We’ve recommended the Snoo for several years. It’s the only true “smart” bassinet, designed by Dr. Harvey Karp, who is best known for his books on the “5 S’s” for getting kids to sleep. He described the Snoo to me as an extra pair of hands to rock a baby back to sleep and believes it can add an hour or two of slumber to an average baby’s night. In my experience, his claims check out.
The Snoo listens to your baby and reacts. Motion starts off as a slow side-to-side sway with a subtle waterlike sound that’s meant to mimic the womb, then gets more vigorous if they start crying. The most intense phase is a Jello jiggle, accompanied by more white noise. It has a straightforward app for iPhone and Android phones that records sleep patterns and lets you tinker with how the bassinet responds to your baby. If your baby’s distress reaches Level 5, it automatically stops after a minute or so and sends you a notification. I liked to lock it to a low level and tinker with its sensitivity a bit.
Unlike every other bassinet, it requires a special sleep sack that connects to its sides and keeps babies on their backs. If the sack isn’t hooked up right, it won’t operate, which the company claims makes it “the safest baby bed ever made.” Stomach sleeping, overheating, and co-sleeping are all possible causes of SIDS.
At $1,695, it’s pricey, though you can also rent it for $159 a month from Happiest Baby. It looks the price, with a clean, modern metal-and-mesh aesthetic. But it’s not perfect. Sometimes it doesn’t react fast enough, and other times it seems too aggressive, particularly as your baby gets smarter. I also wish it had a cover to block some light. And since my child spit up a lot, I was sometimes short on sacks. (Be sure to get a couple extra.) The Velcro on the sacks could also stand to be a bit stronger. Finally, the Snoo is not completely invulnerable to hacking—no internet-enabled product can be. You can turn the Wi-Fi features off, though if you do, you won’t be able to tinker with the settings. As of September 2024, there are also certain features hidden behind the app’s new Premium subscription ($20 a month). If you buy the bassinet directly from Snoo or an authorized partner, you’ll get the Premium features for nine months—plenty of time for your kiddo to grow out of it, but it hurts the resale value, and means you’ll have to pay for it for your second kiddo. If you buy the bassinet secondhand, though, you’ll have to pay for the subscription the entire time.
This bassinet should work “from birth to 6 months (or when baby can get on hands and knees).”Read its User Guide here.
“He’s the greatest,” Waterhouse, 32, told Access Hollywoodon the red carpet at the 2024 MTV Music Video Awards. The British singer said she was flying solo in New York Wednesday night while Pattinson, 38, was “on set” and their baby daughter stayed home.
“I’ve had the best day with her today and showing her around New York City is heaven,” Waterhouse shared, adding of new motherhood, “It’s the best. And it’s just getting more and more fun.”
Waterhouse and the Twilight star began dating in July 2018 after meeting at a game night in Los Angeles. Though Pattinson later revealed to GQ that the private pair had isolated together during the Covid pandemic, they didn’t make their official red-carpet debut until a Dior fall 2023 runway show in Egypt.
Robert Pattinson and Suki Waterhouse have been dating on and off since July 2018, but it’s mostly been under the radar — or, perhaps, more accurately, right under our noses. The British pair are tight-lipped about their private life together and, according to Pattinson, that’s by choice. “If you let people in, it devalues what […]
The twosome welcomed their little one in March 2024, withholding details such as her name. Months later, Waterhouse and the baby graced the August 2024 cover of Vogue.
When Access Hollywood asked Waterhouse whether her daughter takes after her or Pattinson, she replied, “I don’t know. It’s just always changing. She has such a sweet nature. It’s really sweet to see.”
Professionally, Waterhouse is preparing for the release of her second studio album, Memoir of a Sparklemuffin, on Friday, September 13. She recently opened for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium in London, where she was born and raised.
“It was insane,” she said. “It was probably the coolest thing that I’ve ever got to do. And [in] my hometown [with] friends, family, everybody that I’ve grown up with — all in one place: Wembley. It was unbelievable.”
Getty Images (2) Suki Waterhouse has had her fair share of high-profile romances, but she finally found “pure love” with fiancé Robert Pattinson. After stepping into the Hollywood dating scene in 2011 with “Last Shadow Puppets” singer Miles Kane, Waterhouse grew up in the spotlight. She went on to have several relationships with sizable age […]
As for Swift, Waterhouse called her an “amazing friend” and “such a great time.”
She and Pattinson once went on a double date with Swift and her ex, Joe Alwyn, in 2019. An eyewitness at a restaurant in Hollywood had recalled to Us that the four “were laughing and talking” all night.
Two years later, Waterhouse slammed HBO Max’s Gossip Girl reboot for a joke about her relationship with Pattinson. “When are you going to get it? As far as the press is concerned, he’s R-Patz and you’re Suki Nobody,” one character said.
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“Seeing critiques of the patriarchy and sexism, then I get name-checked as somebody’s nobody girlfriend,” the Daisy Jones & The Six actress tweeted before deleting the message. “Make it make sense.”
In February 2023, Waterhouse reflected on feeling “kind of depressed” after a tough breakup — until she met Pattinson. “Oh God, what on earth will I write about now?” she teased of her music during an interview with the Sunday Times. “I’m always incredibly excited when I see his name pop up [on my phone] or even a text, and I think he feels the same about me. We’ve always got so much to say, and I find him hilarious. … I’m shocked that I’m so happy with someone for nearly five years.”
At the time, she hinted that she couldn’t “wait” to have children someday, adding, “I wish you could click your fingers to make it happen.”
A young mother sits on the floor in a motel room with her baby girl on her lap, her son milling around in the background. The mother taps the infant’s fist on a toy, as the baby dazes blankly, unengaged.
These moments were captured on video before the mother underwent a 10-session intervention for parents who have trouble bonding with their children because of challenges tied to poverty, homelessness and other issues. In a montage of clips filmed afterward, the woman can be seen snuggling the baby sleeping on her chest while she talks to and plays with her young son at her side. In another clip, the son dangles his arm around his mother’s shoulders as she jostles the baby in her lap.
There is life and love in the room.
“This mom continues to live in a motel room,” said Mary Dozier, a professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware who developed the program. “We haven’t helped her with child care. We haven’t helped her with housing. We haven’t directly tried to change depression or anything else, and yet, these two children’s lives have fundamentally changed.”
Dozier has spent three decades studying the development of infants and young children. The home visiting program that she developed, dubbed ABC for Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-Up, uses coaches who provide in-the-moment positive reinforcement to help parents learn to nurture a child, follow a child’s lead and avoid frightening behaviors. These skills are useful for anybody, but they are “especially important when children have experienced adversity or trauma,” Dozier said.
