I really didn’t think about how I was going to tell my husband I was pregnant. I simply told him as he walked through the apartment door from work one night. As it happened, my period wasn’t even late–I was simply having lots of symptoms and one of those pregnancy tests that claims to be accurate up to six days before a missed cycle was positive. So my husband’s response was something along the lines of: “That’s great, but let’s not get our hopes up too much.”—
Needless to say, I was a little bummed. I understood where he was coming from by being cautiously optimistic, but had hoped for a more enthusiastic reaction. Still, I didn’t dwell on the moment much–especially once the pregnancy became “official” and I had actual baby-related things to think about it.
Cut to two years later, however, when I was watching an episode of The Real Housewives Of New Jersey. In it, Melissa Gorga plans an elaborately romantic meal for her husband, where somehow the kids have disappeared, she’s wearing a sexy dress and their dining room table is laden with candles and china and probably flower petals. In the scene, her husband can’t stop commenting on how beautiful she looks and finally asks her something like: “Did you do all this because you’re about to tell me we’re having another baby?”
As I watched the cheesy yet somehow not-so-cheesy scene play out on TV, I realized that this is probably how lots of women tell their significant others that they’re pregnant–by turning the moment into an exciting affair in which they dramatically reveal the news. (Note: She did not end up being pregnant; she simply wanted to celebrate what an amazing man her husband was and play him a pop song she’d recorded about his amazing-ness over the loud speakers of their home.)
Regardless of whether or not she was pregnant, the point is that doing something even remotely close to this never crossed my mind–probably because I am nothing like the women on The Real Housewives Of New Jersey.
But it did make me realize that you can have some fun in telling your significant other you’re pregnant. I don’t think I’ll cook a five-course meal or don a formal gown, but if I ever have to share the news again, maybe I’ll deliver it in a more creative way–for memory’s sake.
