Whisper from the rooftop

I had my weekly department meeting at work this morning and finally told the news to everyone then. This isn't all of the people I work closely with, so I'll still have to tell a few other people individually, but this should cover most people who need to know. Anyway, I was ready to confidently and excitedly say, "I'm going to have a baby!" but when it came out, it was timid and more at a whisper. Saying it out loud makes it more real, so I guess I wasn't ready to say it beyond a whisper quite yet. I got a high-pitched chorus of "AWWWWWW!" from the women (the meeting was all women except my two supervisors), and someone asked when I was due. After the little chatter stopped, someone said, "Well, I can't top that" and the meeting was over shortly thereafter.

I was a big chicken, though, and didn't tell one of my proofreaders (she wasn't there for the meeting but came into the office later). She's an older woman (well, about my parents' age) and doesn't seem particularly fond of kids from past conversations, and there was just never a good time to bring it up when it wouldn't have just completely come from out of the blue. I think I'm also hestitant to tell her because she's going to be one of the people who has to pick up the slack in my absence. I know that's something I shouldn't worry about, and I won't when the time comes, but it's something that's on my mind for now.