Through a series of studies coordinated with the Philadelphia Department of Health and Human Services, Dozier and a team of researchers identified children who were at risk of neglect and have followed their development for 15 years, examining the short- and long-term effects of the ABC program. This research has shown that the ABC program – now used in 26 states and 10 countries – improves children’s brain and behavioral development and helps them gain trusting, secure relationships with their parents. Studies have indicated that the easily-implemented ABC program improves children’s executive-functioning and self-control and that it regulates cortisol production, the stress-hormone that partly affects sleep.
“We see this everywhere we go, whether it’s when we implement it nationally and internationally or in a randomized trial,” said Dozier, the UNIDEL Amy E. du Pont Chair of Child Development at the University of Delaware. “We see the parents change. They become more sensitive. They follow the lead more of their child. We see the children’s attachment is more likely to be secure and organized.”
Currently, Dozier and her team have been researching how the ABC program impacts parents with substance use disorder. The $3.1 million, National Institutes of Health-funded study began in 2020 and ends in 2026. It includes about 200 parents from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland who are receiving treatment, such as the medications methadone or buprenorphine that help stem the cravings for and effects of opioids. Since opioids and other drugs interfere with brain receptors involved with the reward system, the natural rewards that come from bonding with a child and parenting may be affected.
“We (humans) are designed so that parenting will be rewarding, but that system gets disrupted when we have enough challenges in our life, either because of drugs or mental health issues or living in a motel room with three kids,” Dozier said. “So what you’ve got to do is change the system, tweak it so that eventually children can be become more rewarding, so that the process of parenting is itself rewarding.”
With the parents with substance use disorder in the ABC program, Dozier’s team has been placing electrodes on their heads to study brain activity as they look at pictures of babies and pictures of drugs.
“What we anticipate is that the baby would become relatively more important to them than the drug, if they’re in the … ABC intervention than if they’re not,” Dozier said. “But I don’t know the answer to that at this point.”
Helping parents learn to become more engaged with their children is necessary even before resolving substance use, stabilizing housing or addressing other challenges because “babies can’t wait,” Dozier said.
No matter what situation the parents are in, coaches conducting the ABC intervention do not critique or correct parents’ actions. Instead, starting in the very first session, the coaches “are already trying to find something in what they’re (the parents) doing that is positive and pointing it out,” Dozier said.
The parent should feel supported by the ABC coach whose ongoing, positive reinforcement of what the parent is doing well elicits a “cascade of behaviors, and it makes parents really feel empowered. It makes them feel good about themselves,” Dozier said.
“I was 37, and I was a psychologist when I had my first child,” Dozier said. “If you had an expert come in to say they’re going to evaluate my parenting, I would have found that threatening. And so you can imagine what it would feel like for a 20-year-old who is using opioids.
“Everybody said, ‘How in the world could you possibly have a child? You have no business having a child.’ They’re (the parents) going to just feel so demeaned. So, the positive comments are just so critical in helping them feel rewarded by this process. And eventually, what we want is that they are rewarded by their baby and rewarded by parenting itself. We’re sort of scaffolding that process to get them to that point.”
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We’re discussing this article (and beyond) on CorporetteMomstoday too, but the conversation has a different flavor over there!
Did you catch the story in The Wall Street Journal [gift link] a couple of weeks ago that addressed falling birth rates? The WSJ reported that the birth rate among American women has fallen to 1.62 per woman — the lowest since the 1930s when the government began keeping track. (The article does note this: “The figures are provisional and likely to adjust slightly when final data are released later this year.”)
One more striking stat: In 1950, in the midst of the baby boom, the crude birth rate was 24.1 per 1,000 people, and by 2018, it had dropped to 11.6, according to Pew Research. This is a major issue for other industrialized countries as well — today CNN reported that South Korea’s fertility rate (a bit different than birth rate) is so low at 0.72 in 2023 that the government may create a Ministry of Low Birth Rate Counter-planning. (Hmm, that feels a bit Handmaid’s Tale.)
We thought we’d use the WSJ article as a jumping-off point for a discussion today. (Btw, it’s a coincidence that this post is in the same week as Mother’s Day! BUT if you need gift ideas, check out our recent gift ideas open thread, which ALSO coincidentally was published on the day the WSJ story came out.)
Here are two key excerpts from the WSJ article:
The decline reflects a continuing trend as American women navigate economic and social challenges that have prompted some to forgo or delay having children. A confluence of factors are at play. American women are having fewer children, later in life. Women are establishing fulfilling careers and have more access to contraception.
At the same time, young people are also more uncertain about their futures and spending more of their income on homeownership, student debt and child care. Some women who wait to have children might have fewer than they would have otherwise for reasons including declining fertility.
* * *
The long-term effects of lowering rates could shape the economy, programs including Social Security and other facets of American life, said Phillip Levine, an economics professor at Wellesley College. “It has the ability to have a significant impact on the way we live for a long time to come,” he said.
* * *
Is anyone really surprised by this news? Just thinking about the most likely factors becomes daunting: the the current and future impact of climate change, the crises and wars around the world, abortion bans and associated restrictions on maternal care, discrimination against pregnant employees and working mothers, inadequate government support for families, employers providing inadequate paid family leave, and so on.
So, let’s discuss:
Readers who are planning to have kids: Are you waiting longer to do so — longer than you expected? If you are waiting, how much are you worried about declining fertility? Have you thought about freezing your eggs?
Alternately, if you’re not sure whether you want kids — or don’t ever want them — how much is your career a factor, and how much of your decision stems from one or more of the factors listed above — if at all?
Colorado is experiencing an alarming spike in syphilis among newborns, leading the state to issue a public health order Thursday aimed at curbing the disease’s spread through wider testing.
In 2023, 50 infants in Colorado were born with syphilis, up from only seven in 2018. So far this year, the state is halfway to last year’s total, with five infected babies who were stillborn and two who died in their first months of life, state epidemiologist Dr. Rachel Herlihy said.
“We’ve already had 25 cases so far this year, putting us on track to have maybe 100 cases,” she said at a news conference, addressing what Gov. Jared Polis’s office called a “growing epidemic.”
Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that sometimes causes no symptoms in adults, though the bacteria can eventually damage the heart and brain if a person doesn’t receive treatment. But roughly two out of five babies born to infected mothers will be stillborn or die in infancy, and those who survive are at risk of intellectual disability, bone deformities and other lifelong health problems, Herlihy said.
The new public health order from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment requires all health care providers to offer syphilis testing at least three times to pregnant patients: in the first trimester, in the third trimester and at birth.
Nearly all insurance plans cover the testing, and people without insurance can receive it for free at public health clinics or by ordering a home test kit.
“We hope to save many babies from death and suffering,” Polis said at the news conference.
