So now the world knows about Baby Russum {aka “Syd” or “Sydney” since he or she was made in Australia… wink!}, but this is how the news of our little one traveled very slowly from mid-January to mid-March…
My iron-on shirt… thanks Hobby Lobby!
Micah’s sister
My darling sister-in-law, Kayla, lives with us, so, of course, she was the first to know. However, telling her happened on accident. One night, just a few days after Micah and I found out ourselves, he and his sis were talking in the kitchen. I was not home. Apparently, their family’s upcoming visit in March came up and Kayla thought it was going to be too much to have their whole family in town at once. She was about to call their mom and tell her to change their travel plans when Micah had to stop her… “Ummm… actually we have a reason we want to whole family to visit at the same time…” Let’s just say Kayla, who was eating dinner, dropped her fork in shock and excitement. I happened to arrive home like five minutes later. I walked into the kitchen and Micah greeted me with… “I accidentally spilled the sesame seeds” which happened to be the size of the baby that week. Hilarious!
My sister
My reveal to my sister, Katie, was as smooth as could be. When I went to visit her in Austin at the end of February, I was 11 weeks. I patiently waited the whole weekend {which included dumping a glass of wine in the garbage at Salt Lick when no one was looking!} and right before I was about to leave for the airport, I gave her an early birthday card. Inside was an ultrasound picture. She flipped it open and immediately starting jumping up and down screaming “I knew it! I knew it!”
My parents
The reveal to my parents also went really well. I conveniently arranged for them to come visit my grandma in Las Vegas the same weekend I would be there for a conference. I just told them it would fun to be there at the same time and, otherwise, I wouldn’t see them until summer. Worked like a charm. I picked them up from the airport on Saturday morning, the day after my conference, and took them back to my grandma’s house. Just as I suspected, after initial greetings and dropping off luggage, we all settled down in the living room to chat {don’t you love how going to grandma and grandpa’s house is always so familiar and predictable in a good way?} What no one knew is that while my parents were getting settled into their bedroom, I went down to my own room and changed my shirt. I had made a bright green shirt with the words “Baby Russum” across the stomach {and “Arriving September 2013” on the back}, and I slipped it on and zipped up a hoodie over it. After we had been chatting for thirty minutes or so, I knew I needed to act before my grandma left to take a nap or we decided it was time for lunch or something. Right after my mom got done talking about when she and my dad might move to Phoenix {soon, grandma, soon… I need a babysitter!}, I stood up and asked, “Do you guys want to see my new shirt?” After raising two daughters, I don’t even think my parents thought this was a weird question, as I’ve shown them lots of new clothing over the past thirty years. I unzipped my hoodie and my mom jumped out of her chair in excitement. There were hugs and teary-eyes all around and then we talked about babies for the rest of the day. Mission accomplished.
Micah’s {whole} family
The next morning I woke up at 5:30am in Vegas, got in my car, and rushed back to Phoenix as fast as I could. The goal was to tell Micah’s family before going to a spring training game that started at 1pm. I flew into the house around 11am, hugged everyone {Micah’s parents, all his siblings and their spouses had arrived in town while I was gone}, and then we set our plan in action. We told his family we should take a group picture before leaving for the game since it’s rare we are all together. Being the picture fanatic that I am, no one thought anything of it. Micah acted slightly annoyed by it, Kayla acted indifferent, and I acted excited and bossy about taking the picture. We had our roles planned out perfectly. Around noon, we got his whole family gathered in the backyard in front of the camera on a tripod. I had again secretly changed into my green Baby Russum shirt and was wearing a hoodie over it, despite the fact that it was shaping up to be a 90 degree day. Our plan was to tell them we were taking a timed picture but really put the camera on video and record their reactions when I took off my hoodie. However, I had some problems with the camera. I thought it was not recording properly, so Micah’s family cluelessly stood in the hot sun for a good five minutes while I messed around with the camera settings. Finally, I called Micah over and whispered “The video is not working… should I just take a picture???” We put it on the timer and Micah returned to the group. I pushed the button and then said something about needing to take my hoodie off for the photo. I revealed my shirt and the expressions were priceless… ranging from pure confusion to sheer joy. Thankfully, I was not blocking the camera with my back {since I hadn’t actually planned to take a picture I hadn’t worried about where I should stand…} and we have great photos from the moment. Funny story: When I downloaded the photos to my computer the other day, I realized that the video function actually was working the whole time. I have about ten short videos of Micah’s family talking and shifting around in the hot sun and then this hilarious one, which I will share with you at the bottom of the post…
