You have an exciting secret, and you’re ready to tell the world … you’re pregnant! But rather than just blurting out the words you so long to share, you’d rather take a more creative approach. Check out these five creative ways to tell your friends, family, and significant other that you’re expecting.
1. Photo shoot
If a picture paints a thousand words, then what better way to announce your pregnancy to the wider world than with an artfully staged photograph? Pictures are also great because they can be shared digitally via social media and kept as keepsakes. Pregnancy photography is growing in popularity, with many couples choosing to hire a professional photographer to help them announce their news to friends online.
There is no end to the number of creative ways you can use photography to announce your pregnancy.
One way to do this is to take a shoe-level picture of mom, dad, and baby … and since baby’s not here yet, you’ll just see a picture of tiny, empty shoes next to mom’s and dad’s shoes, maybe with a “Coming soon!” sign or the due date written on the sidewalk in chalk. A quirkier take on this creative photo announcement idea is, if both mom and dad wear glasses, have a picture with mom and dad in the background and in the foreground, mom’s glasses, dad’s glasses, and a pair of baby-sized glasses.
1 Fun with food
If you’re a foodie or love to entertain, you might want to use food to creatively announce your pregnancy to friends and family … or maybe just to your spouse. Here are some specific ideas to get you started:
– Bake a cake or giant cookie that says, “I’m pregnant!” and serve it to family during dessert. Or, ask your significant other to get it out of the oven.
– Have custom fortune cookie fortunes made (sample caption: “You will soon learn that Julie is pregnant!”), and use tweezers to take out the existing fortunes and insert your custom-made ones. You might break some cookies trying to do this, so make sure you have enough cookies for a few mess-ups. Again, you can use this method to tell a group of people who are dining, or just the daddy.
– Place an actual bun in your oven and have the person you’re telling fetch it … see if they get the obvious metaphor.
– Have custom-printed M&Ms made that say, “We’re having” and “a baby!” or “It’s a boy!”, etc.
2. Let the test do the talking
You can use your positive pregnancy test itself as a creative, yet relatively simple, way to announce that you’re pregnant without actually saying the words. For instance, you might gift-wrap the test and give it to the dad, or you can take a picture of the test and share it digitally with friends and family. Another cute way to tell your partner, especially if you’ve been experiencing morning sickness, is to say that you’re not feeling well and that you’re going to take your temperature. After a couple minutes, give him the “thermometer” (which is actually the positive pregnancy test) and ask him to read it for you.
Photographs from an ultrasound test are another type of “proof” that you can use to broadcast the news that you’re pregnant. Share the ultrasound picture online with a cute caption (“Do you think he looks more like me or like Rick?”), or frame the photograph in a frame that says, “I love my grandson” and give it to your mom.
3. T-shirt time
T-shirts are a cute and creative way to announce that you’re with child, either to the father or to friends and relatives. For example, you can design a shirt for yourself picturing a bun in an oven, with a timer that has the digits of the baby’s due date. You could even just make a shirt with the words “Baby on board” or “Pea in my pod” and an arrow pointing to your belly. Then wear the shirt to a family gathering or have it on when your guy gets home (ask him if he notices anything different about you if he fails to notice what you’re wearing).
You can also create t-shirts for family members to creatively announce your pregnancy. If you already have a child, make your little girl a shirt that says, “I’m going to be a big sister!” and see how Grandma and Grandpa react when you pay them a family visit. For a first baby, you can make shirts for other family members that describe their new roles – for example, give your sister a shirt that says, “Auntie” and watch her face light up after she unwraps her gift.
4. A way with words
If you express yourself better in words than in pictures or gestures, you may wish to announce the good news in writing. The possibilities are only limited by your imagination. You could …
– Write a clever poem and email it to friends and family.
– Write your own birth announcement, and tape it prominently inside of the newspaper or a magazine that your husband or another family member will read.
– Get creative with a greeting card. For example, after you and your significant other sign your names, add “… and Baby.”
– Regardless of the time of year, give your partner a Father’s Day card with an inscription like, “Sorry, I’m a little late.”
Tips for telling
– When it comes to telling your co-workers, straightforward is usually better than creative … and make sure you tell your boss first.
– Tell close friends and family (creatively or otherwise) before posting the news online.
– Creative is good, but if your method of announcement is too indirect or subtle, people might not understand what you’re trying to tell them and you’ll feel disappointed. Ask yourself beforehand if you think the person will “get” your creative method of delivering the news or if you might have to explain it (thus defeating the purpose).
– Not sure when to tell? Although many couples choose to wait to break the news until 12 weeks when the risk of miscarriage is drastically reduced, you might want to tell some select people you’re very close to, for example, your mother, your best friend, and of course, the baby’s father, sooner. It helps to have at least one or two people who can provide emotional support in early pregnancy.
