Laurel, Mississippi has a new resident! The HGTV hosts Ben and Erin Napier welcomed their second daughter on May 28.
Announcing the news on Instagram, Erin shared a collage of snapshots with the caption “Mae.” The Home Town star told People that they named their daughter after her Aunt Mae. According to the publication, she was born at 8:23 a.m. weighing 7 lbs, 1 oz and measuring 19.5 inches.
Mae joins the couple’s older daughter, 3-year-old Helen.
“While we are excited to have another daughter to love, we are more excited to see the bond she and Helen will have,” they told People. “They’re already so in love with each other!”
Erin later shared a photo of Helen’s hand on Mae, with the caption, “helen got her nails done for the occasion of becoming a big sis.”
The Napiers Kept the Pregnancy a Secret for 8 Months
The Napiers kept the pregnancy under wraps for almost eight months, only announcing the news on April 11. As she wrote on Instagram, Mae “made it easy to keep her secret by being tiny even now.”
Erin wrote about her desire for Helen to have that sibling bond. As she shared on Instagram, “Siblings do that, they know and remember and keep the stories of a family alive. And we wanted that for Helen. Someone to stand with her when we can’t someday.”
The college sweethearts realized they were expecting the day before filming was set to begin in September. As they revealed to People, something seemed off when Erin was suddenly allergic to her longtime face wash. A friend asked if she was pregnant, which was later confirmed by a doctor.
“It was happy news, and I’ve been allergic to my favorite face wash ever since,” she told the outlet. “I didn’t know that you can suddenly become allergic to things that you’ve always been fine with. So, watch out everybody, if you’re suddenly allergic to something you’d never been allergic to.”
Ben joked with People, “I recently developed an allergy to spicy horseradish. Might be pregnant.” Though, Erin quickly interjected, “I don’t think it’s related.”
Erin Thought She Was Unable to Get Pregnant After a Perforated Appendix Caused Damage
Motherhood did not always seem possible for the Mississippi native who suffered from a perforated appendix.
“In the beginning, it would be 24 hours of terrible stomach pain and a low-grade fever, and then it would disappear,” Erin told People. The publication explained reported that over time these episodes grew to be days, even a week-long, leaving her “unable to move without pain and without any idea what was causing it.”
Ben told People, “We went through everything, from doctors thinking it might be something really bad like cancer to saying it was in Erin’s head.”
Eventually, exploratory surgery began the journey to diagnosis. “The first time it happened, when I was 19, it just partially ruptured. Not enough to kill me, just enough to make me sick,” Erin told People, revealing that as the appendix healed it covered her internal organs in scar tissue. She had the scar tissue and appendix removed but was told pregnancy was unlikely from the damage.
“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 the publication. Yet, on Mother’s Day in 2017, the couple was surprised to find out they were expecting Helen.
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