On Thursday, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists issued a recommendation that all pregnant patients receive testing three times. Previously, it only recommended more than one test if a patient had certain risk factors for getting infected while pregnant.
“The cases of congenital syphilis are definitely climbing, and they’ve been climbing over the last 10 years. And it’s completely preventable… It’s unacceptable,” said Dr. Laura Riley, who chairs the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Weill Cornell Medicine and helped with the guidance. “We need to be able to do better diagnostics and treatment.”
The Colorado order also requires offering tests to prisoners who are pregnant, and to people who have experienced a stillbirth after 20 weeks of pregnancy, when spontaneous miscarriages are rare. While it would be too late for that particular fetus after a stillbirth, antibiotic treatment would protect the mother, her sex partners and any future pregnancies.
Patients and prisoners aren’t required to undergo testing if they don’t want to, but their providers have to give them the option, said Jill Hunsaker Ryan, executive director of the state health department. State law already required that providers offer everyone syphilis testing in the first trimester.
Last year, 3,266 people in Colorado received a syphilis diagnosis, which was a 5% increase over the previous year and more than three times the number diagnosed in 2018. Most of the diagnoses are still in men, because the bacteria became entrenched in the community of gay and bisexual men. About one-third are in women, though, and diagnoses have risen faster among women than among men.
Nationwide, syphilis diagnoses reached their highest rate since at least 1950 in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases peaked in the 1940s, before antibiotics became widely available, and fell throughout the 20th century.
People of color and those who lack access to reliable health care, such as the homeless population, have been hit disproportionately hard in the resurgence over the last few years.
Earlier this year, the state health department asked for $8 million over four years to fund an opt-out syphilis screening program at two hospital emergency departments in Denver and Pueblo County, which both have a significant share of new infections.
The department also proposed to distribute rapid tests to organizations that work with at-risk people; to fund delivering treatment to some people in their homes; and to build up a stockpile of the antibiotics used to treat syphilis. Most antibiotics are cheap, but the best option for syphilis, Bicillin, is relatively expensive and in short supply, so providers don’t always opt to stock it.
The state and the Pueblo Department of Public Health and Environment already run a small pilot program to bring treatment to people in their homes. Jails in Pueblo, El Paso and Jefferson counties also have started screening female prisoners and offering treatment to anyone who tests positive.
Pueblo County Sheriff David Lucero said about one-quarter of the 634 people his department has screened so far tested positive, and seven were pregnant at the time of their positive test. The Pueblo County jail has a partnership with the local health department to follow up if someone returns to the community before completing treatment, he said.
“Without a doubt, this program saves lives,” Lucero said.
The biggest driver of the increase in congenital syphilis seems to be that mothers aren’t getting early prenatal care, which could identify and cure the infection, Herlihy said. The mothers of babies born affected this year have higher rates of previous incarceration, untreated addiction and homelessness than the general population, she said.
“The risk factors we’re seeing are really driving the actions we’re taking,” she said.
News broke on January 3 that Miller had given birth to her second baby earlier that month, her first with boyfriend Oli Green. Miller also shares older daughter Marlowe with ex-fiancé Tom Sturridge.
“I spent so much time preparing for the birth [with Marlowe], and absolutely no thought was given to what happens when I’d get home with a baby. At least now I’m aware of what that’s like,” the actress joked to Vogue in its Winter 2024 cover story.
During her first pregnancy, Miller had an emergency C-section after 27 hours of labor. “It was like a horrible trick of the universe,” she recalled. “I was like, ‘This can’t be what my sister felt at home in her birthing pool.’ It was so essential in my mind that I got it right. And so emblematic of the kind of mother I would be that I didn’t. But I know in retrospect that was just the demons of new motherhood.”
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For baby No. 2, Miller stressed that she didn’t want to “put that pressure on myself.”
Keep scrolling to meet the celebrity babies who were born this year:
The journalist, 67, announced via Instagram that her eldest daughter, Ellie Monahan, gave birth to her first child with husband Mark Dobrosky. “John Albert Dobrosky was born on his due date, Saturday, March 23rd at 8:23 am, just shy of seven pounds,” she captioned a slideshow of photos on Sunday, March 24. “He will be called Jay in honor of his maternal grandfather. Albert is after Mark’s paternal grandfather.”
Couric went on to write that Monahan, 32, and Dobrosky “are over the moon” and she is “thrilled” about welcoming her first grandchild. “Carrie can’t wait to be a cool Aunt and Molner is enjoying handing out cigars,” she wrote. “We feel so blessed. 💙🥰🍼👶🏻💙 We’ll have more tomorrow in Wake-Up Call ⏰❤️.”
Along with posting pics of Monahan and Dobrosky cuddling their newborn in the hospital, Couric also shared a sweet snap of herself holding baby John for the first time. The Today alum hilariously mirrored his open-mouthed expression by making the same face back at him.
Sienna Miller, Josh Duhamel and more stars have expanded their families in 2024. News broke on January 3 that Miller had given birth to her second baby earlier that month, her first with boyfriend Oli Green. Miller also shares older daughter Marlowe with ex-fiancé Tom Sturridge. “I spent so much time preparing for the birth […]
Several celebrities shared their congratulations in the post’s comments, including Mandy Moore, who wrote, “Congrats to all!!! And this song!! Katie!!! ❤❤❤❤❤.” Amanda Seyfried wrote, “Congratulations all of you @katiecouric !!❤” while Julianne Moore commented, “Congratulations!!! He’s beautiful ❤️❤️❤️.”
Couric’s former Today colleagues also congratulated her on Monday’s episode of the NBC morning show, with Carson Daly revealing that her grandmother’s name of choice will be “Gogo.”
“That’s cute,” Savannah Guthrie stated, after which Daly, 50, offered a “huge congratulations to Gogo.”
Couric shares daughters Ellie and Carrie Monahan, 28, with her late husband, Jay Monahan. Couric married her second husband, John Molner, in 2014. On Sunday, the news anchor also shared an adorable photo of her grandson’s tony foot, as well as shared her appreciation for her daughter’s hospital medical staff.
Many celebrities have spoken out about their personal battles with breast cancer over the years. Julia Louis-Dreyfus went public with her breast cancer diagnosis in September 2017 via Instagram. Nearly one year later, she had successfully beaten the illness and returned to work on Veep. “It sounds kind of corny, but there’s something about after […]
“Thank you to the wonderful nurses at @providencecalifornia,” she wrote alongside a pic of Ellie and Dobrosky posing with their son and two of their nurses.
Couric announced her daughter’s pregnancy via Instagram in December 2023, revealing that Ellie surprised her with a Taylor Swift-inspired friendship bracelet that read “Granny 2 Be.”
