Big news for Erin and Ben Napier‘s little family! The HGTV stars announced they are expecting a baby girl this summer.
“We’re having another baby!” the home renovators told People. The outlet reports that the couple first learned of the pregnancy in September while filming their hit TV show Home Town in Laurel, Mississippi and simultaneously working on their new show, Home Town Takeover in Wetumpka, Alabama.
Erin and Ben Napier Are Expecting a Baby Girl, Their Second Child, in a Matter of Months.
“The last six months of 2020 really, you know, it was rough. It’s all a blur,” Ben Napier told People of his experience filming multiple TV shows in multiple places all while dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We were like, ‘Ooh, this is going to be tough, but we can do it,'” Erin explained. “We don’t remember anything, but I’m glad somebody was filming all of it.”
The couple made their pregnancy announcement public on their show, Home Town, which aired on Sunday night. It was a double pregnancy reveal, in fact, as Erin and Ben announced their pregnancy alongside Ben’s brother Jessie and his wife Lauren, who are also expecting a baby around the same time.Â
“Our family is growing all of a sudden,” Erin shared along with the expected timeline of the births which should occur within three weeks of each other.
The touching episode of Home Town showed Ben, a wood craftsman, building a crib for Jessie and Lauren’s baby on the way, which is something of a family tradition at this point, as he did the same for his own daughter, Helen ahead of her birth in 2018.
“I grew up with built-in best friends. My 3 brothers and I speak our own language and know the dance when it’s time to move a piano into a house together. Helen will have that with her little sister. It makes me even happier to know that there’ll be another Napier baby right around the corner from us. There was a time when @erinapier and I didn’t know if we would have kids. I would’ve been happy with just the 2 of us, or just the 3 of us, but I can’t wait to see the 4 of us,”
Ben Napier shared on Instagram.
“By now most of you know that in just a few weeks we will be adding another little face to our home videos and photo albums. Just like Helen did, her little sister has made it easy to keep her secret by being tiny even now, and I’m deeply thankful that we’ve had almost 8 months of keeping this our news just for our family and close friends,”Â
Erin Napier wrote on her own Instagram post.
“Last spring, I put away the changing table supplies because I no longer had an infant. I put it away in the guest room closet and then I cried because I thought how lonesome Helen must feel up there in her crib beside an empty room every night. A few weeks later, I watched my daddy and his brother standing at my grandmother’s graveside. Two men with many differences strengthened each other. Two men who knew her better than any of us ever could. Siblings do that, they know and remember and keep the stories of a family alive. And we wanted that for Helen,”
Erin continued.
“Someone to stand with her when we can’t someday. And now she’ll have a cousin following just a few weeks behind her, too. We are so thankful. Even in our celebrating, I’m thinking of the would-be parents waiting for their own babies,” Erin’s message continued.
“For many, it can be such a long and difficult journey and I pray for strength for you if that’s where you are. God answers in His own time, not ours, awfully hard as that can be. Sending so much love to y’all today,” Erin concluded.
The baby news comes as somewhat of a shock for the couple as Erin had a decade-long health battle that began when she was just 19-years-old that caused pain in her abdomen so severe that she would be bedridden for days at a time. After seeing numerous specialists, she finally underwent an exploratory surgery in 2014 that discovered the cause of the discomfort: she had a perforated appendix.
Her appendix had been rupturing and healing repeatedly over the decade, causing her organs to become wrapped in scar tissue and bound together. But even after surgeons removed the tissue, she was told the damage would make it unlikely she would be able to have children.
“I was very sad. And not knowing is always the biggest hurdle for me to overcome. I like to have proof. And we had no proof that I would be able to have kids,” she told People after the birth of her daughter in 2018.
Surprisingly, the Napiers were shocked to find out that they were expecting three years later, on Mother’s Day 2017 of all days, and welcomed Helen the following January. “There’s nothing you can say that does [motherhood] justice,” Erin said at the time.
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: Erin Napier Deletes Instagram Of 3-Year-Old Daughter After ‘Vicious Strangers’
Thankfully Erin’s outlook is rosier this time around! “I’m less nervous now,” Erin said. “All is well.”
We are so excited for this talented couple and their growing family!
Mamas Uncut is THE online place for moms. We cover the latest about motherhood, parenting, and entertainment as well – all with a mom-focused twist. So if you're looking for parenting advice from real parents, we have plenty of it, all for moms from moms, and also experts. Because, at the end of the day, our mission is focused solely on empowering moms and moms-to-be with the knowledge and answers they’re looking for in one safe space.