[farmwife]

I'm a high school teacher and wondering when other teachers have told their students. With my first baby I told at 12 weeks after we heard the heartbeat. I'm 10 weeks now and have quite the pouch that I try to hide each day with clothing!

 

[CandyApple]

Oh what fun!

I went thru this 2 months ago and a colleague is contiplating this delima now. I think it all depends on your comfort level. I'd probably wait for the heartbeat, just because I would want to be sure, but thats just me. I share a lot with my students, but there's something about pregnancy that I like to keep private.

This time around I waited til 23 weeks, but we hadn't told anyone and were waiting for several family reasons. A few students started to suspect, but its was beginning sweater season and I stay really small. With my first 2, I told the kids around 18 wks.

The teacher across the hall is at 15 wks, shows sooner, and is starting to get questions, so she's telling this week or next, before Christmas break.

Congratulations!

 

[Pavlovs]

I am currently 8 weeks and have felt the urge to tell my students because I've been soooo tired! I feel bad that I'm not the energetic teacher I usually am and want to tell them why. However, I will tell them (and everyone else at work) after Winter Break. By then I'll be just about out of the first trimester and confident things are going well. I'd hate to untell 160 students if something were to happen.

 

[BananaBreadGirl]

I am 11 weeks today and my students (middle and high school) have known for over a week. My school is a tight-knit community though and it would be impossible to tell any family and friends without someone at school finding out. I was ready to tell family, so, I told everyone!

 

[fizgig]

I teach at a university and I actually ended up telling my students very early (even before my boss) because I had such bad morning sickness by week 8 or so.

It was a relief to feel like they knew what was up with me, but they are all adults so it was different than telling younger kids I'm sure. I will admit I was pretty nervous that something would go wrong and that I would have to explain it to the whole class.

 

[ainh]

Ha! I'm a professor and so it's a little different. Last pregnancy I got pregnant the first day of school and really didn't show all fall semester (16 weeks) and I certainly didn't say anything since I hadn't told my collegeaues yet. Then I started spring semester with a whole new group of students who had never seen me before. I was about 22 weeks pregnant and showing, but I didn't say anything. There was no real reason to bring it up since my final was on May 2nd and I wasn't due until the 13th (I had him on the 19th).

One day around 32 weeks pregnant I started class in my usual way "any questions?" and when no one had any I said "does anyone wonder about this [pointing to my belly]". All 80 students were laughing and curious. By that point I was huge and the subject had just never been broached at all. Pretty funny.

This semester I was about 22 weeks when fall semester started and I was already quite large so I just addressed it immediately on the first day and said that it shouldn't be a problem (their final is Dec 17th and I'm due on the 31st).

 

[Altair]

I teach kindergarten and I waited for them to ask me! At around 15 weeks one boy patted my stomach knowingly and nodded his head and said "You have a baby in there." I said "Why do you think that?" "Because your belly is fat and if a woman has a fat belly it's a baby in there." His mom is 3 weeks ahead of me pregnant, and I had told her, so I figured she had told him, but she hadn't! funny things is though, he dropped it forgot about it.

It wasn't until about 19-20 weeks when I was REALLY obviously showing that they started to put it together.
"Is there a baby in there?"
"Yep!"
"Oh. I saw Sponge Bob last night!" was a typical conversation for awhile.

They are very understanding now, I can't believe they let me sit on the birth ball and don't play with it (and I have a few kids who don't listen to any other rules, so this one surprises me!) and they are always asking if things I do are healthy for the baby. I was asked to tie a shoe today and I told the boy to ask my co-teacher and he said "oh yea, you can't bend down, there's a big baby in the way!" cracked me up.

My hardest student has been touch and go. She is pretty nice *talking* about the baby and explaining why I can't pick her floppy "boneless" body off the floor when she's tantruming, but she has told me "I want to kill the baby" and lunged after me hitting and kicking. I thinbk there's some jealousy involved, she is in foster care (with a great foster mom) and really craves attachment and I don't think she likes that I'm sharing mine. Ahhhh the joys of being a teacher.