The moment of revelation…
Please pardon the fact that I look like I’m about to DELIVER the baby here…
My best friends
Apart from telling two Phoenix girlfriends who are both due within two weeks of me and telling a dear blog friend at dinner the night before I told my parents, I seriously didn’t tell a soul. In retrospect, I wish I had told all my best friends the week before we told our parents, because it would have eliminated so much stress during that crazy weekend of showing real estate to my dad’s friend, traveling out of town, presenting at a huge conference, having lots of visitors, telling our parents such exciting news, and having two papers due at school the following week. It was high stress for sure. I talked to two of my best friends the prior week and I was DYING to tell them. However, I wanted to honor Micah and our parents by telling them first, so I controlled my tongue in agony. I did consider making phone calls on the way to and from Vegas, seeing as I was by myself in the car for ten hours round trip, but it turns out there is NO cell service in the desert of northern Arizona, so it was a futile attempt. This led to me WEEPING, literally bawling my eyes out, the day after we told Micah’s family. Now that the news was out, I was so afraid someone would say something before I had a chance to tell my best friends personally. Add that fear to the stress of the whole weekend, and I was a mess. I literally sat on my bed crying and watching the clock on that Monday afternoon, waiting for it to be 5:00 in Texas and 4:30pm in Washington when my friends would be off work and I could call them. I felt guilty for not telling them sooner, since I always thought I would tell them right away, but of course they were completely understanding and gracious and overjoyed as all best friends would be. The rest of the week was spent making calls, emails and sending texts, so we could announce our news publicly before my slowly growing bump started to give me away {and, as it turns out, a few people had already started guessing}.
Thank you for letting me share this long narrative of how we shared our news. Many of you have written to say you want more details, so I hope today’s post was especially fulfilling for you! 🙂 And for those of you not quite so enthralled, I promise I will start writing about something other than pregnancy soon. I just have ten weeks of new and exciting information that I have been dying to talk about. Thanks for your patience! And now for the video. I just love my funny, confused face. Guess I’m not a technological genius after all…
Cute!!! I had been wondering for about 2 weeks, since the day I invited you to the bible study. 😉
We were also at that same spring training game as you guys – I am shocked we didn't see you there.
The pic of you "delivering" had me roooollling in laughter! I love all those ways you told people! I especially love when you told me! 🙂 Congrats my cute prego friend! So happy & so so excited for Baby Russum!!!!! Mwah!!!!!!
I LOVE how you told Micahs family!! That is so fun!!!!!! And your parents too… I love the shirt you made… before you know it it'll be too tight to wear 🙂 hehe. We waited 5 weeks from finding out to tell my family since we wanted to tell them in person and everyone together and it was SO HARDDDD! Next baby I will prob pee on a stick and call my sisters lol!!
oh i just love it all! it's amazing!!! such an exciting season of your life 🙂 eek! i just can't wait for that baby to be here!!!
How fun!!! Thinking I need a post like this now. I did the one about telling Nate, but not everyone else. 😉 I love your shirt though! What a fun way to share the news with everyone!
What fun ways to tell everyone and I just LOVE Grandma Russum's face in the reveal picture!
Love it, Jen! you and Micah sure surprised us! We are so, so happy! And we are definitely moving to Phoenix! I cannot wait to meet Baby Sid!
Congratulations on your baby on the way! 🙂 So exciting! I stumbled upon your blog and had to say hi! My husband and I married on 7/11 and moved to AZ right after and I started to blog to document our life here! Congrats again!
Abby
What a cool, fun, awesome, sweet post that you and your family and friends will cherish forever!!!! Yes, the picture of you "delivering" Baby Sydney (by the way, I LOVE that name, hilarious that he/she was made in Australia, g'day mate!) was hilarious. You're so adorable, there's never a bad picture of you. If/When you're back in Fort Worth, I hope you'll holler. I'd love to hug your sweet neck (and treat you to lunch or dinner). Blessings + Hugs =)