With Baby Nightingale # 1, we gave the grandfathers Tshirts that said “world’s best grandpa” for father’s day. It took a couple minutes to sink in and then everyone went nuts. With BN # 2 (due in May) we just called our families and said “Heh, Guess what other surprise we got for our anniversary. Two lines on a pregnancy test.”
I told my husband after proposing a toast into wine glasses (for which I poured myself Hi-C).
We told his parents when they came a few weeks later to take my husband out for his birthday dinner. I was going to wait, but I thought the jig would be up because I was too nauseous to ride in the back of the car to the restaurant. I will never forget the look on my mother in law’s face when I told them–She did a literal “jaw drop” and was utterly stunned (but ecstatic–this woman had been wanting grandkids for at least a decade). I told my parents by phone (they live 800 miles away).
As for work…one co-worker guessed when she caught me eating saltines at my desk. I told the others after I unexpectedly bawled in a meeting over something very minor and freaked them out. The other big tell was my dissertation advisor, because she was one I was sure would be unhappy about it and I had a lot of trepidation bringing it up. However, she was supportive.
The thing that really made an impression on me was telling my doctor. I thought this was a big deal, like they’d clear their calendar and get me in right away the moment I called. It was a surprise (and sort of a letdown) to have them be so blase about it. You know, “come in in a few weeks, yadda yadda.” I wanted to say “DID YOU GUYS HEAR ME?!?! PREGNANT OVER HERE!” You know, like I was suddenly some interesting medical case of great urgency and delicacy. Snort.
We found out on Monday, a week before Christmas, and were flying down to see my family for the holiday on that Thursday. We really wanted to tell everyone in person, with our parents hearing the news first (this will be the first grandchild on both sides), so we went over to my in-laws’ for dinner on Wednesday. We bought and wrapped 2 bibs, one that said “I love Grandma” and one that said “I love Grandpa” and gave them to them as “early Christmas gifts.” My mother-in-law’s jaw just dropped – it was classic. We did the same to my parents the next day, after we arrived, and they were so excited. We told my husband’s sister over the phone that day, and told my brother when he came to my parents’ house for dinner that night.
For the rest of my family, we got a little sappy. We got 2 picture frames (one for my mom’s side of the family, one for my dad’s) and put in them a little poem I’d found online about how this frame is for a baby picture, blah blah blah, Love, Baby Gazer, Due August 28, 2007. We arrived at my grandparents’ house and gave it to them immediately – Nana was thrilled, so we let her use the picture frame to tell the rest of the family as they arrived. We then saw my dad’s family on Christmas Eve, and had my grandmother open the frame and read it aloud to my aunts, uncles, & cousins. That was fun.
Everyone else, we’ve just told. Well, we haven’t told everyone yet, because we’re not quite out of the “danger zone” yet, but it’s getting harder and harder to keep it a secret. 
We’ve been married 5 years, so for a lot of people all I have to do is say, “Oh, I have some news for you!” and they say, “You’re pregnant!” I don’t know if I like being that predictable!
Background: we’d tried in vitro and it didn’t work, so we’d given up on having kids on our own. As a result, we started going through the process of adopting from China. Fast forward to last September, when my wife is about two weeks late and, early one Saturday morning, buys a pregnancy test just so she can get it off her mind. She pees on the stick, and it’s positive. Now, this is one of those tests with a little LCD panel that says “pregnant” or “not pregnant”, so you know what we’re talking about.
She, naturally, immediately wants to tell her mother. So, she calls her mom and asks if she (my wife) can come over to talk to her. Her mom told us later that she thought, because of the way she put it, that my wife and I had had a fight. When we both showed up, she figured that wasn’t the case, but was mighty baffled.
I show her the test, wordlessly. She had no idea what it was at first. Again, she told me later that she was wondering, “why are you showing me a thermometer?” Finally, she actually read it, and there was much rejoicing.
My wife’s dad lives several hours away, so she had to tell him by phone. As soon as she told him, he started laughing. Can’t say I blame him. My own parents pretty much guessed, from my tone on the phone; honestly, soon-to-be grandparents seem somehow able to smell these things coming and know almost before you do.
Incidentally, the positive pregnancy test occurred on the very same day that the last piece of paperwork we needed to submit our dossier to China arrived in the mail. The very day. Probably one of the main reasons her dad laughed at us. And we’re still going to do the adoption, even though the cosmos threw us a curveball. Mrs. Torque will officially begin her third trimester on Friday, and sometime within the next 12 months, hopefully, we’ll be going to China to pick up out other daughter.
(looks like the rest of my adult male life will be full of tea parties and dress-up dos. ah well, being a guy was nice while it lasted.)
My parents live a long way from my brother and his wife. When brother and wife called to announce pregnancy, my mother was not surprised. Her biggest clue? Sis-in-law had not made any of her usual comments on a recent visit about not to assume that the prenatal vitamins in the cupboard meant she was pregnant. (Second biggest clue, if only in retrospect? Sis-in-law melting down over something stupid.)