Month: January 2014

Megan and I suspected she was pregnant in late October of last year, but were not able to confirm our suspicion until early November.  November was several months later than we had planned and it presented us with a some hurdles.  From the time we suspected to when we announced the news, we saw friends and family for Halloween, a dinner gathering, Thanksgiving, my birthday, and a work Holiday party for each of us.  Almost every gathering involved some amount of lying (sorry about that) and cloak & dagger-style ruses.

As if the holidays aren’t stressful enough, we had to think about food, alcohol, and to whom we could tell the news.  We made the decision early on that we’d only tell our parents and one friend each.  This is good in theory, but not in practice.

In one particularly difficult situation, we’d been invited to dinner by a friend.  Every food item he’d offered was something that either turned Megan’s stomach, or she flat-out couldn’t eat based on doctor recommendations.  To further complicate things, another couple had been invited.  Hand forced, I finally got to tell someone outside the trusted circle!  I really found this secret to be one of the hardest things to keep to myself.

For a different dinner gathering with friends, I was able to sneakily consume Megan’s wine, while also downing my own servings of beer.  It really was win-win for me… in addition to extra alcohol, I had a designated driver at the end of the night!  For Megan’s work party, she wasn’t so lucky.  People were on to her from the start of the evening and I wasn’t there to “double fist” her drinks.

It was a relief to reveal the news to our siblings at each family gathering.  There was no smooth way to reveal this news.  I muttered to Megan “should we say something?  Are you doing it, or am I doing it?” under my breath several times.

But how to announce the news to other friends?  The solution was obvious… a t-shirt on our cat with a Photoshopped message.  “Big Sister”