A Surprise Announcement!

I’m Pregnant!

As I mentioned, my pregnancy at age 40 with Elle was a huge surprise. Huge surprise. 

I didn’t expect to have kids at that point in life. And I was perfectly content with that reality. But then, she came along. And she is the biggest blessing I never knew I needed! I tell her all the time that she is the best daughter in the world!

Fast forward… I didn’t plan to date and I didn’t expect to get engaged.

But when all that happened, Mark and I explicitly discussed up front that we were both entirely happy with it just being the three of us forever. While he has never had any biological kids of his own, he loves Elle as if she were his. He loves her immensely, spends copious amounts of time with her, and considers it the privilege of his lifetime to help mold and form her.

That was the plan. Furthermore, we got engaged at the beginning of this year, and then we were supposed to do a small destination wedding this spring before COVID hit.

But as the cliches go, life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans, right?

So, here we are with me at age 43 unexpectedly pregnant.

And did I mention that I’m not just a little bit pregnant?!

I’m already 24 weeks pregnant!

Yep, you read that right. We are well over halfway through this pregnancy, particularly when you take into account that Elle was born at 36 weeks.

We definitely kept things under wraps for a while as we acclimated to the idea, as we did some extensive testing and such to make sure everything is great with the baby, and so on and so forth.

How Did You Find Out That You Were Pregnant?

This is a story I will always treasure…

Keep in mind, pregnancy was nowhere on our radar!

I had been feeling nauseous and tired for a week or so. But Mark had just gotten over food poisoning, and I thought that maybe it was actually a stomach bug that I had caught.

But I just couldn’t shake the exhaustion. I remember vividly telling Mark that I just couldn’t power through the exhaustion at work. I physically couldn’t do it. I needed to go home and take a nap. My body was screaming for rest.

Then, a few hours later, when Elle’s nanny brought her home, she told us a strange story…

She told us:

Elle said she is getting a baby brother from her mommy’s tummy!

Say what??!

Again, this was not on our radar even a little bit. It’s not as if she overheard us talking about it, because it wasn’t a topic of conversation.

So, I asked her, “Elle, why did you say that?!”

She replied, “Because I need one, Mommy!”

And then she said she had a dream about having a baby brother.

Mark and I both looked at each other in bizarre wonderment. The next morning, I took a pregnancy test.

And it was indeed positive.

And then, when we later learned the gender, it was indeed a boy.

Wow.

How am I feeling?

Thanks for asking! Ha.

I want to be honest and transparent here, as I feel as if too many ladies paint pregnancy with these rose-colored glasses. And maybe it is all rainbow and sunshine for them! I’m sure my being 43 doesn’t help. I’m sure living in a time of a pandemic doesn’t help. I’m sure a lot of personalized issues factor into my pregnancy experience.

So, I’ll just share openly and honestly in hope that it might help someone else.

Let’s just recap 2020 for me so far, shall we?

– Start a new business: Curate Capital

– Keep running my existing business: CarrieColbert.com / @carriec

– Get engaged

– Plan a small destination wedding

– Enter a time of isolation and economic unrest because of the COVID pandemic

– Cancel travel plans, including wedding

– Turn 43

… and so on and so forth.

So, I’m not going to lie: this development was a shock. We are two self-employed people, living through these unprecedented times of a pandemic, causing social and economic uncertainty, raising a toddler, living in a small apartment at the time, and on and on and on.

Thankfully, we have found a bigger home to accommodate our growing family (more on that soon).

But we, along with everyone else, are living in a time of great stress and uncertainty.

Now, hear me loud and clear:

We are very excited about our baby boy!

We are grateful. We are blessed.

For me to get unexpectedly pregnant at 43 and have everything seemingly going wonderfully with the baby’s development… This is not normal! So, we definitely feel as if this is definitely in God’s plans for us as a family.

But, it’s been rough physically. It’s been rough emotionally. It’s been rough to try to start and run my businesses during all this. Some days, I have had zero energy! Some days, I have been vomiting uncontrollably. Some days, I am unable to eat. Some days, I cry a lot. Some days are a real struggle.

