Congratulations to Dame Valerie Adams and her husband Gabriel Price who are going to be parents for the second time.
Dame Valerie made the announcement on Instagram with an adorable photo of their one year old daughter Kimoana Josephine holding a card which read ‘I’m going to be a sister.’
The Olympic gold medallist told One News that she decided to make the announcement now because she couldn’t hide it anymore.
“My pooch is a bit out, a little bit now, and I didn’t want people to think I was just eating pies and not doing any training,” she joked.
“The time is right for us to announce and it is a celebration.”
Adams has been open in the past about the difficulty she went through to conceive her first child, Kimoana.
She and Gabriel began trying for a baby after the Rio Olympics in 2016, but they soon discovered Valerie suffered from a low egg supply. They sought the help of a fertility specialist and decided to undergo in-vitro fertilisation.
After her first round of IVF turned out to be unsuccessful, an MRI scan revealed she was suffering endometriosis.
“It was horrible – the worst experience ever,” Dame Valerie revealed to Woman’s Day. “My heart was broken. All we could do was cry.”
A different cycle of IVF was decided on and not long after, Valerie fell pregnant.
“Nothing prepares you to become a parent,” she told Woman’s Day after Kimoana’s birth. “I’ve never felt this kind of love for any human being in my life. Once upon a time, our lives revolved around my travels and competitions, and Gabe’s career too, but now it’s all about baby’s sleep schedule. Nothing else in this world matters.”
The 34-year-old insists that her pregnancy will not get in the way of her plans to compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Valerie returned to competition six months after Kimoana’s birth, winning silver at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.
But while her career is important to her, family comes first, and with the added complications of her fertility issues, it was a case of now or never to try for a second child.
“I don’t want to come end of Tokyo, look back and have any regrets,” she told One News. “That’s what I didn’t want to happen because realistically, my fertility situation isn’t great and this was my only chance. My timeframe was limited and I knew that.”
“It’s possible to come out and have a pregnancy, have a baby and create your family but also go back to high-level sport, there’s nothing that says you can’t do that.”
Well said, Valerie!
Congratulations to the soon-to-be family of four!