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Katie CouricCourtesy of Katie Couric/Instagram
“This is what happens when you go to a @taylorswift concert last summer and forget your friendship bracelet and your daughters say, ‘Don’t worry, we made one for you!’” she captioned the clip.
Earlier this month, Couric exclusively told Us Weekly that she had “mixed feelings” about becoming a grandmother, explaining, “I think 99 percent was, ‘I’m so excited.’ And 1 percent was, ‘Holy s–t, I’m old enough to be a grandmother.”
Despite the shock, Couric told Us that she was “absolutely thrilled” about Ellie’s pregnancy. “ I cannot convince Father Time to turn the clock back and so I’m embracing every moment and every minute,” she gushed.
Deiondra Sanders revealed she’s pregnant and despite the Dreezy drama with baby daddy JacquEeeEeeEs, the real reason she’s moving forward with the pregnancy isn’t “keeping a man.”
Source: Paras Griffin/Jamie Schwaberow/Jeff Kravitz / Getty
The “B.E.D.” squealer singer has bigger issues than beefing with or begging his ex-girlfriend and getting put on blast. As BOSSIP previously reported, Dreezy exposed Jacquees for trying to reconcile with her while still with Deiondra. During a heated exchange online, the Chicago rapper spilled the tea about the couple’s new bundle of joy.
Deiondra is taking back her power and embracing motherhood after a messy month in the public eye. The 31-year-old took to Instagram to tell the world about her first child on the way and why she’s embracing motherhood, regardless of the pipsqueak performer.
In a short film, a doctor informs Deiondra that after her fourth myomectomy (a procedure to remove uterine fibroids), she may never conceive. In fact, the surgeon wasn’t even able to remove all of the benign tumors growing on or in her uterus. However, that didn’t stop what “God allowed to happen.”
“I never thought I’d be here but here we are. I know a lot has transpired over the last month but what hasn’t happened is me being able to tell my own truth myself! So here it is. Even though this was not planned nor expected, this is still something God allowed to happen. I’m not having my baby to keep a man. I am having my baby for all the times I was told I wouldn’t be able to,” she wrote on Friday.
Deiondra went on to explain the other health complications she endured from birth control and a difficult pregnancy.
“I’m having my baby for the 4 myomectomy surgeries I have had. I am having my baby for all the years I stayed on birth control even though it gave me breast tumors. I’m having my baby for all the Doctors that told me I wouldn’t make it out the first trimester. I’m having a baby for the 7 current fibroids that surrounds my uterus to this day. I’m having a baby for all the high risk moms that was scared everyday thinking they would miscarry,’ she continued.
“I’m keeping my baby for the 3 Months I continued to bleed everyday after I found out I was pregnant. I’m having this baby to give hope to all the other women that may be in my situation. No matter what Doctor’s say, GOD HAS THE FINAL SAY!
“The miracle growing in me is not just a coincidence but a divine blessing,” Deiondra concluded, welcoming the world to her pregnancy journey.
See how Coach Prime papa Deion Sanders reacted to the news after the flip!
Deion Sanders And Jacquees React To Deiondra Sanders’ Pregnancy Announcement
Source: Erick W. Rasco / Getty
The news isn’t exactly shocking, but it was still unclear where the men in Deiondra Sanders’ life stood. Too short shenanigans aside, Jacquees is happy for his first child with Deiondra.
Jacquees cheered her on in the comments, writing, “I love you and I got you. BLESSINGS OTW ?? THANK YOU JESUSSSS.”
College Coach Prime didn’t hesitate to support his daughter publicly. He entered the chat to remind his daughter and the world that she’ll always have a man in her life. Deion also joked about his baby girl making him a grandfather.
“PREACH BABY PREACH, and u having this baby to make me a darn GRANDDADDY even though I’m YOUNG. I Love u baby and I’m glad u said u ain’t having a baby to keep a man. You’ve always had a MAN in your life that u call DADDY & ain’t gon ever ever let u DOWN especially when I’m UP,” he wrote in the comments.
It sounds like the soon-to-be mom and her unborn baby are already surrounded by more than enough love.
Congratulations to Deiondra Sanders and JacquEeeEeeEs!
VanCamp, 37, announced her pregnancy via Instagram on Saturday, February 24, with a pair of black and white photographs. The first photo shows VanCamp in a black shirt and jeans, lovingly cradling her baby bump. The second snap features the whole family, including Bowman, 35, their first-born daughter, Iris, and, of course, the family dog, Frankie B.
“Not long now.. Ready when you are little love,” the Revenge alum captioned the photos.
The couple welcomed their first child, Iris, 2, in August 2021 after keeping VanCamp’s pregnancy largely hidden from the public eye. “Welcome to the world our sweet little Iris,” VanCamp wrote via Instagram at the time her daughter was born. “Our hearts are full.”
Emily VanCamp.Courtesy of Cameron Jordan Photography
VanCamp has starred in shows such as Everwood, Brothers and Sisters, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and, most recently, The Resident, which she departed in 2021 after four seasons. In an October 2021 interview, the actress explained that a large influence in her decision to leave Fox’s The Resident was Iris’ birth.
“I spent so many years on network television, but then suddenly priorities shifted,” VanCamp explained to Deadline at the time. “I think there comes a moment in every woman’s life — in every person’s life — where it becomes less about work and more about family, and that’s what happened while I was making the show. Doing that many episodes in a different city and then you add COVID to that, most of us couldn’t see our families for almost a year. It really solidified for me that family is where my heart is at the moment.”
Emily VanCamp, Josh Bowman.Courtesy of Emily VanCamp/Instagram
VanCamp and Bowman met while playing love interests on the set of ABC’s Revenge, which ran from 2011-2015. Us Weekly broke the news of their relationship in 2012. Six years later, the couple wed at Harbour Island in the Bahamas, just one year after Bowman finally popped the question in 2017.
All good things must come to an end, even when it comes to TV. Over the years, many television stars have suddenly left their roles — while others have been cut from a series without much notice. Anna Faris announced in September 2020 that she was leaving CBS’ Mom after starring as the lead character […]
“It was in a forest. We were in nature on a hike kind of doing what we do, it was very, sort of, us,” VanCamp told Entertainment Tonight about her engagement in 2017. “So yeah, it was great, beautiful.”
The Revenge alums celebrated their 5-year wedding anniversary in December 2023. “5 years married, 12 together ❤️ What a beautiful ride it’s been,” VanCamp wrote via Instagram. “Love the life we’ve built, our wild adventures but mostly the little family we’ve created. Happy Anniversary my love ✨✨✨. Can’t wait for all that is to come!!”
“We waited 9 months for the surprise of our lives,” Bates, 24, captioned an Instagram video on Thursday, February 22, as screams emitted from her hospital room. Bates had given birth to a baby boy.