Nevertheless, we are grateful and excited and happy.

But that doesn’t mean I have to be one of those ladies who always looks beautiful and has no complaints about pregnancy. 🙂

This later-age pregnancy stuff is not for the weak!

Golf-Themed Pregnancy Announcement

While I could go on and on talking about this, I’ll save some thoughts for a Q&A at a later date. For now, let me touch on the details of this golf-themed pregnancy announcement and gender reveal.

If golf is a big part of your family, as it is for ours, you too might enjoy planning a golf-themed pregnancy announcement or golf-themed gender reveal!

For the actual pregnancy announcement, my main idea was this: personalized golf balls that read

Tee Time

January 2021

<Insert Family Name> Foursome

While this was theoretically a good idea, I will caution you that the print on golf balls is so small that it made it hard to read the message.

Golf-Themed Gender Reveal

What we really had fun with was the golf-themed gender reveal! For those who don’t know, Mark actually played professional golf for a few years when he was younger. And I played competitively growing up! So, we knew we had to do something golf-related.

The first idea was an easy and fun one: use blue and pink golf balls on varying heights of tees to represent your growing family! This one is a bit subtle, and some people might be slow to catch on to the message you’re trying to send. But eventually, they’ll get the picture so to speak!

The next idea is a commonly used idea: hit an exploding golf ball to reveal the gender. While this is a common idea, I had seen it executed with mixed results. Well, I researched ball options a ton! I highly recommend this gender reveal golf ball I found on Etsy. Go ahead and upgrade the size to the XL ball and upgrade the contents to include all the confetti and powder and streamers. This will maximize the dramatic effect!

An Idea for the Big Sibling at a Gender Reveal

I can’t end this post without sharing the sweetest gesture extended to Elle by our photographer and friend Kate Robinson…

Given the weird times we live in with health concerns, we did not plan a big party for our gender reveal. We just did something nice and small and private one evening at our golf course.

But of course, someone has to be in the know about the gender! So, we chose sweet Kate. Our doctor communicated the gender to her, and then she knew whether to place the pink or blue golf ball on the tee.

Well, she also took that information and bought a gift for Elle to open that night! This baby brother doll was the sweetest gift ever! And it really helped Elle to begin to take on the big sister role. She doesn’t go anywhere without here toy baby brother, as she calls him! And she keeps asking when her real baby brother is going to come out and play with her. Awwwww.

So, I highly suggest getting some sort of gift for the big siblings to commemorate the occasion. I would have never thought of it, but it was a perfect idea!

Sources and Credits

Before I close, for those interested, I’ll share sources for everything…

Carrie:

my dress – Emilia Collection | my shoes – Golden Goose | earrings – Kendra Scott Elle earrings in rose gold | my lipstick – Bobbi Brown luxe lipstick in pink bluff | my nail polish – Olive and June honest & true nail polish

Elle:

her dress – Emilia Collection | her bows – Willowcrowns | her shoes – See Kai Run sandals (on sale)

Mark:

his shirt – Stitch Monaco golf shirt in orchid (I also liked this one as an option)

Golf supplies:

Personalized golf balls

Blue golf balls

Pink golf balls

Gender reveal golf balls – Trust me, I did a lot of research on these… These are by far the best I found. For the best results, upgrade the size to the XL size and upgrade the contents to include confetti, powder, and streamers.

Finally, a huge thanks to the amazing Kate Robinson for taking these photos at Royal Oaks Country Club

In Closing

Thanks for joining us in celebrating this surprise news. Though it’s been incredibly hard physically, we are blessed and grateful that baby boy seems to be doing wonderfully. We’d appreciate your prayers for a continued safe, good pregnancy.

Also, in the spirit of being transparent and real about pregnancy (particularly at a later age in life), I’ll probably put together a Q&A. If you have any questions for me, feel free to leave in the comment section. I’m happy to help others in any way I can.