Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

Please or to access all these features

LGBT parents

This board is primarily for those whose children have LGBTQ+ parents to share their personal experiences and advice.

we're pregnant! ... the reactions

30 replies

temm09 · 16/02/2010 09:42

I am thrilled to be 15 weeks pregnant with our first (after an MC last year)

DP and I have been together for 11 years. We spent a long time deliberating about children and decided to go for a known donor, since we feel it is important that our child knows its father, and since we have the perfect man for the job. We have been friends with KD and his partner for nearly 9 years (and they have been together as long as we have) and this is something we discussed and joked about pretty much since we met. The boys will be involved in the child's life and KD will be known as Daddy, but DP and I will bring the child up and will be responsible for all decisions and finances, etc.

Now that I am in the second trimester we are starting to share the news with people who didn't already know and of course encounter every type of reaction imaginable. That's fine, we were all prepared for all the questions and we all know how long it took us to get our heads around the idea so we expect other people to need time too. But today I'm just feeling pee'ed off about it all, sick of the questions, which quite frankly are very personal and inappropriate, and sick of listening to everyone else's concerns. I mean, we don't go speaking our minds to a heterosexual couple who announce that they are pregnant saying "how did you do it - what position worked for you?" or "but have you thought about this...?" or "oh but what will happen when you break up?" or "are you sure this is a good idea, I mean I had noticed that the two of you have a really rubbish relationship and this clearly seems like a band-aid baby" No, when a straight couple announce they are pregnant, everyone congratulates them and is very glad for them, whether sincere or not.

Having to endure all the questions and listen to the worries that well-meaning friends and families and aunties of friends, and next-door-neighbours of families have is starting to wear down my resolve and fill me with doubts that we are doing the right thing - sometimes I think what have we done?! We have had a lot of time to think and plan and draw up agreements about our situation, but of course we know that we are going to face challenges that we can't possibly imagine now, and there will be so many feelings to consider. We all agree that the child comes first, but that will not take away our individual feelings. I'm feeling worried that the boys are going to become more attached than we or they initially thought, and are going to want to be more involved than we agreed. I'm worried that DP and I are going to find ourselves running everything past them and feeling like we have to invite them to every event we go to. With everyone else's negative outlook on our situation I can't help but think only of the downsides and potential issues we will face - oh my gosh, if this is what it's like when our child is only a 15-week old foetus, what are we in for?! Hopefully when the baby comes it will be easier to shut out everyone else's judgement and negativity.

Would be lovely to hear your stories of similar situations that work well please, to get me back on the positive track!

OP posts:
Are your children’s vaccines up to date?
hester · 23/02/2010 18:26

temm, it's great to hear back from you.

Just one thing for now: I agree it seems artificial to quantify contact if these are good friends, but I would still advise doing it. It's not about limiting contact, it's about agreeing on the absolute minimum you will guarantee. So, in my dd's first month her dad was around most days; in her first year he came over about three times a week. That was fine with me; I think with a small baby you have to see them quite often to build up a relationship. But our contract said once a week, and we were all clear with each other that this was the absolute minimum we would stick to should the worst happen and we ended up hating each other. You can introduce it in that way, as a bit of a joke, but with the really serious message that even if it becomes inconvenient for you, you will still honour your child's relationship with his/her dad. It also means that you appear very generous with any extra contact. And makes it much easier to reduce the frequency of contact (as we did after a year, when it made sense to make the visits longer and less frequent) without seeming to take anything away.

Remember your contract is your rainy day ideal: it does not set out your aspiration for the lovely, cosy, close relationship you all hope to have; it sets out your cast-iron bottom-level guarantees.

But feel free to ignore me! My daughter's dad is NOT a close friend, and you know better than anyone what works for your friendship.

We didn't set any limits on family visits, by the way - I have always accommodated these where I possibly can. I did have a bit of a gulp moment when our donor's mum (who I had never actually met) turned up hours after I had given birth, accompanied by about a million of her nearest and dearest, and a christening shawl knitted by a 94-year-old Irish nun! But actually, they have never been intrusive and I'm always happy to welcome them to our home.

mumblecrumble · 09/03/2010 06:07

Hi, token non-lesbian her but was so happy for you and your dp! How exciting!

And that would have been my reaction in real life. Sorry folks are reacting not exactly as you like, but, as others have mentioned, most couples have the same.

We;d been married 2 years, fairly conventional (boring!) folks and family knew we had been trying... yet my Mums reaction was 'right then well we'll see how that goes..." Quite upset me.

I teach in a school and there are so many differnt families that kids belong too. And I know it sounds cheesy but if any of 'my kids' at school had 2 loving mums and a dad who cared then i would consider them one of the lucky ones!!!

Congratulations and enjoy your pregnancy, It will be worth every second.

Dorchies · 10/03/2010 21:53

We had so many questions when we announced our pregnancy and especially lots of concerns from mainly my in-laws about how my partner would fit into the family and how she would be protected should our relationship end. Why didn't we jointly adopt so that we would both be joint legal parents and the child didn't belong to just one of us etc etc.............it caused a few problems but once the baby arrived all the questions stopped and it's all sorted itself out. We now have two children and my partner has adopted the first one and is in the process of adopting the next.

Congratulations with the pregnancy and I hope it continues will. It sounds like your child will be loved by lots of people which is the most important thing.

temm09 · 16/03/2010 10:02

Thanks so much for your lovely, supportive messages - gosh, you do just want to hear lovely things at this time don't you! And hearing other people's experiences (gay and straight) does help put the negative stuff into perspective.

We had a private scan on the weekend so that all four of us could be together when we found out the gender. It was an amazing experience - being private, we didn't feel rushed or like we were inconveniencing overworked NHS staff and little baby put on quite a show and they even flicked over to 4D. For only 18+4 weeks, baby is quite cute (in an alien way)! We were all convinced it was a little boy, but turns out we're having a little girl!

I feel so reassured and re-energised about my pregnancy after the scan - knowing that she's doing so well in there and having a better idea of how big she is and what those little movements are that I'm feeling.

All four of us are over the moon and it was an amazing experience to share together -
the first of many!

OP posts:
oksonowwhat · 09/05/2010 23:44

A bit of a late congratulations!

Just wondered how it all was going?

New posts on this thread. Refresh page