“Meet the newest love of our lives 🫶,” Bates captioned a second Instagram post, which featured photos of the newborn on her chest. The couple, who already share daughters Willow, 4, and Hazel, 2, waited until their baby was born to find out the sex.
“I cannot believe that we have a little boy,” Bates shared in a video posted to her Instagram Stories on Friday, February 23. “It’s so crazy. We’ve been in a little newborn bubbly and is my favorite. The first few days with a new baby is heaven on earth.”
She went on to share her birth story, revealing that they had gone into the hospital on Tuesday, February 20, the day before their newborn arrived.
The couple announced in August 2023 that they were gearing up for baby No. 3. “Balka, Party of Five!! 🫶,” the couple announced via Instagram at the time.
Bates rose to fame alongside her 18 siblings on Bringing Up Bates, which aired on Up TV for 10 seasons from 2015 to 2021. Previously, the Bates family were on TLC’s United Bates of America, which aired from 2012 to 2014.
Gil Bates and Kelly Jo Bates have 19 children, and for 10 seasons, their lives were documented on Bringing Up Bates. The couple tied the knot in December 1987 and welcomed their first child the following year. By 2012, Kelly had given birth to nine boys and 10 girls, without any multiples in the mix. […]
In September 2020, Bates announced that she and Balka had experienced a miscarriage during her second pregnancy.
“Kelton and I were over the moon excited to be expecting a sweet baby in March, 2021! We were filled with anticipation as we began to dream of what it would be like as a family of four and for [daughter] Willow to have a little playmate,” Bates revealed via Instagram at the time. “We surprised our family and friends with the news at Willow’s one year old birthday party! Already, my heart felt an unexplainable amount of excitement! Sadly, when I went for a recent ultrasound, we were heartbroken to hear our precious baby had gone to be with Jesus.”
“After so many months of dreaming about what it would be like as a family of four and anticipating our baby’s arrival, Kelton and I are absolutely thrilled to welcome our little baby girl, Hazel Sloane Balka, into the world,” the couple told Us Weekly exclusively at the time. “This pregnancy was much more complex than our first due to complications we had from a previous miscarriage in August 2020, so we were a little nervous, but delivery went so smoothly.”
Teen Mom 2 alum Kailyn Lowryhas her hands full with seven kids — and she knows it can be a lot to handle.
Lowry, 31, tackled the now-viral “I’m a…” TikTok trend on Friday, January 19, where users come up with various tasks that categorize roles they have. Lowry’s version was based on her being a “mom of seven.” (She shares son Isaac, 14, with Jo Rivera, son Lincoln, 10, with Javi Marroquin, sons Lux, 6, and Creed, 2, with Chris Lopez, and son Rio, 14 months, and newborn twins with boyfriend Elijah Scott.)
“I’m a mom of seven, of course I’m gonna sit in my car to have a moment of sanity,” Lowry began in the social media video while seated in the front seat of her SUV. “I’m a mom of seven, of course people are gonna say, ‘Kail, how the f—k do you do this?’ I’m a mom of seven, of course I’m expected to be in five places at once.”
She continued, “I’m a mom of seven, of course I have five car seats in my truck. I’m a mom of seven, of course I’m breaking up fights all day long. I’m a mom of seven, of course I have a hard time planning dinner because everyone wants different things.”
Kailyn Lowry is a proud mom and loves showing life with her little ones on social media. The MTV personality became a mom in 2010 when she and her then-boyfriend, Jo Rivera, welcomed son Isaac. While the high school sweethearts split shortly after, the former couple continue to coparent. Rivera said during a November 2020 episode […]
Lowry’s list also included that her “boys get hand-me-downs” from their older siblings, that she still goes “all-out for every birthday” and that she plans her budget around sports equipment costs and team registration fees.
“I’m a mom of seven, I never would have planned this for myself, but it happened and I literally would not have it any other f—king way,” she concluded. “Because I love being a mom of seven.”
Hours earlier on Friday, Lowry revealed that she and Scott had welcomed their second and third children together.
Kailyn Lowry has given fans several glimpses into her relationship with Elijah Scott via social media ever since they started dating. Lowry confirmed her romance with Scott via Instagram in April 2022, two years after her 2020 split from ex Chris Lopez, with whom she shares sons Lux and Creed. (The Teen Mom 2 alum […]
“I ended up delivering at 35 weeks,” she said on her “Barely Famous” podcast, explaining that she had a C-section. “I was terrified because I didn’t love the idea, but I knew I had to do it because [one] baby was breached.”
Lowry gave birth to a boy and a girl but has not yet shared their names. The twins will be her last two babies as she underwent a tubal ligation during the procedure.
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“They cut my tubes out,” she added on the podcast. “I remember laying there thinking, ‘This is taking f–king forever.’”
Lowry continued, “When I was signing the paperwork for the tubes, they were like, ‘You could have [several side effects].’ In the side effects they include regret. I was like, ‘Oh, seven kids, I would never regret this.’ I would be lying if I didn’t have quick glimmers of thought [after it was done].”
The Challenge alum Ashley Cain welcomed his second baby on Tuesday, January 16, and the newborn’s name has a heartfelt meaning.
“Aliyas Diamond Cain, I will love you, appreciate you, guide you and protect you with all of my heart, for the rest of my life,” Cain, 33, wrote via Instagram on Thursday, January 18. “You will have the most beautiful guardian angel heaven holds watching over you and protecting you too. Welcome to the world my son. May your body be strong, your mind be wise, your heart be loving and your spirit be pure and truly powerful.”
Cain uploaded a photo of Aliyas in the hospital, giving a glimpse of the newborn wearing a hat with his name embroidered on the front. The baby boy gripped his dad’s finger.
After sharing the news of his son’s birth, Cain explained how he picked the special moniker.
Sienna Miller and more stars have expanded their families in 2024. News broke on January 3 that Miller had given birth to her second baby earlier that month, her first with boyfriend Oli Green. Miller also shares older daughter Marlowe with ex-fiancé Tom Sturridge. “I spent so much time preparing for the birth [with Marlowe], […]
“What the letter ‘A’ holds is a family tradition, being the first letter of my father’s and all of my uncles first names,” he wrote via Instagram comment. “The name ‘Diamond’ is from my grandma and their mother. It’s our family name along with Cain, it’s our Vincentian roots, all the way from our small island and from our great people.”
Aliyas Diamond CainCourtesy of Ashley Cain/Instagram
Cain previously welcomed daughter Azaylia in August 2020 with then-partner Safiyya Vorajee. Two months later, Azaylia was diagnosed with leukemia. She underwent a stem cell procedure in January 2021, but her cancer eventually recurred. Azaylia died in April 2021 when she was 8 months old.
