Months, maybe even years ago I started brainstorming how I would announce to Jorge, and our families that I was pregnant. It's one of those things that, for me, was very exciting and had to be planned just right.
In the past year, both Jorge and my mom mentioned to me that they would know "right away" when I was pregnant, so I kind of made it a personal goal to make sure they didn't and keep it a surprise! Luckily, I did. I found out I was pregnant around 4 weeks and 2 days so it was pretty early for any symptoms to actually be felt, so I took advantage of the situation and planned on when to tell Jorge and then when to tell our families.
I found out on a Wednesday, and planned to tell Jorge that Friday after work. We were given a gift card for Outback Steakhouse and thought it was a perfect excuse to be alone and give him the news! I went to Barnes & Noble to pick up a few books, and then headed to Target to get a card along with a onesie that read "my dad is cooler than yours" to give to him. As soon as he pulled up in the parking lot I was ready and got out of the car, only to realize he wasn't parking but waiting for me to come up to the car (hmmmm). Low and behold, Ceci was in labor and heading to the hospital to have her baby 10 days early! So to try and get my plan back on track I said, "That's great! But she can be in labor for hours, so lets get a quick bite to eat then we'll head down to the hospital". It worked, so he parked and I waited for him to give him his gift. Right away I'm sure he thought it was weird that I gave him a card but didn't ask why, so he opened it and right away pulled out the onesie, turned to me and said in an excited whisper "you're pregnant!?". We kissed and hugged for a moment and then he finally read the card that said something along the lines of "I love you with my whole heart, but come May you'll be sharing it with Baby Little Foot".
During dinner we received the call that Ceci had the baby! Within 30 minutes and only 4 pushes, he was brought into the world! So after dinner we met up with the rest of Jorge's family to visit the baby and kept our little secret to ourselves.
Saturday we went to the West Covina mall to try and get some ideas as to how we were going to announce it to our families and came up with a sports theme. My family are USC fans, and his family are UCLA fans so we thought it would be fun to buy a onesie/bib set of each and that's how we would show them. We went to my house first only to find that my mom and sister were out shopping for some running shoes (she's running her first half marathon in November) and my dad was home alone. Not wanting to tell him alone we decided we would have to wait and come back later. We had already planned on going over to Jorge's parents house to watch the Mayweather vs Canelo fight so knew family would be there. Waiting for some family friends to go home, Jorge gave them them the box. Saying something along the lines of "look what I bought for all of us for the next UCLA game", so they pull out the onesie stating "awww, how cute" assuming it was for the new baby that was born the night before. So Jorge had to say "do you know for which baby...?" and then right away his mom said "yours!?" and then everybody got it. We do have this part on tape and watching Bryan's reaction is priceless, i'll have to post the video for you to see. Unfortunately Elizabeth wasn't home yet so we waited for her to come back then did the same process with her, and her reaction is just as priceless asking "are you guys pregnant?" and "i've been waiting for this day!" Also on film, so we might be posting that video as well.
Back at home it was already pretty late but we wanted to try and find the right transition to telling my family. They were all in the family room trying to catch up on TV, so I said we bought something for all of us, and that we can bring it to our next USC game. I handed it to my mom and she opened it, pulling it out stating the same thing as his dad "awww, how cute". Then proceeded to put it back in the box. Meanwhile Devon is looking back and forth at me and Jorge, and I'm grinning and waiting for mom to get it. She doesn't so we decide to help her out a little. Conversation went a little like this:
Me: "Do you know who it's for?"
Mom: "yeah, for the baby"
Me: "Do you know which baby"
Dad: "yours!?"
So then they got it and all stood up and were happy and hugging and kissing, and we were laughing at how it wasn't as obvious as I thought it was going to be. Unfortunately Jorge started recording and the battery died! So we don't have this reaction on film (even though the lighting would've probably been really bad anyway), but I know i'll remember the reaction forever.
Now we're in the waiting stages of first appointments and getting through the first trimester before telling any other family and friends. We gave our family the hardest task of keeping this secret to themselves for quite some time, but I wanted them to know early on for support and so I didn't have to keep it a secret that long too! I'm currently over 7 weeks, and have our first appointment next Monday. We will be announcing sometime around Halloween, which means we can be creative in how we do it! Til then, i'm doing my weekly update survey and will post them sometime soon.
Thank you for reading and hearing how we announced to family, I look forward to posting more pictures or video on how we tell the rest of our family and friends!
Heather Ortiz, mama to be
