Gretchen Rossi has her hands full. While the Real Housewives of Orange County alum has one healthy embryo remaining, she’s on the fence about implanting with so much on her plate already.
“The thought of having another baby, absolutely, I love the thought of it,” the former reality star, 42, exclusively told Us Weekly on Wednesday, April 21, while promoting LifeVac. “We do have one more genetically sound embryo that, in a way, I kind of would feel guilty if I didn’t implant. God blessed us with this beautiful other embryo, but right now at this very moment, I still need a little bit more time to manage with [my 22-month-old daughter], Skylar. She’s a lot of work, bless her heart.”
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The Michigan native, who welcomed her little one with fiancé Slade Smiley in July 2019, compared the toddler to the Energizer Bunny.
“She is full of so much energy,” the former Bravo personality explained. “She’s not one of those babies that just wants to sit and cuddle. Like, she just all day is go, go, go. No off button until, like, she’s in her crib. Then she’s upset that she’s in a crib and has fear of missing out.”
While the former model “would love” to give her baby girl a sibling, she told Us that her family’s expansion “depends on how the next year goes.”
Rossi recalled “really struggling” with postpartum depression after giving birth via C-section, noting that she still doesn’t feel “100 percent [her]self” yet and is “nervous” about possibly experiencing those feelings again.
“I haven’t [gotten] back to the exact way that I want to be,” the Baylor University grad told Is. “And because Skylar’s only 22 months, she’s right at that age where she’s starting to be a little more difficult. I’m just like, how the heck am I going to add another one of these things to the family and manage all of this? I’m a full-time working mom, so there’s just a lot on my plate.”
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Rossi did have some parenting practice before her daughter’s birth with Smiley’s sons, Grayson and Gavin, from a previous relationship — but they did not prepare her for a newborn.
“I didn’t get the memo that having a baby was the hardest thing you were ever going to do in your lifetime,” she explained to Us. “Nobody really gives you a manual of how hard it’s going to be and how it really is almost impossible to do it all without some help.”
That’s why the Gretchen Christine creator loves having Lifevac [on hand], a device designed to protect against choking deaths, on hand. “50 to 70 percent of the time, the Heimlich maneuver does not work even when performed by a professional,” Rossi said. “That’s really scary. And having this kind of backup resource at our fingertips can literally save a life.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi