At age 6, Erin Napier was confident she’d never have kids. “My dad is a doctor in physical therapy and he had all these medical books,” the artist, one half of the husband-wife duo on HGTV’s hit Home Town (season 2 returns January 8) reveals in the new issue of Us Weekly. “I found pictures of childbirth and it seriously traumatized me! I was terrified.”
Until this past Mother’s Day — nearly nine years after she wed college sweetheart Ben — when she discovered she and the craftsman, 34, were expecting. “I was relieved!” she recalls. “When you’re 32, you wonder, ‘If I’m not brave enough now, am I going to be brave enough when I’m 33? 34?’ You never feel ready. But the Laurel, Mississippi-based pair are excited. With just months to go until daughter Helen’s arrival, they share their joy with Us.
(Photo by Brooke Davis of Black Horn Productions)
Us Weekly: Tell Us about the moment you learned that you were expecting!
Erin Napier: I went to bed at, like, 8 o’clock and I thought that was weird because I’m a night owl. When I woke up in the morning, I just kind of had a feeling.
Us: Had you been trying?
EN: It was just an accident. Not planned!
Us: Did you guys talk about having kids?
Ben Napier: We got married and then a few months later started a stationary company and it sort of overwhelmed us.
EN: It was our baby!
BN: It wasn’t that we didn’t want to have kids, we just had so much other stuff going on. It just wasn’t time.
Us: And now it is! Have you started preparing the nursery?
BN: I’m building a crib for her using quarter sawn white oak. I want it to be really beautiful so one day, Helen can give it to her little girl. That’s the dream. But other than that —
EN: We’re real low-key about this pregnancy.
BN: Real low-key! We’re renovating five houses right now and we just finished our own.
EN: It was a rough 16 weeks without a master bathroom while pregnant!
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Us: How are you handling pregnancy and renovating houses?
EN: It’s a bunch of guys around me all day long, and every minute I have one of them asking, “Are you OK? Do you want to sit down?”
Us: Has Ben spoiled you, too?
EN: He doesn’t let me do anything! He’s so generous. He’s always been that way, it’s just gone into overdrive since we found out about the baby.
Us: What are you most looking forward to with parenthood?
EN: I’m excited to know what kind of girl she’ll be.
BN: I’m excited to see Helen grown up in this town where everybody watches out for everybody and takes care of each other. It’s special.