AzayliaCourtesy of Ashley Cain/Instagram
One year after Cain and Vorajee, 36, lost their daughter, they called it quits on their relationship.
MTV’s The Challenge has resulted in a ton of relationships through the years — and a ton of babies. Cory Wharton, for example, first met Cheyenne Floyd while filming The Challenge: Rivals III, which aired in 2016. Although the duo never revealed that they hooked up during the show, it later was revealed that they […]
“After a devastating and heartbreaking year, Safiyya and I decided to separate a few months ago. This was an incredibly tough decision which we needed to keep to ourselves for some time to give us the opportunity to figure out our own journey privately,” they wrote in a joint social media statement in March 2022. “The past few months have demonstrated that we remain the closest of friends, spending time together everyday, and that we will love, care and support each other forever. We are bonded by our powerful journey together, by the eternal love we have for our daughter, and our passionate commitment to her foundation.”
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Cain announced in December 2023 that he was expecting his second baby with a past partner, whom he had known since he was 18 years old.
“I believe, after having Azaylia, that I was put on this earth to be a father,” Cain told The Sun last month. “And then the thought of potentially having another child after losing one was very difficult to understand for me. Even though this next part of my journey is going to be hard, I truly understand that every child that comes into this world is a blessing.”
Clare Crawley, Ryan Dawkins.Courtesy of Clare Crawley/Instagram
Clare Crawley and her husband, Ryan Dawkins, welcomed their first child via surrogate on Monday, January 15.
“She’s here!” Crawley, 42, announced via her Instagram Story, sharing a photo hugging Dawkins in a hospital room. “Healthy + Beyond Loved. Dream come true.”
“Our laundry is about to get a whole lot cuter in 2024,” Crawley wrote via Instagram. “This TRULY is what my dreams are made of! I can’t tell you how hard it has been to hold this secret in!”
She added: “This is one journey that Ryan and I have been keeping close to our hearts as we navigated the uncertain world of IVF and all that comes with it up until this point. I can’t wait to share it all with you soon what it’s been like for us, and until then, we are so incredibly grateful to [Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh] for making miracles happen!“
Clare Crawley first connected with now-husband Ryan Dawkins the same month her engagement to Dale Moss officially ended. “This picture was taken exactly one year ago,” the former Bachelorette wrote on September 25, 2022, via Instagram. “He asked me to dinner. I didn’t have an appetite. (Stressed & depressed) But I said yes to tea […]
“I wasn’t ready to date again,” Crawley exclusively told Us Weekly in October 2022 of meeting her now-spouse shortly after ending her engagement with Dale Moss. “The second that I was single he was like, ‘Let me take you out.’ And he knew that I was in such a low point and I told him I wasn’t even ready to go out to dinner. I needed to take the space to have time to myself to heal. I didn’t want him to be a rebound.”
“Everything in my world has changed since I met her, she’s the love of my life and I wish the world knew the Clare that I know,” he told Us at the time. “She is one of the strongest women I know and is truly a light. I love our life and [am] beyond excited about our future.”
Pursuing surrogacy! Lance Bass and more celebrities have brought babies into the world with the help of gestational carriers. The singer and Michael Turchin became parents to twins in October 2021 — but the couple spent three years trying to start their family. The former ‘NSync member first told Us Weekly exclusively in March 2018 that […]
The twosome wed in February 2023 in front of Dawkins’ eldest daughters. “Ryan, by nature, is an event planner, so he planned the whole wedding,” Crawley recalled during an appearance on the “Most Dramatic Podcast Ever” in May 2023. “But he took the reins, he planned everything. We had a little ceremony. We had the best vows to each other, super personal. It was in the spot [where] we had our first kiss. It was just the greatest little spot.”
Halle Bailey and DDG’s new bundle of joy has no choice but to be destined for stardom!
Source: Gareth Cattermole / Getty
His delighted dad wasted no time hitting the Golden Triangle of Beverly Hills to lavish their little man with top-notch baby essentials!
TMZ caught up with the rapper outside the whimsical store for the youngest shoppers in L.A., English Rabbit, where the new papa dropped an easy $5k in that one store for his baby boy.
As BOSSIP previously reported, last week, DDG and Halle joyfully introduced their newborn son, Halo, marking the first official confirmation after months of speculation about their pregnancy.
The Youtuber-turned-rapper posted a vlog on his channel that features some snippets of his new life as a dad. DDG let fans have a peek at one of Halle’s 4K ultrasounds, along with some footage of him sweetly rubbing on his girlfriend’s growing bump on their baby moon in Bora Bora.
He revealed why he and his lady decided to keep news of their pregnancy private until the baby was born stating, they never felt like they had to cave to social media pressure and only decided to introduce Halo when they felt comfortable doing so.
“I’m a dad. I’m a dad, y’all. I have a son — I have a baby boy. He’s a newborn — he was actually born last year but we were just waiting on the right time to basically break the news or whatever. It’s a blessing and I love him so much!”
DDG also gave kudos to new mother Halle and shared that he has a “newfound respect” for women after watching Bailey give birth to their son.
Congratulations again to the new parents! We can’t wait to see Halo’s handsome face in due time.
“Our third little (big!) boy thundered into the world at lightning speed, thank goodness Tim was there to catch our boy jussstttt as our amazing team made it into our home to help ♥️,” Strahovski, 41, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, December 30. “Such an unreal, intense, amazing experience I will never forget. Welcome my baby boy, we have been waiting for you & love you sooooo much.”
The Handmaid’s Tale star also uploaded the first photo of the newborn. In the snap, Loden, 41, cradled their son while Strahovski sat next to them and kissed the infant’s head.
Strahovski announced her pregnancy in June. “Well, here we go. Baby bump #3 🙈✨💥 Pizza really wanted to be in the photo,” she wrote via Instagram, referring to her dog. “So did Mr tiny feet hiding behind me.”
Chrissy Teigen, Jenna Johnson and more stars welcomed children in 2023. Teigen, who married John Legend in 2013, gave birth to the couple’s rainbow baby, daughter Esti Maxine, on January 13. “What a blessed day,” Legend gushed during a private concert that evening, per social media footage. Legend noted at the time that he hadn’t gotten […]
Strahovski and Loden, who wed in 2017, also share two older sons. Their firstborn, William, arrived in October 2018.
Yvonne Strahovski and Tim LodenVALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images
“My heart has melted into a billion pieces a thousand times already,” the actress gushed via Instagram at the time. “We have been blessed with the greatest joy of our lives, our baby boy. Welcome to the world Peanut, your parents love you beyond measure and you are already my little dream boat. My heart has been stolen!”
Three years later, Strahovski and Loden welcomed their second son, whose name has not been publicly shared, in December 2021.
