telling parents and friends about the pregnancy- February 11, 2008

So after our first appointment, we decided as a couple that we would tell some people even though Tene was only about 2 months along. A lot of people choose to wait until the 12th week or 3rd month because the first 12 weeks are when miscarriages most often occur.

However, our decision was to tell a few people who we were close to–people who would be supportive if the worst did occur.

My parents, her mom, our sisters, and some of our closest friends or coworkers.

It was great to be able to tell people since we had been holding in the secret for 2 weeks.

According to T*ne, he mom, who was in an airport waiting to fly black from Oklahoma, was really happy and overcome with emotion. T*ne’s sisters (especially silly Thr*sa) started to look up all kinds of stuff to buy and name the baby online. T*ne actually told her sisters first the night we went out to her birthday at Sriphaphai.

On the other hand, my mom and dad were more subdued. I told my mom first. At first she was surprised, and she followed up with a lot of questions about how it had happened (duh!) and how T*ne was doing. She talked a little to me about her own pregnancies with my sister M**na and I. Afterwards I called my dad. After spending the first 5-10 minutes talking to him about sports, I abruptly switched the subject and told him “So dad we’re gonna have to push back the wedding” (I had been using this set-up to tell everyone). So in typical dad fashion, he never asked “why?” I had to say “yea well were pushing back the wedding because T*ne is pregnant.” He was silent for what seemed like 20 seconds (it was probably more like 5-6 seconds) before saying again in typical dad fashion “its time to save money.” Although he’s been a great dad, he’s never been the touchy-feely type. Even to this day, when he drops me off at the airport to come back to NY, we say goodbye with our awkward looking hug/pat-on-the back.

The other people Tene told were a couple of close co-workers and her best friend Ari.

I told Chris (who’s baby will be born in April), Jamel, Chang, Marvin, and Rachel.

Of course everyone is surprised . One of the best things I heard was from Rachel. I told her over IM and instead of saying congratulations first, she typed a bunch of exclamation points and said “youre going to be a great dad.” That was great.