How did you announce your pregnancy?

[whycanineverthinkofausername]

Apparently I'm not the only one in my Facebook/extended family/life to recently find out they're pregnant! All the announcements have been very sweet but I'm lost at what to do now. I was see myself as creative but I've hit a block! A generic status will not cut it with me! (The important people are being told face to face on Christmas Day/s)

How did you announce your pregnancy to the world?

I announced the birth. Before that we told our parents and people I actually saw noticed the big bump attached to the front of me. I saw no need to announce. I hid it for as long as I could and wish it could have been longer.

DC1 my parents got a grandparents Christmas card with scan pic. First DGC for them. FIL got a similar thing but in his birthday card.

DC2 we casually mentioned it to FIL and I just left the scan pics on the side for my parents waiting got them to notice and twig.

Everyone else I wanted to tell was told/text. No big FB announcement or anything

It's been a struggle for me in a lot of ways, even getting to this point was a huge hurdle & I'm very excited.
Unlike what seems like a lot of you I don't have randoms from my life sitting on my Facebook just to get a few extra happy birthdays from, I have friends and family which I don't have the luck to be able to see or speak to very often.
This was purely just to cheer me up & I think pregnancy announcements are lovely, if you don't care when you see them, then why exactly are you 'friends' with these people?

It gives you a lovely reason to call them.

Or put it in their Xmas cards.
Or if you want to tell some family on Xmas day then send new year cards instead of Xmas cards with it in to other family.

This was purely just to cheer me up & I think pregnancy announcements are lovely, if you don't care when you see them, then why exactly are you 'friends' with these people?

My friends just say they are pregnant without any twee nonsense. It's the news that's interesting, not the way it's delivered.

I think a lot of you presume I'm massively flamboyant attention seeker by the rest of the posts I've just read but you really couldn't be more wrong & this is what frustrates me about this website.
I suffer from horrible anxiety & I'm off with depression at the moment. Which I've fought for years, I'm in the complete opposite end of the bracket to what's been presumed of me. I don't go out. Me & DP have struggled to get to this point. I meant this as nothing but light hearted as I wanted a few ideas.

Purple- I don't see my friends very often & we communicate mostly through Facebook due to me. All I was thinking was a picture of some baby boots and a scan picture.

I didn't make an annoucement. I told the important people (parents, siblings, close friends) after 12 weeks and DM and MIL blabbed to all the other relatives. I certainly wouldn't dream of announcing it on social media. Loads of people still don't know and haven't seemed to notice my enormous bump (how??). I'm 33 weeks and I know that my imminent arrival will take some people by surprise, but who cares?!

When it came to telling my family I just told Jungle Drums (my mum), waited 10 to 12 seconds then everyone else knew.

I agree with you OP about Facebook. Clearly some people use it differently or have got different social arrangements but I have a lot of people in my life who would fall into a category of "would like to know details of each other's lives but a phone call about it would be a bit much". Facebook is our best and most convenient way of keeping in touch.

(As an aside, for some situations, using Facebook as a means of mass communication is less self important than ringing around lots of people individually to tell them your "Special News". At least by using Facebook you're giving people the option not to care that much as no one has to respond or pay any attention to it if they don't want).

I didn't like the idea of posting a scan picture so I put up a picture of a shelf of neatly arranged babygros and baby stuff (from our house, not a random image) but only after we'd told other closer people in person/by phone/by text.

Congratulations

OP, can I just add that my reason for not announcing on FB is because I have suffered four miscarriages before this pregnancy and I didn't want to a) tempt fate and b) I know how it feels to lose a baby then see baby announcements all over FB - it's really upsetting. That was my main factor in not telling the world.

Main thing is to get on top of the depression before baby arrives so you can cope with baby and the anxieties and sleep deprivation and be able to go out and about, being at home with a baby can make you climb the walls. If lots of your friends have also "announced" their pregnancies then you will be able to have some nice meet ups whilst on maternity leave.

Personally I just told people when I saw them. But if Pinterest is anything to go by, Christmas themed pregnancy announcements are not uncommon. Have a look there for ideas eg a mummy, daddy and baby stocking hanging from the mantle piece .

whycan you can announce your pregnancy in whichever way you choose. Anxiety and depression are horrible and I'm sorry you're going through that.

Can you see how your op might have looked attention seeking-"a generic status will not cut it with me"? If you have any suspicion that any of your friends are struggling to conceive, I wouldn't put the scan photo on.

Congratulations by the way.

Coming up to Christmas should be a good celebratory time to tell people. We are not making any announcement as its DC4 (I may just get a t-shirt to wear that says 'Yes we have a TV) and too many of my lovely friends are having fertility problems at the moment for me to feel able to announce as such.

Have you had a look on Pintrest? You could put a scan pic in with Christmas cards?

Congratulations :)

I didn't announce it - it isn't a debutante ball...

... also I knew several people struggling with infertility and one who had suffered a recent neonatal death. I'm sure they were happy for us but we wanted to keep it low key and not be twee or Pinterest-y.
We just popped a quiet 'by the way we are having a baby ' status on once we'd informed our nearest and dearest. Next baby related status was when we actually had the baby.

If you do put scan pics on (we didn't) make sure you remove the personal data that's on them.

Also not related to your op but if you and dp are not married it s a good idea to get all the legal stuff sorted e.g wills etc before baby is born.

Yes it is the " generic posts won't cut it" comment which perhaps gave the wrong impression

Plim- thank you as I was beginning to think I was completely alone in this, I've had a few announcements on Facebook this year so I knew this wasn't completely stupid idea.
That's a lovely idea as I wasn't mad about the scan picture either if I'm honest, it's very personal to me & my partner but it was his idea and I didn't have a better one.

On & around Christmas I've planned cards for my close family for when I see them face to face. So far only my mum & work know.

Twodogs- I'm so sorry about that, I have suffered one before & i think excitement has overtaken common sense really as I've never got this far. I've got everything crossed for you x

I'm always very happy for friends when I see a scan photo! Do what feels happy for you, it's a wonderful announcement to make, and I always feel such joy when people share this news!

Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy. Now go have fun announcing!

Told those who needed to know. Everyone else found out through the grapevine effect. I didnt put anything on FB and dodnt look preggo so wasnt a big deal

I didn't put it on FB but I told close family by giving xmas cards with a scan pic in - a sister card for dd and extra grandparent cards for mil and my parents. None of them got it - just said thanks for the card. Just shows that no one actually bothers reading xmas cards!!!

As someone who has been through a shit ton of friends and family pregnancies, I can tell you that to the un-involved, scan pictures look like those inkblot pictures. There's really nothing more to them for us, however thrilling you find them.

Just tell people you are pregnant, when it's due and how happy you are.

I fear if you try and make it a big thing, you will feel hurt by the people who saw the post and didn't immediately react (and then forgot/life got in the way). In the nicest possible way, people WILL be pleased for you, but it will be "pleased and then move on to that work email/shopping/getting ready for bed/whatever"