Strahovski’s Handmaid’s Tale character, Serena Joy, has since followed suit. In season 4, it was revealed that Serena Joy was pregnant with her and husband Fred Waterford’s (Joseph Fiennes) rainbow baby after fertility struggles. Serena Joy eventually gave birth to son Noah in season 5 shortly after Fred was murdered by disgruntled former Handmaids. (A sixth and final season of The Handmaid’s Tale has already been renewed, but a premiere date has not been announced.)
While Elisabeth Moss and other The Handmaid’s Tale stars play characters with tumultuous relationships, they have managed to find love offscreen. Moss made headlines when she started dating Fred Armisen after they met through Saturday Night Live. Three months after the actress appeared in a sketch with her Mad Men costar Jon Hamm, she revealed […]
“[Motherhood] changes you in so many ways. It can be incredibly confronting. It makes you question if you’re ready to go there. It makes you question who I am as a person,” Strahovski told Gold Derby in May 2021 of how her portrayal of Serena Joy shifted since becoming a parent. “It is almost like you’re confronting your identity and who you’re about to become. You’re not only birthing a child, you’re birthing yourself as a mother.”
She added at the time: “For Serena, her priority — because she’s feeling all these things, I think it’s a really confronting space for her to be in and asking herself, ‘What is my absolute priority,’ and in her case, it is no longer Fred at all. I think there’s obviously an incredibly deep wound from Fred having turned his back on her in various ways [and] knowing she has the upper hand in this situation, I think she leans into that this season.”
Marques Houston and wife Miya.Paul Archuleta/Getty Images
Marques Houston and his wife, Miya Houston, had something special to celebrate this holiday season: their second baby.
The former Sister, Sister star, 42, and Miya, 23, announced via Instagram on Wednesday, December 27, that their son, Greyson, was born on December 13. He weighed 6 lbs., 2 oz.
“We are so in love and couldn’t feel more complete 🫶🏽,“ the couple captioned a carousel of photos of them with their newborn and their daughter, Zara, 23 months.
Marques previously gushed over his wife in an Instagram post after Miya gave birth to their daughter in December 2021.
Chrissy Teigen, Jenna Johnson and more stars welcomed children in 2023. Teigen, who married John Legend in 2013, gave birth to the couple’s rainbow baby, daughter Esti Maxine, on January 13. “What a blessed day,” Legend gushed during a private concert that evening, per social media footage. Legend noted at the time that he hadn’t gotten […]
“Beauty in rare form. A child is such a blessing from Jehovah. A woman’s body is such an amazing creation to be able to carry a full human,” he wrote. “I love you Miya, my wife, my rock, my baby mama. To watch you carry our child was nothing short of a miracle!”
Two months after Zara’s birth, Marques explained how meaningful it felt to become a father for the first time.
“I’m very instrumental in my daughter’s life. I’m not one of those absent fathers that’s just always working and never paying attention to his family because I feel like family is first,” Houston told Peoplein February 2022. “I always say being a husband and father are two of my biggest accomplishments in life so I take that very seriously. I’m really, really happy about being a dad.”
Marques began his career at the age of 11 as a founding member of the R&B group Immature. He transitioned into acting in 1992, appearing on the sitcom A Different World before landing his role on Sister, Sister two years later. Now he’s focusing on writing and producing films, including his latest project, Forever Us, which debuted on Tubi earlier this month. He’s looking forward to when he can bring Zara to work with him.
“I can have her on set with me and just kind of take her around,” he said. “She’s like our little road dog, she goes everywhere with us.”
Marques and Miya met in April 2018 at a Jehovah’s Witness convention and were introduced by his manager, Chris Stokes. They got engaged in March 2019 after five months of dating, tying the knot in August 2020.
Their relationship raised eyebrows as some fans balked at their 19-year age difference, but Marques defended their timeline in a June 2020 Instagram post.
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“Miya and I didn’t start dating until she was an adult,” he wrote. “We fell in love and got engaged in March of 2019. My dad Michael loves her, and the people I am closest to all love her as well. Most importantly we have Jehovah’s blessing.”
He continued, “There is so much more to be concerned about in the world, than creating rumors about me. No twists, no turns, no scandals, just true love. There is nothing that can come to light, because there’s no darkness in my life. You wanted the truth. I don’t have anything to hide.”
Jessa Duggar and her husband, Ben Seewald, welcomed their fifth baby on Tuesday, December 19, after previously suffering a miscarriage.
“Baby is here and we couldn’t be more grateful!” Duggar, 31, wrote via Instagram on Saturday, December 23, sharing a hospital photo with her newborn son.
The Counting On alum also shared a link to her YouTube channel, where she detailed her birth story.
“So, after laboring for about 12 hours, I was moved [from an emergency room bed] into my room and I was able to get an epidural shortly after that,” she recalled in the social media video. “And it worked great on one side and it was, like, sort of spotty on the other side. It wasn’t a perfect take, but I would say 80 percent better than what it was before getting it.”
Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald wed in November 2014 and have been growing their family ever since. The couple announced their first pregnancy five months after their nuptials. “Ben and I are so excited to announce that we’re expecting a baby!!!!” Jessa, one of Jim Bob and Michelle’s Duggar’s 19 children, wrote via Twitter (now […]
After Duggar’s doctor told her that the baby was still “pretty high up,” she decided to “shut off” the epidural. Duggar then followed her midwife’s advice to move into various positions to try and rotate the baby. Once the baby started descending, Duggar felt more contractions and had doctors readminister the epidural.
Duggar was joined in the hospital by husband Seewald, 28, and her mother, Michelle.
“The sweetest moment [was] when they raised the baby up and put him on me,” Jessa gushed in the video. “Just holding him there, I think there were just so many emotions in that moment [and] so many things that you’re processing. It’s been a year since we lost our last baby and just a flood of emotions.”
The couple — who tied the knot in November 2014 — are already parents of sons Spurgeon and Henry and daughters Ivy and Fern.
Duggar announced in September 2023 that she was pregnant. “After a heartbreaking loss last year, we’re so thankful God has blessed us with a rainbow baby,” she wrote via her Instagram Story at the time, including a link to a YouTube video about the news.
Oh, baby! The next generation of Duggars are here and more are on the way — because 19 Kids and Counting just wasn’t enough. It all started when Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar tied the knot in 1984 and started growing their family four years later. Since Josh’s 1988 birth, the couple have welcomed twins […]
The 19 Kids and Counting alum showed off her positive pregnancy test in the video shared via the family’s YouTube channel. “Just this past week we found out some wonderful news that our rainbow baby is on the way,” she said. “We couldn’t be more excited.”
Six months earlier, Duggar revealed that she had suffered a miscarriage. “Nothing could’ve prepared me for the weight of those words at that moment,” she recalled in February 2023, adding that she “immediately started crying” as she and Seewald began “trying to process the loss [while] sitting there and holding hands and crying.”
