When to tell

Once Kate and I had a couple of days to process, as best we could, the news of our pregnancy the tension of who to tell and when started to mount. I called my brother and Kate called her sister right away. Mark was my best man and he is my best friend. I wanted to hear his excitement and I needed to hear his encouragement and he exceeded my expectation on both fronts. Meg was Kate's Maid of honor and her best friend as well and she got an equally celebratory and wise response. It felt good to say it, to bask in the excitement and to lean on those closest to us while we caught our breath. Now who do we tell? When do we tell them? Should we wait for the Dr first? I wanted to wait until visiting Arizona later this month to tell the rest of my family but I couldn't do it. While Kate was talking to my mom I kept nudging her to tell her while Kate looked at me wide eyed shaking her head no. She asked Debbie to hold on a second and covered the receiver to ask if I was sure. See telling my mom meant word would be out in full force from Washington to Arizona in less then two hours, so it was a tough decision. The trump card was that I wanted my mom to hear it from us and not whispered about from one friend to the next. Kate got back on the phone and passed on the good news. Debbie was stunned silent. I heard Kate ask "Debbie, are you there?" A couple more minutes of talk and the grape vine was buzzing. I went to play basketball and missed calls from my Aunt, my mom again, Kendra, and Mark. I got about 15 emails of congratulations and Kate and I wondered if we let the cat out of the bag too soon. From all the stories I have heard modern day pregnancy tests are very accurate. You more likely to get a false negative then a false positive so I think we are OK. Kate's parents have been on vacation and Kate wanted to wait and tell them in person so it wasn't until this past Friday that we got the chance. There was a plan to meet at our house for brekfast as Tom came in from Hawaii and I had a hard time sleeping that night. As much as I knew they would be so excited I still felt nervous. Kate and I spent the morning hiding the baby books and cleaning our apartment before Heather and Kris came over and I was sent to go pick up Tom. When Tom and I got back from the airport Kris greeted me with a huge hug and even bigger smile. She told Tom to get his cell phone and call Mandy in Hawaii. "But it's 5 in the morning there why are we calling?" "Tell her your going to be a grandfather" Kate said and Tom looked up confused. "But I was just there why didn't they tell me then?" Mandy's not pregnant, Kate is! It seemed to take some time to register, in Tom's head, what was being said. I guess the 14 hours of plane rides could be blammed for that. Once he did get it he came up to me and hugged me with full eyes saying congradulations, and Thank You! All my worries and concerns seem really silly now. The major parties know now and it some how seems infinitely more real and exciting. We are having a baby! Kate and I are going to have a baby!