Our Big Announcement

May 2020

My husband wasn’t as enthusiastic as I was for our big pregnancy announcement.

“Let’s just tell people when we see them”, he’d say.

This was my first baby, my first pregnancy; it WAS a big deal to me. I wanted to tell friends and family in a very big way. I wanted everyone we love to feel our excitement. So, I started to do what I do best: Plan.

I had told my dad and his family first. We were at my grandmother's house, helping her pack her belongings. She had just sold her house, two years after my grandfather’s passing. I didn’t plan to tell him in any big way, it just came out that afternoon. His response to the news was much like my husband’s family:

“Congratulations, it’s about time!”, he said, giving me a thumbs up.

My dad was never an emotional person, but appeared happy for us. Over time, I would learn how much he was looking forward to becoming a grandfather.

For all my close friends, I decided a fun post on my social media would be best since we couldn’t organize any gatherings due to Covid-19. I had started browsing on Pinterest for ideas; but most of the great ideas I had found involved too much crafting, and the stores were closed because of the pandemic. One evening, I looked down at my dog Fonzie, and instantly knew how I wanted to announce our pregnancy.

My husband and I are dog lovers. Before we met, he had his dog Toby and I had Fonzie. In 2015, after we had moved in together, our dogs had become inseparable. They’d become the best of friends. We had decided it would be great idea if we could involve them for our announcement. My husband agreed and so I bought a dog sign on Amazon, that read:

“Mom and Dad are getting me a human!” Along with the due date: 11/13/2020.

I had taken a picture of both dogs wearing the sign and posted the photos on social media, as well as group chats we had with close friends. The amount of congratulatory wishes and excitement we received was overwhelming.

Finally, it came time to tell any remaining family, mainly my aunt and uncle on my mom’s side. I decided to Facetime them because I wanted to witness their reaction, which I knew would be memorable. I had my mom on the line as well, who was the first to know about my pregnancy after my miscarriage scare, at 6 weeks. Once I had finally gotten everyone on the line, I started the call by saying;

“I have news for you Auntie Cristina”.

She jumped off her chair, and immediately started screaming.

“I think she figured it out!", I admitted with a smile on my face.

I noticed she was still anticipating the actual announcement.

“What!” she screamed, “Oh my, what’s the news?!” she repeated.

Her voice went into a high pitch and was filled with enthusiasm. Having kept her in enough suspense, we announced in unison;

“We’re pregnant!”

Toby Fonzie