Duggar spoke candidly about the moments before she underwent a D&C procedure. “Right as they were wheeling me back [to the operating room], I just wanted to ask, like, ‘Just, can I please have one more ultrasound? Please, somebody check, make sure,’” she recounted. “I was having all these fears that maybe they got something wrong. … You know it’s irrational, but you just feel scared.”
Duggar — who previously suffered another miscarriage before welcoming daughter Fern — remembered the “hollow feeling inside” following the procedure because “the life that was in you is no longer there and you never did get to see your baby and say those goodbyes.”
When it comes to the Duggars, the more members, the merrier — which is why some fans have a hard time keeping track of the famous family. After tying the knot in July 1984, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar (née Ruark) welcomed a total of 19 children, including two sets of twins, and the […]
Over the years, Duggar has been open about how her life changed when she became a mother. “I think there were so many things that I felt like, ‘I totally know how to do this. I’ve been around kids,’ but then when it’s your own kid, it’s totally different,” she exclusively told Us Weekly in July 2020. “For one, it’s your responsibility.”
As she navigated parenthood, Duggar leaned on experienced mothers for advice. “I’m constantly going to moms who are a season ahead of me, like my own mom, saying, ‘Hey, do you have a kid with this personality?’ Or ‘Have you dealt with this issue before?’ Or ‘How do you keep your cool?’” she explained. “That’s something I always ask my mom if I feel like I’m getting frustrated over little things. I’m totally just in awe of my mom’s patience, for sure.”
Shawn Johnson East and Andrew Easthave a new gold medal–worthy addition to their family after welcoming their third baby on Tuesday, December 12.
“Our baby is healthy and that’s all we can ask for,” Johnson East, 31, wrote in the Thursday, December 14, issue of her “FamilyMade” newsletter, confirming she had a C-section.
The baby’s birth date has a special meaning for East, 32. “Life is so good and we are feeling really blessed to have a third healthy baby join our family. My dad was born on December 9 and passed away unexpectedly on December 27 of last year, so December is a really impactful month for us,” he added in the newsletter. “Having our baby born so close to my dad’s birthday feels really special and I know he would be smiling down and so proud of us.”
“We definitely waited a lot longer to tell you guys and, I’m not gonna lie, it’s a little bittersweet,” Johnson East said during an episode of their joint “Couple Things” podcast. “I’ve kind of loved having it to be ours. This has been so fun to have between us.”
Shawn Johnson East became a parent in November 2019 and has been sharing sweet family photos ever since. The Olympian wed Andrew East in April 2016 in Tennessee, and they announced the following year that they had suffered a miscarriage. They announced their rainbow baby’s conception in April 2019. “You are our everything,” the Winning […]
“I’m so much more distracted [this time around] because we have two littles,” she said during a candid Instagram Story Q&A session on July 13, referring to daughter Drew and son Jett. “[And] I was so nauseous in the first trimester that I couldn’t function. Never threw up, just nauseous. Feeling better now [and] trying to get back into working out. It seems similar to Drew’s pregnancy [and] I’m showing a lot faster.”
Shawn Johnson East and Andrew East’s relationship is worthy of an Olympic medal. The athletic couple met through Andrew’s brother Guy East when the gymnast was in London to work as a sports commentator for the 2012 Olympics, in which Guy was competing in the cycling events. “[Guy] starts to go on this tangent about […]
“I think that’s the one thing people never really talk about is babies [being] a huge stress on your partnership and your marriage and your spouse,” Johnson East exclusively told Us Weekly in September 2021 of how their relationship shifted after the kids’ arrivals. “Just because you’re now sharing your spouse with someone else … and you have someone who consumes all of your time.”
She added at the time: “We really struggled with feeling disconnected from each other. I didn’t know who he was as a dad. He didn’t know who I was as a mom. It just changes who you are.”
Making it to the Olympics is a feat that countless athletes dream of their entire lives. After years of blood, sweat and tears, participating in the most prestigious athletic event in the world is a once-in-a-lifetime moment. Some athletes compete one time in the Olympic Games and hang up their hats, stepping gracefully into retirement. […]
While they are now adjusting to life as parents of three along with prioritizing their romance, they remain on the fence about welcoming another baby.
“I did kind of say this would be the last go-around,” Johnson East confessed during the July podcast episode, speaking directly to East. “Because you give me very large babies that take a large toll on my body. If we are wanting more children after this, I’m so down, but I’m down for, like, adopting and going down different routes. … [It’s] taken a very large toll and I think in preserving my body as a mom, being able to run around after my kids and stay healthy, I think even my OB would be [saying], ‘Three is a good number.’”
In a new interview with Romper, Hilton revealed why she’d kept her family planning under wraps – even to her own relatives. They introduced baby London to the extended Hilton clan as a Thanksgiving surprise.
“My life has been so public, so out there. I didn’t want my son coming into this world with any negative energy,” Hilton told Romper of keeping Phoenix’s imminent arrival quiet. “I’m really happy I did it that way, just for Carter and I to have that journey together without the outside world chirping in.”
The hotel heiress and lifestyle figure calls her family “the cutesy crew,” and said that she dreamed of having a daughter.
“I always imagined my mini-me, putting her in little dresses and all the mommy-and-me things we could do together,” she said. “Just having my little best friend.”
Her mother, Kathy Hilton, and sister Nicky Hilton both knew that London was on the way, but not when. The public was kept in the dark on both pregnancies, as Hilton didn’t slow her public schedule. She feared childbirth due to her past, she said, prompting the help of a surrogate for both children.
“I just have so much PTSD from what I went through as a teenager,” Hilton said. She has written in the past of sexual abuse and medical trauma that she experienced at a boarding school in Utah as a teen. “If I’m in a doctor’s office, I get a shot, anything, I will literally have a panic attack and I can’t breathe. I just knew that would not be healthy for me or the baby, growing inside of someone who has such high anxiety.”
“It’s a scary world out there, especially today. I’m just terrified when they become teenagers,” she said. She said she’d be happy to never set foot in a club again, and would keep the kids far away from the entertainment industry if she has any say at all.
“I’m hoping that they want to be scientists,” she said of her ambitions for London and Phoenix.
Hilton calls this stage of life her “mom era.”
“This is my best era yet,” she said. The 42-year-old sees the about-face from her past antics, and she loves it.
“I used to look at my friends who’d be like, ‘Oh, I have to go home to my kids and my husband,’ like, ‘You’re so lame. This is so fun. I can’t imagine being like that,’” she said. “Now I’m one of those boring people, and I couldn’t be happier. I couldn’t imagine it any other way.”
