After celebrating a gender reveal with their closest friends, including The Valley co-stars Brittany Cartwright, 35, and Zack Wickham, Kristen, 41, and her boyfriend of about two years, Luke, 33, who announced their engagement in September, revealed what they’ll be welcoming next year.
“Luke and I didn’t want to have a big reveal party, but we did want the gender to be revealed to us!” Kristen revealed to Us Weekly on December 9. “Brittany is my best friend and we share an OB, so it made perfect sense to have my doctor call her with the news.”
According to Kristen, Brittany and Zack “kept the secret for almost a week” before sharing with her and Luke that they were having a baby girl.
“They had a large bag filled with pink balloons, completely hidden from us, and when we pulled the tie, the balloons came down and we saw we were having a girl,” Kristen shared, adding that “pink smoke cannons” were also part of the festivities.
“Nia and Danny Booko [from The Valley] were there and also Tom Schwartz,” she continued. “We also had a ton of friends and family on a private Zoom link for the reveal.”
While Kristen and Luke “couldn’t be happier” about their child’s gender, she thought their first child would be a boy.
“I guessed wrong 100 percent of the time when it came to my friends’ pregnancies and not shockingly, I wasn’t right for mine either,” she laughed, adding that Luke initially felt it would be a girl but “changed his mind the day of the reveal.”
“Luke was made to be a girl dad,” Kristen noted.
Although Kristen and Luke have already decided on a name, their nursery theme is still up in the air.
“But regardless of gender, it was always going to be neutral with pops of our chosen accent colors; cozy and a little bit boho,” she described.
Back in November, as she confirmed her pregnancy, Kristen revealed to PEOPLE that she and Luke conceived their baby girl via IUI (intrauterine insemination) — just as Lala Kent, 34, did before welcoming her second child with the help of a sperm donor.
“In late summer, we decided to meet with a fertility specialist to learn about our options and what could be the next step if we decided to go that route. The next month was a whirlwind — getting educated on fertility, and eventually hormone shots and preparing my body for IUI (intrauterine insemination),” she explained. “The two weeks following the IUI procedure felt like years. To get a correct outcome on a pregnancy test, 2 weeks time had to pass and I had to wait it out but in my heart I knew it had worked. I tested one day early and got the big PREGNANT result staring back at me.”
“I was relieved, overwhelmed, happy, excited, and nervous,” she added.
