A Bachelor Nation baby is on the way!
Bachelor in Paradise stars Astrid Loch and Kevin Wendt shared the special news that they're expecting. Of course, the timing of their announcement couldn't be sweeter, as they revealed their family update on Mother's Day.
"Happy 1st Mother's Day to my queen," Kevin began his Instagram caption on Sunday, May 9. "This is a very big day for us, after a long and tough road to get here. The @thewendtgang is officially growing!!"
"Thank you @astridloch for giving me the one thing I've wanted most in my life," he continued, adding they've been on an "IVF journey."
"We will have much more to share about the struggle and steps we took to get here," Kevin noted, "but today we are just so excited to share the news that we are going to be parents!!"
Astrid gushed over their baby news, calling it "a dream come true."
"One of the first conversations @kevin.c.wendt and I had was about how we both loved kids and couldn't wait to have our own," she shared on Instagram. "When I think about Kev holding our little angel for the first time my heart flutters."
She added, "Even in my wildest dreams I couldn't have imagined how amazing this would all feel."
Moreover, the expectant mother offered a message of hope for those experiencing pregnancy challenges.
"To all the couples trying to get pregnant, my heart is with you. We know first hand how hard it can be to see these kinds of posts and feel sad & discouraged," she shared. "We too struggled with fertility and conceiving naturally - it's the toughest thing we've ever been through and I can't wait to share more of how we got here."
She concluded, "But today is finally about some good news & we hope you can enjoy it with us."
The couple posted a photo of themselves holding up a black-and-white sonogram of their little one.
In an exclusive interview with People, the Bachelor in Paradise stars opened up about their parenthood journey.
"We actually did IUIs (intrauterine insemination) before doing IVF (in vitro fertilization). We did two cycles with that," the 31-year-old soon-to-be mom told the publication. "IVF is just so much more intrusive, so we were trying to go that route at first and then during our second cycle, we actually ended up having an ectopic pregnancy. ... I ended up having to take medication to terminate the ectopic pregnancy, and then it pushed our whole thing back another two-and-a-half months."
"We spent a lot of nights in tears because we just didn't understand why it wasn't working for us," Kevin shared. "Growing up, you're always taught to not get pregnant and it always seems so easy on TV to get pregnant. Then you actually try and it's actually really tricky. There's a lot of people going through a similar struggle. It can really bring you down when all you see is the positive stuff on the internet."
The pair met during season five of Bachelor in Paradise. At the time, they called it quits before the show ended, however, they rekindled their romance soon after. They announced their engagement in August 2019 and planned to get married in 2020.
But due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, they postponed their wedding plans and decided to take a different step in their relationship: parenthood.
As Kevin put it, "Since the wedding would keep getting pushed off, we thought 'Okay, well, I don't want to wait five years to have a baby. Let's just try to have one before the wedding.'"