Henley Grace is getting a little brother!
Doug Hehner and Jamie Otis‘ baby on the way, who will join their 2-year-old daughter, is a boy, the Married at First Sight couple shares with PEOPLE.
The second-time parents-to-be revealed their baby’s sex by smashing eggs on each other’s heads during a “gender reveal party” with family and friends.
“During our ‘gender reveal’ she was loving cracking the eggs on our heads, but the one that ends up being the [sex] she handed to me and said, ‘I don’t want to smash it, Mommy.’ We have a lot of work to get her excited for her little brother,” jokes Otis.
Once the egg was smashed by Otis on Hehner’s head — and the yolk revealed — the room erupted into cheers.
“Doug instantly cried tears of joy. Our first baby was a boy, but we lost him at 17 weeks. Of course he loves our daughter, but he’s wanted a baby boy so badly for so long. This is truly an answered prayer for us,” Otis tells PEOPLE.
“For me, I can honestly say I was and I am still just praying for a happy and healthy baby. I didn’t care if it was a boy or girl — please just stick and be healthy. Of course, Doug wants that too, but he was begging God for a boy who’d stick and be healthy.”
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“With our last boy pregnancy I was planning the ‘gender reveal’ around this time and then literally a week and a half later I delivered him. Far too early to survive. And it was the most excruciating experience of our lives,” continues Otis.
“With this pregnancy, we’ve seen the fertility specialist from the very beginning and graduated to our OB. I’ve had zero bleeding/cramping with this pregnancy so I am confident it is a healthy baby — at least I try my best to stay confident,” she says.
“That being said, I’m honestly just so excited and enjoying the blessing of being able to make and carry a baby again! I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I am a little scared too. Of course the fears of loss always creep up, but I try to pray them away and only put out positive vibes into the universe.”
Although Otis admits her “silly worry” is that she’s “never been a boy mom” — “We are excited for the challenge of learning how to consistently chase and keep a boy entertained,” she says — the mom-to-be wasn’t completely shocked by the sex. After a doctor’s visit early in the pregnancy, Otis had her bets on the baby being a boy.
“I am a labor and delivery nurse so I really believe in science. There’s this thing called the nub theory. Between the weeks of 12 and 14 every fetus has a ‘nub’ … I had asked the ultrasound tech to get a good angle of the nub on the baby at my 12-week ultrasound,” she recalls. “When she showed me the nub, I instantly felt like I knew it was a boy. If the nub is stacked or pointing up, it is a boy. If the nub is parallel with the spine, it’s a girl. I wasn’t 100 percent sure, but it proved to be accurate!”
Otis and Hehner are still hard at work deciding on a name for their son on the way — “We have about 20 names to narrow down,” jokes Otis — but the couple can’t wait to welcome a baby brother for Henley.
“We are so excited to have a baby boy. For our daughter to have a little companion to grow up with. I am excited and feel so lucky that we are able to get pregnant and I am able to be pregnant,” she says.
“Our last two pregnancies ended in loss before the second trimester and we have been trying to conceive for 18 months so it’s not lost on us how fortunate we are to have the gift of being able to get pregnant and carry a healthy pregnancy. We are just so thankful for this.”
Jamie Otis Celebrates Having “Viable Pregnancy” at Five Weeks Along After Previous Miscarriages
Otis announced her pregnancy in September, sharing that she and Hehner — who met on season 1 of MAFS for the first time on their wedding day, and recently celebrated their five-year anniversary — are expecting another baby.
The two previously lost their son Johnathan Edward at 17 weeks gestation before welcoming their daughter (whom they affectionately call Gracie) in August 2017, while Otis experienced a chemical pregnancy last year and a miscarriage at 10 weeks along this past January.
“For our last two pregnancies we never got the chance to find out if it was a boy or girl — let alone celebrate our newest little addition. They were taken from us too fast.👼🏼👼🏼 Soooo, we are going all out and CELEBRATING the fact that we were able to make and I’m able to carry this sweet little baby safely inside me🙏🏻,” the mom-to-be captioned a couple shot over the weekend, ahead of the big reveal.
Otis also shared that they “just did these wacky gender prediction tests” and she thought they were having a girl based on the results, while her husband thought boy, “Which just goes to show we can never agree on anything!🤣”
Even as their second little one is on the way, the spouses are already looking forward to conceiving their next child!
Earlier this month, Otis addressed her followers via her Instagram Story, sharing that the couple’s sex life was temporarily inactive, but that they couldn’t wait to change that.
“We used to work on making a baby at night; now, he’s on his phone and I’m on mine,” she joked in the clip. “We need to get back to making a baby while No. 2 is brewing.”
“Henley just started crying the minute we talk about being intimate,” Otis laughed. “Do you hear that? Our daughter cries. It’s like she knows — it’s crazy.”
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