 

[herins]

My morning sickness gave it away for both pregnancies. In my first pregnancy I was teaching grade 1 and parents were suspecting by 8 weeks. This time school didn't start until around 11 weeks, so I was okay with everyone knowing. I also only work a 0.3 position now, so I wasn't as worried about my job and parental worries, etc.

 

[inky leeuhhh]

i teach pre-k, and i just tell kids when it seems right. im 21 weeks and just starting to look obviously pregnant. i told one little boy who was punching (not capable of punching too hard) my tummy that he needed to be very careful because i had a tiny baby in my tummy. he has been so sweet since then, coming over and lifting up my shirt (thank goodness for the bella band! lol), and patting my belly and saying "hi baby in there". a lot of the kids have pregnant mommies right now and i wouldn't be surprised if some of them never even ask about the baby, although im sure ill mention it more as i get bigger and closer to going on maternity leave.

 

[Mal85]

When I found out I was pregnant I was doing my internship at a Montessori school, working with 3-6 year olds. I really didn't know if I would even tell those kids... for a couple of reasons. One being I knew I wouldn't get to share most of the pregnancy with them since the internship was only for the summer. The other being I had a 5 year old girl in my class whose mom had recently had a stillbirth and I wasn't quite sure how she would react to me having a baby. However, my supervisor announced one day that I had exciting news to share at circle time. So, I was kind of forced into telling them. They were excited and got to see my first sonogram picture.
This school year (I was about 13 weeks along when the school year started), I have been working at after-school child care at the elementary school. My kids are kindergarten-4th grade ages. I had one little girl who told me several times last school year she wanted me to have a baby. So, I was excited to share the news with her and she just kind of spread the word. I'm 28 weeks now, looking obviously pregnant. Just last week I had two first grade kids ask me if I had a baby in my belly. They had been completely oblivious. The little girl said "My mom asked me if you had a baby in your belly, but she said it would be rude to ask." That made me laugh!
I really love sharing this with the kids. There are days they are interested and ask me lots of questions, but most days they don't even bring it up. One day, I was helping a group of kids clean up the craft table and a Braxton Hicks contraction came on, so I just sat down and put my hand on my stomach. One of my girls looked very concerned and said "Miss Mallory, is your baby hurting you?" It was cute how worried she was about me. I just told her that sometimes it can be a little uncomfortable having a baby inside of me.

 

[ClumsySugarPlum]

I teach middle school and told after we had our first ultrasound, around 14 weeks. I told my principal first, then the teachers on my team, then students (but, all in the same day- I was bursting to tell). I had already planned to reward my students for a game we were playing with candy, so I bought miniature Baby Ruth bars to help break the news. With my colleagues I called an emergency fake meeting that even started with passing along a little bit of paperwork for one of our special ed kids. Then I passed out the Baby Ruth bars and said "I'm pregnant!" Everyone was really congratulatory and happy for me. It will be interesting when the birth is announced as our office manager is due the same week.

 

[farmwife]

Love the Baby Ruth bars...what a cute idea!!!! I may have to do this!

 

[catemom]

I told my students when I was on the verge of having to wear maternity clothes (sometime before 20 wks.). When I found out the sex, I wrote down the percentage of girl births/boy births on the board, had them guess based on the percentages what sex of the baby would likely be, then told them what it was. Definitely work that baby into your lesson plans, it can be really fun for the class.

 

[texaspeach]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catemom I told my students when I was on the verge of having to wear maternity clothes (sometime before 20 wks.). When I found out the sex, I wrote down the percentage of girl births/boy births on the board, had them guess based on the percentages what sex of the baby would likely be, then told them what it was. Definitely work that baby into your lesson plans, it can be really fun for the class.

are you a math teacher?

that's really cute

 

[JenniferLovie]

I started telling my students around the beginning of the 2nd trimester. Some found out early because another teacher slipped up, but I wanted to wait a while. Some of my students are just finding out now (I'm 15 weeks).

 

[stik]

I teach high school too. I told my administration around 12 weeks, and told students when they asked. So one small group of students found out in my office hours at 15 weeks, one class found out at 20 weeks, and one was debating the probable truth of the rumor at 23 weeks. My students are nosy, and I figured they would ask soon enough.