'Good Bones' Star Mina Starsiak Hawk Welcomes Second Child With Husband Steve Hawk After IVF Journey (Exclusive)
Good Bones star, Mina Starsiak Hawk welcomed her second child — a baby girl named Charlie, with [...]
Good Bones star, Mina Starsiak Hawk welcomed her second child — a baby girl named Charlie, with husband Steve Hawk on Sept. 16, 2020, at St. Vincent Carmel Hospital outside Indianapolis. The HGTV personality, who stars on the home renovation series alongside mother Karen Laine to revitalize Indy, took to Instagram to share the exciting news with several snapshots of her newborn daughter. Charlie joins the couple's 2-year-old toddler son, Jack Richard, and their two dogs, Frank and Sophie.
Taking to Instagram to share a carousel of photos, Starsiak Hawk wrote simply in the caption: "She's here! Charlotte Drew Hawk" with a white heart emoji. As shared in previous Instagram Stories from earlier in the morning, the reality TV star and her husband were waiting anxiously since arriving at the hospital 7:30 a.m. ET, with the 35-year-old giving birth at 10:14 a.m., according to PEOPLE. The outlet goes on to share Charlotte "Charlie" Drew came into the world weighing 7 pounds, 6 ounces and measured 18.5 inches long.
First announcing their pregnancy this past March, it hasn't been an easy journey for Starsiak Hawk and her husband in expecting Charlie. The Indianapolis native's IVF journey has been chronicled on social media and this past season's Good Bones with the now mother-of-two sharing how hard it was to initially conceive after having first child, Jack in 2018. In an interview with PopCulture.com this past May ahead of the Season 5 premiere, Starsiak Hawk spoke exclusively about her IVF journey and choosing to show that side of her life on camera, sharing how "unless you've gone through it, it's just different."
"Going through it, I was like, 'This is crazy.' All this stuff you have to do, all the stress, then the hormones you inject into your body, which is take it to a whole 'nother level," she told PopCulture. "It just felt like something that because it is so personal, not a lot of people share and I really have no boundaries. To me, it was like anything else that I film on camera — our demo day or cute videos of Jack. This is just what I'm going to do."
Starsiak Hawk goes on to share how, when she started posting about her IVF journey, some of which included very emotional and challenging moments, the Hoosier received just "mass quantities" of messages from fans and followers relating. "From women who were doing the same thing, or had a sister dealing with the same thing, our friends, and just how much they appreciated me, normalizing it a little bit," she said. "Because a lot of times you just hear about big A-list movie stars. So-and-so had an IVF, and this is their beautiful child — that's the story. It makes it sound way more simple than it is."
She adds that because of all the feedback, "it seemed super helpful," and she kept sharing with fans on social media. "I didn't really get to a point where it was an 'Oh s—,' moment," she said, adding how the first IVF had failed in December after the one and only embryo she had "did not get bigger" following initial cell division. This prompted the couple to undergo a natural, non-medicated IUI (intrauterine insemination), which led to their miracle, Charlie.
Sharing how she had a positive pregnancy test a few weeks after seeing the couple's fertility specialist, Starsiak Hawk recalls to PopCulture being contented over the news, but still cautious — especially when it came to filming."I don't know how many weeks it was, but I was like, 'I'm pregnant, great!'" Starsiak Hawk said. "We were going up to my doctor for my first ultrasound, with the whole production team. They were filming the whole thing — and we got to the doctor's office. On the way I was just white-knuckling, holding Steve's hand because I hadn't realized that there's a chance that there's just going to be no heartbeat now."
She continued: "It hadn't even crossed my mind. When I got to the doctor's office, [the doctor] pulled me aside, me and Steve, and said, 'Do you want to do this live on camera? I can do it really quick. We can see what the results are going to be; then you can make a decision, then we can do it on camera.'"
With the reality star previously being told she had less than 1% chance of getting pregnant with her second child, Starsiak Hawk adds how she and her husband of four years thought about sharing that aspect of their life on-screen and talked it over, admitting it was all about that initial reaction. "Like, 'Okay, if you do it beforehand, and it's positive, that's great, that's exciting — but we're going to have to do it again on camera, I'm going to have to fake being excited,'" she said.
"[And] then, 'If you do it, and there's no heartbeat and we're devastated, do I not film with them? Or, do I not share that part?' We decided to do it live because whatever was going to happen was going to happen. But that was the first time where I was like, 'Baby, I got myself in too deep,'" she laughed.
Good Bones airs on HGTV and will return for Season 6 in 2021. For more on Mina, her adorable family and all your favorite reality TV stars, keep it locked to PopCulture for the latest and follow us on Twitter for more!