pregnant I would make sure to wait at least the 12 weeks before I went and told the universe.
However, my husband didnt quite understand this whole concept. He was excited beyond belief and didnt know why we wouldnt want to share this with our friends and family. I tried to explain to him that I was excited too, but god forbid anything happen to the baby I wouldnt want to have to talk about it with everyone. So we both agreed not to say anything. About a 3 days later, after an anxious husband pleaded with me, we agreed that he would be allowed to tell his mom and sister if I could do the same.

Now, for those of you who dont know me real well, my sister and I are extremely close. Like BFF's x1000 (ok a lil extreme but you get the point). So I knew I would have to tell her some way special. Since it was my neice's 5th birthday the following day and we were all getting together for dinner, I figured it would be a perfect time to give my sis a little present too. See when we were growing up our mom always made a joke on our birthdays that she was the one who deserved a present, because she was the one who had to go through 12+ hours of labor. My sis and I always used to make fun of her but I thought I could use it to my advantage.

So the next night at dinner I told me sis (and mom) to come out back with me because since she was the one who went through labor she deserved a present too! So my mom, sis, husband and I all went out back and I handed her a little bag. Inside was the pregnancy test with a little ribbon on it as the present. When my sis opened the bag and saw the stick she couldnt even control herself and burst out in tears. My mom didnt understand as she hadnt seen the stick inside and kept asking "What is it? What is it?" So I handed her the lil bag and told her to open it as well. Again here came the waterworks. Everyone was so excited. My sis was a lil upset that i didnt call her the minute I had peed on the stick, but we laughed about it. I let her know that I was planning on calling her the minute it was confirmed by a doctor at my appt the following week.

First ultrasound of our lil boy (we didnt know the gender at that time) at 6.5 weeks.

Then I let them know that this was to be kept a secret until Matt and I were ready to tell everyone else. Now you thought it was hard for me and Matt to try and keep this a secret? Well it was way harder for my overly excited mother and sister to do the same!

We then decided Thanksgiving would be a perfect time to tell everyone else. Since we were going on a family cruise we figured it would be a perfect time to tell my niece and nephew. And then everyone else we would tell once we were home from the cruise.


Family Thanksgiving Cruise 2011 (not picture is my mother-in-law and her boyfriend who also came but got on the ship later than us)

It was actually very interesting trying to keep the secret from my nephew. He knows Im the type to do adventurous things with him, so when I declined going on the tallest/longest over water zip line with him in Labadee, Haiti, he asked "But why Leah? I thought you wanted to go on it?" My brother-in-law actually came to the rescue in a split second, claiming I had "lower lumbar back pain" and wasnt allowed to go on. I at first laughed, thinking is my 11yr old nephew even going to understand what his father just said? But then my BIL informed me they had just read the excursion descriptions back in their cabin and the 2 reasons it said people werent allowed to go on the zipline were being pregnant and lower lumbar back pain.

So that night at Thanksgiving dinner when we told the kids that I was pregnant, my BIL said to my nephew "now do you see why we had to say that about Leah and not being able to go on the zipline?" And my nephew goes, "so hold on, you dont have lower lumbar back pain?" All of us adults just burst out laughing. Between my nephews reaction and my neice getting so excited about having a baby cousin, Thanksgiving turned into one memorable night!

For the rest of our friends, they gradually found out I was pregnant. Mostly from finally realizing that I wasnt drinking anymore at any of our social gatherings. It was great to see everyones surprising reactions. Everyone was so happy for us. Im glad I can look back and see that this was definitely a special time in our lives.