I sent my family a photo announcing my pregnancy; no one responded

"So I then put my toddler in a t-shirt with very direct caption on it when they came over..."

My niece recently sent through a photo of her three-year-old daughter holding an ultrasound image of baby #2 to our family WhatsApp group.

What was meant to be an exciting pregnancy announcement landed flat, and nobody in our extended family registered the news initially.

“When did she grow up?” my sister wrote.

“OMG, she’s as cute as a button.”

Then, silence.

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My own pregnancy announcements were fizzers

As soon as I saw the photo, I got it, and quickly sent through our congratulations, but it reminded me a lot of what fizzers my own pregnancy announcements were.

When I fell pregnant unexpectedly with baby #1, I was so excited to tell my folks. 

Image: Supplied

My husband and I were living in Melbourne at the time, and around the three-month mark, mum and dad flew down from the Gold Coast to visit us.

When my husband arrived home with them from the airport, I’d made a scavenger hunt around our small 1950s flat, with the promise of wine at the other end.

Mum and dad followed the scavenger hunt clues I'd hidden around the flat and eventually found the wine, along with a photo of me as a toddler with the words, “version two: coming soon” written on it.

I don’t know if it was tiredness (it was late at night to be fair) or the fact that they finally realised their 29-year-old daughter was no longer a virgin, but they just looked blank.

“Oh, lovely,” dad said eventually, giving me an awkward cuddle. Mum took a moment to process the news, but she eventually gave me a hug and seemed excited.

Three years later, when I fell pregnant with baby #2, my parents were coming down to visit again, so I dressed our son in one of those, “I’ve been promoted to big brother” T-shirts.

My parents arrived at our house and our son greeted them. 

There was no reaction. 

Image: Melissa Noble

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"Are you pregnant?"

The evening continued to unfold and a few times I thought they might catch on, but there was nada.

Eventually, after about an hour had passed, I said to mum, “So, ah, do you like your grandson’s T-shirt?”

She looked down at him, then looked up, confused.

“Are you pregnant?” she asked.

“Yes! Surprise!” I replied, waiting for her to scream with delight, jump for joy or do something... anything... to acknowledge the baby announcement.

But nothing happened for a good 10 seconds. Then, she burst into tears. 

“How am I going to cope?” she asked.

Poor mum was in a crappy place mentally at the time, and all she could think about was how she might handle another grandchild… even though she lived 1700km away.

I think dad said something along the lines of, “Oh, lovely,” again, and that was it. It was time for me to serve the burritos. 

The third time round, I decided to take a completely different approach.

I’d learned my lesson and I was going to use plain English. 

Image: Supplied

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Keep it simple, stupid

No song and dance. No creativity. Just straight up, here it is.

I flew to the Gold Coast for a holiday with our two children and dad picked me up from the airport.

When we arrived at their house and I greeted mum in the kitchen, I said to her and dad, “Guess what. I’m having another baby.”

Finally, I got the reaction I’d always wanted. 

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Mum hugged me tight. “That’s such wonderful news, honey,” she said. “Are you going to find out the gender?” 

Dad gave me a kiss on the cheek and said, “yay for another Noble baby.” 

For some people, an out-there pregnancy announcement is worth it, but in our family, it just didn’t seem to work.

Sometimes you have to stick to the KISS motto: Keep it simple, stupid!

Originally published as I sent my family a photo announcing my pregnancy; no one responded