Creative & Meaningful Ways to Announce Your Pregnancy to Family & Friends by Ann Marie G. Halstead

When you dream of having a baby, the moment you find out you’re pregnant is a remarkably special one. Also special is the moment when you share the news with loved ones. I asked friends as well as moms in my local mom group to share the creative and meaningful ways that they surprised their family and friends with their exciting news. Here is just a sample of what they shared with me. Please share your stories below and let us know which one(s) you like best! For all of the parents-to-be: Welcome to a most special tribe. Know that you are not alone. We’re all in this together.

• We bought the children’s book Ten Tiny Toes for our parents and let them each read it with the thought that we bought it for a friend’s baby shower. On the last page we wrote a note about how we were pregnant!

• We went to P.F. Chang’s and they had baked a special fortune into the fortune cookies that read, “There will soon be an addition to your family.” The restaurant was great; they even gifted me a tiny P.F. Chang’s onesie!

• We announced at Christmas with ornaments inside a gift box that said "Grandma" and "Grandpa." In the bottom of the box was a sonogram picture.

• We were at Disneyland. I got a first visit button and wrote “Baby #2” and put our due date on it. I attached the button to my shirt over my belly and cupped my hands around it and took a picture. We posted the photo to Facebook with the caption “Happy news from the Happiest Place on Earth.”

• We made onesies for our parents that said “Hi, Grandma and Grandpa. See you in April.” Thinking back to this memory, it brings tears to my eyes because our son has brought so much joy to our parents.

• We made up little Thanksgiving photo cards and passed them out at dinner.

• For my second we got a shirt for our daughter that said, “Only child expiring February 2013,” and she wore it to a family function. It took nearly an hour for someone to notice!

• For our parents we wrapped a big box and a baby balloon popped out.

• I found out I was pregnant when my second baby was only 5 months old. So for Christmas my oldest (who was 2 at the time) had a sign that read “Return Baby to Santa.” My 5-month-old had a sign that said “Not me! THAT one!” with an arrow pointing to my belly and me holding a sonogram picture.

• We announced our second by having our son wear a T-shirt that had an owl on it saying “Guess WHO is going to be a big brother?” I loved that idea because then we could keep the shirt as a reminder of the moment.

• I had a miscarriage and got pregnant almost immediately afterwards, so we waited until 20 weeks to announce our last pregnancy. It was St. Patrick’s Day, and we asked everybody all day what they were willing to trade for a pot of gold. Then, at the end of the day, we said, “We would trade unlimited gold for this one baby GIRL to hold!”

We'd like to thank the following 30Seconds tribe members who contributed to this post: Carrie Watts, Chrissy Fitz, Jessica Acree, Kelly Rieder, Renee, Siedah Anyango, Erica Robinson and Marian Millikan. We hope to see tips from you ladies soon!

Take 30 seconds and join the 30Seconds community. Inspire and be inspired.