When Shelby Hoefling found out she was pregnant, she knew there was one person she needed to tell: her best friend and grandmother Patricia Hoefling.
"She lives two hours away from me so I went and visited her the next day," the Baltimore resident recounted to "Good Morning America." "I knew that I wanted to do something."
Shelby Hoefling said she has always been close to her beloved grandma and the two would often spend time together when she was a young girl, singing songs in the car, cooking or baking in the kitchen and sharing deep conversations. So, during this special trip, the 32-year-old put together a special gift for her "Nanny," filled with one of her favorite foods, butter -- perfect for the "bun in [her] oven" as she wrote on a card inside the box -- as well as a "limited edition Bumpalicious Butter Pecan" ice cream that would be "available only for 9 months!"
The expectant mom filmed the preparation and captured the sweet surprise as she opened the box with her 98-year-old grandma on camera. An Instagram reel of the exchange has since gone viral, with over 130,000 likes so far.
"'Oh you've got a bun in the oven!' is the best part 😂… Telling Nanny that I'm pregnant (very cryptically hehe oops) was yet another moment that I wished for, hoped for and prayed for!! We are both THRILLED and SO excited!!!" she wrote in the video caption.
"To actually have her there to experience this exciting milestone that she and I had been talking about for practically my whole life ... it was so special," Shelby Hoefling recalled, speaking with "GMA."
She said she and her grandmother have been sharing milestones her entire life, and now as an adult, the moments have been extra precious -- her engagement, her wedding and now her pregnancy.
"All these things are happening very fast but I'm absolutely OK with it because it means that nanny gets to be a part of it. So it's been a dream come true," Shelby Hoefling said.
Patricia Hoefling agreed. "I think we've been very blessed to do those things together," she told "GMA." "They're very important things."
Shelby Hoefling and her husband Andy Rayner are expecting a baby boy Feb. 27, 2024, and when the time comes, they hope their son can meet his great-grandmother in person.
"She's like, 'Well, when's the baby due?' And I said 'February,' and she's like, 'Ah! I'll stay for that. I"ll stay,'" Shelby Hoefling said.
She added, "We've had so many memories together and so many milestones and experiences, so if we can get more, that'd be great, but we're just grateful for what we get."
