When did you announce pregnancy to child?

[MrsHewett]

Hi, I've just found out I'm pregnant and we are super excited. I don't want to tell my daughter too early incase it doesn't work out as we would hope, but she's not silly and will notice a bump! Did anyone else show early on, if so, from how many weeks? And when did you tell your first born?

Many thanks!

We told our 2.5 year old son after our dating scan. We wanted to hold out a bit longer and tell him after the anomaly scan so that we could tell him the sex. We thought it would make it a bit easier to understand if he knew if it was a sister or brother. However, either he is a not stupid or someone told him because he straight out asked me the day after the scan "is there a baby in your tummy?"... (I'm going with MIL, she always says tummy while we say belly)
He is also a bit jumpy so it was could to explain why he couldn't jump on mummys Tummy.
Go with what a right for you, but kids are quite intuitive.

Little ones don't really notice until you have a massive bump, my friend who is a reception teacher told the class she was leaving to have the baby the next week and many of them wondered why she was leaving!

We told ours after 12 week scan. I am pregnant with third. When pregnant with DD(my 2nd) her big brother was not yet 2 and he didn't really understand so we didn't mention it again until I had a much bigger bump. This time they were 4 and 6 and have been very excited since 12 weeks so we have been able to involve them in all the preparations which has been nice. Obviously there is a risk and you may want to wait until 20 but as you say it depends how observant they are and how old. My 6YO would have noticed the bump before 20 weeks.

We had a private scan at 18 weeks & took DS (2.6) along to tell him & show him the baby. Baby played along nicely & was waving at us so DS was happily waving back. We found out the sex together too & took him to pick her first babygros. He's also got the very important job of helping me pick her a cuddly toy next week which hes very excited about, sounds like she's going to be getting a baby rhino!

We told ours at 12 weeks. I'd had a miscarriage with the pregnancy before this one, so we didn't want to tell her too early. But by 12 weeks we'd had 3 scans already, so I felt confident that everything was fine. She's 4 and didn't suspect a thing and it was a good time to tell her as we wanted to tell family and friends by 14 weeks but not be sneaking around asking them to keep it quite from her.

I can remember exactly when I told my eldest about dd2 but sure we waited a while as felt she was too young to understand much. There was 2 years between them. This time however they will be 10 and 12 years between and I've had hyperemesis so they needed to know what was going on and we told around 6-7 weeks. I think my dd2 might have driven me mad by the time baby comes though as she is super excited.

I told my DS at 8 weeks or so. Purely down to the fact he likes to use me as a trampoline.

Remember that 9months is a long time. Especially to a little child. I think even at 20weeks it's still going to feel like forever for a small child.

Told 2.5 year old once we'd had the 20 week scan. Then let him tell people the news (although my parents and v close friends already knew).

It depends whether you want to tell
other family and friends who might also
Mention it to your child.

My eldest two are two years apart, I did tell the eldest about her sister when I was 12 weeks pregnant but she was 18 months and just had no clue. She was 6 when I fell pregnant with our third and I was being sick. She was scared she would catch the sickness so I told her before the scan.

We told our 3yo ds at around 16 weeks

I told my daughter after the 12 week scan.

Thanks everyone. I have an early reassurance scan at 7 weeks, so if all goes well I might tell her then. If I'm not being sick I will wait until our 12 week scan.

It depends on the age of first born, but hang off telling your good news for as long as you can. Even for a 3 year old a 9month wait is equall to a quarter of their life already lived and that's a long while to wait.

Hi I wanted to wait as long as possible as my dd1 is very impatient & has no concept of time! Managed to wait until 23 weeks, after my anomaly scan (had to have 2 as baby was not cooperating) so we could tell her if she was getting a brother or sister. I already had a bump but I carry extra weight on my tummy anyway so she didn't notice much difference . Think it depends on the age. My dd is 4 & really wanted a sibling so she's super excited & wants to help with everything (she has already picked a name out) whereas my cousins dd was only 2 & they decided not to tell her until the last minute & she didn't really understand it until she saw her new little brother.

After 12 week scan. We bought Dd(3) a book where the main character gets a little baby brother or sister. Read it to her then told her that she was going to be a big sister just like the character in the book! She was very excited. It's been lovely because throughout the pregnancy she knows what's happening, frequently asks 'how's the baby doing?' and spontaneously kisses my bump. Once she decorated it with stickers :)

We told our 4 yo after we had been to the 20 week scan. We then took her to a private scan the next day so she could find out the gender

We told DS when after my 12 week scan. It took a while to land but now he's so proud and telling everyone in the supermarket he's going to be a big brother