When I found out that I was pregnant with baby #7 I immediately wanted to announce it to the world! I was excited to say the least, I always am when I get to take a pregnancy test and have even an inkling that it might be positive. Pregnancy tests are so fun to me. I buy them off ebay in bulk so I can take as many as I want, whenever I want at the cheapest prices possible. Last time I bought pregnancy tests I bought 50 for under $10 if I remember correctly. I still have some left too, ha!
Anyhow, I had so much on my mind that first night that I knew I was pregnant again. I had a hard time quieting down to sleep. But soon I was compiling fun ways to announce the new pregnancy to the family. We usually try to find a cute way to tell the children, and they are always our biggest cheerleaders. They had a rivalry going on for whether we should have a boy or girl next. They were always coming up with names. It was very cute.
An example is that, a couple months before I had found out I was pregnant I had given the 2 older girls a wishbone to break and see who got their wish. I really just wanted to get the old dried out bone off of it’s resting place so I could finally throw it away. They picked their piece and the bone broke off equally on both sides and the middle part fell. I’ve never seen or heard of that happening. So either it was a tie, or neither got their wish. Curious, I asked them what they were going to wish for. Weirdly, they both were wishing for a baby sister named “Love”. So, this was an ongoing conversation they were having amongst each other.
It was quite a while before we finally shared the news of the new pregnancy with the children. It was even longer before we shared the news publicly by posting a simple picture of the ultrasound on a table in a flat lay style. It felt like forever for me to wait to share this beautiful secret. I was 3 months along before we told the children. And really it was because I told my husband if we didn’t tell them soon someone else was going to say something in front of everybody and then we’d miss out on telling them in a fun way.
The way we finally told them was to buy them each a balloon from the Dollar Tree. They just LOVE balloons for some reason. And the fancy kind that float and are shiny are like at the top of the list of most wanted items for children. That came to $6, since we have 6 other children. I should have bought a blank one for the mystery baby too, but instead I blew up a little one and tied a string to it, with a note that said only the due date. Each of the other balloons floated and had a character or a saying that reminded me of each individual child, I attached a little tag with their birthday on it so they had to search through the strings to find their particular balloon. But when all was said and done, there would be 1 small balloon left with a mysterious future date on it.
I could have just brought all the balloons to my children, and made one of them hand them out to each child, or call out the dates and have them claim their balloons. But instead, the lady that was helping me at the Dollar Tree offered to give me a very large, empty cardboard box that was in the back of the store. She even taped it shut for me (with all the balloons inside). When I got it home I opened it so I could attach a little note with the corresponding birthday to each balloon. I closed it back up and wrapped it with about 4 large sheets of pink and blue tissue paper and a big fancy ribbon bow I found in our gift wrapping stuff. When they saw that giant present I could barely contain them, haha. And when they opened the box all the balloons came floating out. It was really fun. Then they saw the little balloon laying inside with it’s note and though it took them a moment, they figured it out. I really had so much fun doing this.
But I sifted through so many other fun ways to announce a pregnancy- it did become quite overwhelming after a while. I ended up adapting someone else’s gender reveal announcement because I remembered how much my children LOVE balloons, and it was super easy to buy them all a balloon for $1 each at the Dollar Tree. I had thought of making a cake with the due date on it, but my husband was on a special diet plan, so he was wanting to stay away from excess carbs.
My advice on announcing a pregnancy is to pray for the people you’re announcing it to beforehand and to go with something that makes you feel joyful on the inside. Fun, Easy, and Simple has been important to me this year.
Honestly, I knew my children would celebrate with us about this pregnancy. I wasn’t so sure about anyone else. But I heard God whisper to me to remember what He taught me about Hope. Hope is about expectation for good things to happen. He had given me a scripture over and over from Jeremiah 29:11:
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”
Some translations say, …”to give you a hope and a future.”
God warned me to imagine a good future, and not disaster. I think that’s because we will inevitably speak the things we see in our minds, the things we are thinking about, the expectations we envision. And there is so much power in our words. “21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” Proverbs 18:21 KJV
Since God made us in His image, we should expect to have power in our words also. He created worlds and everything that is with His Words. We have the power to create with our imaginations and words also. So pray for and imagine good reactions from people.
So the reason I’m even mentioning this in a “Fun Pregnancy Announcement” post is because when it comes to announcing a new baby or pregnancy, for a lot of us there’s these mixed emotions of excitement and also fear of what people may or may not say when they find out about your pregnancy. Even strangers in the grocery store seem to feel they have to voice their opinions. Friends, coworkers, and relatives can say careless things sometimes if you catch them in a bad mood, or at the wrong time. So pray over these things. Pray for them and good timing, and then expect something good. Get your Hopes up.
Here is some more inspiration for Fun Pregnancy Announcement Ideas:
Click below to see the Pinterest Board I created:
Pinterest Pregnancy Announcement Board
I also made a 3 minute video from the footage of our Pregnancy Reveal to the children. If you’d like to see how it went.
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