Telling Siblings

Do you want to know what my idea of torture is?

Calling every single family member to inform them of my pregnancy. Or anything.

I'm simply not a phone talker.

My cousin Elizabeth called me to announce her pregnancy for Bridget. She said she was calling everyone. Everyone?! Do you know how huge our family is?

I don't have that kind of stamina, so we've never announced that way.

For Rachel we made a video of a Santa turning into a pregnant lady. But the video link is broken, so...we'll have to find it. I'm sure it's somewhere? We also wrapped up bibs for our parents as a Christmas gift. We were 10 weeks along.

For Miriam we made a crossword puzzle and posted it on April Fool's day because there's really no better way to announce. I think we emailed it to our families the day before we posted it to the blog. We were 10 weeks along.

For Benjamin we wrote a little riddle. We were 9 weeks along.

For this baby we posted a series of YouTube videos for the public, along with a note saying "3.275 kids and counting" on Facebook. We're 11 weeks along (so it looks like we're getting better at keeping secrets).

We also did up a little something extra for our families since we accidentally offended a few members by not telling them before we told the world at large (we'd already told our parents so we figured our bases were covered). So, this is what we made up and sent out to our families (divided up into Heiss side and Layton side—this is them all jumbled together):

Facebook is killing a lot of things. Blogs (seriously—my blog announcement had five hits before we posted it to facebook and then it jumped to over 100 in less than an hour (now over 300 views)) is one thing (which probably just means I should share more posts on facebook). Email is another. Seriously. I can't keep track of what email addresses people use anymore, but I can depend on people to check facebook, so we used facebook messenger to send it out, which was actually pretty fun because it meant we got to live chat with all of our siblings at the same time (which is something we rarely do but should probably do more often).

Here's the conversation my siblings had:

Patrick: Hmmm...I think that was planned.
Me: Everything was planned at some point, I suppose...?
Patrick: Touché.
Abra: This is Piper. What is that??? What is happening???

[Piper is my niece]

Me: You can figure it out, Piper. I promise.
Abra [P]: I don't get it!! Are you President?
Abra [P]: Stupid auto correct... pregnant
Patrick: I liked the president comment. Nancy for president 2016!
Abra [P]: Whoops! Hahaha!
Me: Yes, I'm president. What Patrick said.
Abra [P]: You have my invalid Canadian vote!
Me: Sweet! Yes, a new cousin is coming for you.
Abra: Yay *Abra*
Me: Are we cheering for Abra...or is this Abra now?
Abra: We can cheer for me too...but, yes, it was me.
Me: Well, thanks. We're excited.
Patrick: Dang. I was hoping for a president.
Kelli: Yeah!.... it took a minute. ....I was like those weren't my due dates. .....lol
Me: Well, I didn't have everyone's due dates memorized.
Kelli: [Lists due dates]. I saw due date, didn't even register birth dates. And then at first I thought Patrick posted.
Patrick: I just like that the birthday will be near mine. Makes it easier for me to remember.
Me: Maybe.
Abra: I was like wow Nancy likes the same book. Like A lot.
Patrick: Nope. This one is coming on time.

Then we delve into a conversation about needles.

Josie didn't comment because she was sick and had a bad day. David didn't comment because...he already knew? I told him a few weeks ago when he was still planning on getting married in February or March or April. I told him the sooner the better. And it's a good thing I did because I'm banned from traveling anywhere once we get back from Utah. Like, anywhere—not even a two-hour drive for me. But since we'll be back before I'm 20 weeks along my doctor approved me to fly.

Here's the conversation Andrew's siblings had (don't feel bad, Mom—I forgot to include Andrew on these messages, too):

Katharine: Oh my gosh! Congrats!  So excited for you!
Me: Thanks!
Jacob: ? Are you pregnant?
Me: No. We have library books due. YES!
Jacob: WOO HOO!! Congrats!! That's way more exciting than library books that are due.
Emily: YAY!!!!! Wow, your library book isn't due until June?
Me: I know. We're going to try to keep it checked out at least until May this time.
Sarah: YAY three of us are all prego at the same time!
Me: Yup. Fun times.
Jacob: I believe according to Sarah's calendar Shayla and I are next......

[When I was expecting Benjamin Sarah foretold the next several years of childbearing. We should have written it down. It went me, Emily, her, me, Emily, Jacob...or something like that. We should have written it down. Anyway, it's a bit of a joke now.]

Me: You do have a big vacation coming up...
Jacob: Hahahaha. We leave tonight!!! I guess we will have to see what happens.
Emily: It will be a busy three months for grandma Karen!

Indeed it will be. Three babies due within two months of each other! What timing we have!