“While we are excited to have another daughter to love, we are more excited to see the bond she and Helen will have. They’re already so in love with each other!” the couple tells PEOPLE
Mae, who is named after Erin’s beloved Aunt Mae, arrived at 8:23 AM on Friday, coming in at 7 lbs. 1 oz., and 19.5 inches.
Erin and Ben Napier with their daughter.courtesy Erin and Ben Napier
Ben and Erinannounced their pregnancy news in April, telling PEOPLE at the timethat they found outin September while simultaneously filmingHome Townin Laurel, Mississippi, andtheir new show,Home Town Takeover, about 200 miles away in Wetumpka, Alabama.
“We were like, ‘Ooh, this is going to be tough, but we can do it,’ " added Erin at the time. “We don’t remember anything, but I’m glad somebody was filming all of it.”
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The couple wasn’t sure if they’d be able to start a family due to a complicated, years-long health battle Erin had faced, they previously shared with PEOPLE.
For a decade, starting when she was 19, the designer suffered from bouts of severe stomach pain that would leave her bedridden for days. She saw countless specialists before an emergency exploratory surgery in 2014 finally revealed the cause:she had a perforated appendix.
Her appendix had been bursting and healing repeatedly for years causing her organs to become wrapped in scar tissue and bound together. But even after doctors removed the tissue, she was told the damage done 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 in 2018.
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In anApril 11 Instagram post, Erin explained that she wanted to give her daughter a sibling because “they know and remember and keep the stories of a family alive.”
source: people.com
