birth announcements

[guddy]

hi everyone

it would be interesting to know how everyone announced the arrival of their new babies.

Hi Guddy,
we did nothing very fancy - I handed my dp a list of names and numbers and told him to start ringing... I liked the idea of telling everyone personally and being the first to tell them, but to be honest I hadn't thought about it much.

I created my own annoncement cards on our PC and sent them out. DH was responsible for telling family and 2 close friends by phone immediately and we just sent the cards out for the rest. DS2s announcement cards were from DS1 announcing the arrival of his baby brother.

We drew up a list of email addresses and DH mass e-mailed everyone within a couple of hours of DS being born. (Other than parents, etc of course, who got told by phone before then).

Ds arrived end of November. I'd already done Christmas cards, but left them open, and added (home-printed) announcements, including a scanned photo, to them all before posting (looking back I'm not sure how I managed to get them all done within 3 weeks of his birth, but at the time it seemed quite a good project!) Obviously close friends and family got phoned a bit sooner!

For both of mine I'd put together an announcement on the computer, just without name, weight and date. We added the relevant details, printed these out on large stickers, stuck them on blank postcards with an address label and sent them out. I also kept one to go in the photo album, along with first pics and the cot tags from the hospital.

We rang my mum and dh's mum from the delivery room each time - the first time my mum couldn't believe I actually had enough energy left to be talking to her at that point, and the second time she couldn't believe I'd had the baby when at teatime the evening before I'd said nothing was happening!

Precious memories, now I recount them.

For close family we took some ready-addressed envelopes to hospital along with a polaroid instant camera. We telephoned, obviously, but they were delighted to get a photo next morning!

I was stuck in hospital for a week, so dh rang the most gossipy of my siblings and let them spread the news. When we got home I sent and email out to our whole address book with a digital photo of the proud parents and their brand new sluglet. The instant gratification of email is wonderful, less people felt they had to come and see in person, leaving us in peace for a while.

Both times I had made a list of people and phone numbers for dh to phone as soon as the baby was born - he did it both times while I was being stitched up (wasn't too keen to have him see that bit!!)
THis was close family and friends. I make my own cards and sell them, so decided to make my own birth announcements too. I had them all ready with addressed envelopes and insets printed with space for name, date, weight etc, and sat in hospital for the couple of days I was there filling them in. People really seemed to appreciate the personal touch of it being homemade, and I got some orders out of it too!!!!

I can't believe how organised everyone is!! I don't think I could have typed the announcement before he was born, still couldn't quite believe he'd really arrive - it was weird enough buying nappies and sleepsuits in advance!

Sweet thread! DH and my mum (who was there when ds was born) called everyone in the world within an hour of ds being born. They all then trooped round within the next couple of weeks and we took photos of each of them with new ds. All the photos were individually framed in clipframes with the name of the friends and the date and formed a massive photo gallery on our long hall wall for the next couple of years. Blimey, completely over the top now I look back but it was a nice record of everyone who came to welcome him.