In the event you're like most women who spontaneously blurt the news, you can save the creative announcements for friends and family. For example, when Laurie Yarmy, a mom from Michigan, learned she was pregnant with her second child she disguised the news as a holiday wish list. The list she e-mailed to her parents included such telltale items as diapers, a stroller, and, of course, a bigger house. It took a minute to sink in, Yarmy recalls, but her mom and dad were thrilled. "They called right away," she says.

According to Hilory Wagner, author of And Baby Makes Four: Welcoming a Second Child into the Family, breaking the news to an older child is a more delicate matter. When Wagner was pregnant with her second child, she used a book as a tool to start the conversation with her two-year-old daughter Sarah. "It's a good way to help them sort out their feelings and let them voice their opinions," she says. Wagner recommends A New Baby in Koko Bear's House by Vicki Lansky.

After baby is born, you can share the news and development via various Internet services. Julie Rauh, a mom from St. Louis, used Baby Press Conference, www.babypressconference.com, to introduce her daughter Madeleine to distant uncles and aunts. "She made funny little faces," Rauh says. "She was a star."