Joanna Gaines is hoping to soak in her time with newborn son Crew Gaines, eight years after she last welcomed a new baby into the world.
“When this baby comes, there is going to be quite the gap,” Gaines told KMOV in St. Louis before Crew was born. “I feel like those years when the kids were all young, it was so foggy … at one point I had four kids [age] 4 and under, and I just remember it was like tag-team wrestling. Chip and I were trying to figure out how to do this with four kids so young.”
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The 40-year-old Gaines sees becoming a parent again as “another opportunity to really embrace this moment with a newborn.”
“My kids are so excited about it … but [I want] to slow it down a bit,” she added, reports PEOPLE.
Gaines also told KMOV she once helped a friend struggling with infertility. Her friend asked Gaines to plant a flower in her rose garden and pray for her every time she walked by it. When her friend visited Gaines in Waco, Texas recently, she said she now has a baby girl named Jovie Rose.
“It was just a precious moment to see how much this bush has grown, and there were the most beautiful roses all over it, but then to also see this answered prayer on the other side of it,” Gaines said. “It just reminded me that this is definitely a very special thing for me in my own life, but also a way that, in some way, I can connect with those I love most.”
In another interview with PEOPLE before Crew’s birth, Gaines said her four older children loved to rub her baby bump.
“I think it’s sweet because they’re older now, and I can see them wanting to be a part of this. We’re all rallying around this baby, which I feel is a sweet gift to our family,” she said.
Gaines and her husband, Fixer Upper co-star Chip, 43, welcomed Crew last week and posted shared several pictures from the hospital. Crew was born more than two weeks earlier than expected.
“Our baby boy, Crew Gaines, is here & we couldn’t be more in love,” Gaines wrote on Twitter. “He made an unexpected (and speedy) entrance into the world two and a half weeks early – which is fitting given he was a sweet surprise from day one. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. We are so grateful.”
Gaines also shared a cute picture of their older children with their ears to the delivery room door. “One of my favorite pics a friend showed me after Crew was born. They couldn’t wait to meet their new baby brother,” Gaines wrote.
Chip and Gaines are already parents to Drake, 13; Ella, 11; Duke, 9; and Emmie Kay, 8.
The couple announced the pregnancy in January, sharing an adorable photo of Chip showing off a fake “baby bump.” The news came a few months before the last episode of Fixer Upper aired in April.
Photo credit: Twitter/Joanna Gaines
