Photo:Beka Price Photography
Beka Price Photography
MyKayla Skinneris celebrating a pregnancy that hasn’t always been easy.
“We are so excited to finally have this little girl as a part of our family,” the mom-to-be tells PEOPLE.
“Pregnancy has been super rough, which I was not prepared for! Sometimes I feel like pregnancy is harder than being an Olympian,” Skinner says, noting she’s developed “so much respect for all the moms and soon-to-be moms out there.”
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“Ever since I can remember, I’ve wanted to be a mom. Obviously, that was never an option as a competitive gymnast, so as soon as I retired after the Tokyo Olympics, I wanted to start having babies!” she shares. “My husband Jonas wasn’t quite as ready for kids, so we waited a year after my retirement before we started trying.”
After confirming the news with a pregnancy test, the Olympian surprised her husband with a shoebox containing the positive tests.
“It’s one of my favorite memories to this day,” she shares.
Skinner’s early pregnancy was difficult as she “got horribly sick and spent the next two months throwing up every day.”
“I lost 11 lbs. and had to go to the ER a few times to get an IV and nausea medicine in a shot. Nothing tasted good and I had no energy to do anything besides sleep,” she recalls. “We tried to keep the pregnancy a secret as long as we could, but our podcast listeners could tell something was up and most of my fans were not surprised when we finally announced!”
While the second trimester was “a lot better,” she’s been struggling again in the home stretch.
“The one positive about having popped is we were able to take the coolest maternity photos ever,” she says of the photos shared exclusively with PEOPLE. “Our photographer Beka Price did magic with her camera, capturing my ‘pregnancy glow’ and making me look a lot better than I feel. I connected with Beka around 24 weeks and we met together at her studio to start planning the sessions. The maternity session happened around 28-29 weeks which was perfect timing.”
source: people.com
