Neneka Ihim she is pregnant with her and husband Dr. Ikena Ihimthe first baby of but is a “bittersweet” celebration.
The Real Housewives of the Potomac The 37-year-old star announced her pregnancy on Wednesday, January 22, revealing that she is due in May. While Nneka said people she “always wanted to be a mother” her road to a successful pregnancy was not easy.
Nneka explained this after trying to get pregnant over two years, including three rounds of in vitro fertilization (IVF), she learned she was having twins.
The Bravo star had two embryos, a boy and a girl, implanted at the same time, but at her eight-week check-up, Neka was told she had lost one of the babies.
“We showed up for an appointment and one of the twins no longer had a heartbeat,” recalls Neka. “So that was really, really hard. I mean, the second I walked out of my doctor’s office, I burst into tears.
The next four days were the hardest, Neka explained, noting that she “felt incomplete” after she was no longer carrying twins.
“There is trauma in the celebration,” she admitted. “But at the same time, we’ve been through this for so long and God has finally blessed us with this pregnancy, so we’re trying to be very optimistic here.”
The road to parenthood has been tough for many celebrity parents, including Chrissy Teigen and John Legend. After IVF didn’t work on the first try, Teigen wondered if she had done something wrong. “You’re just looking for something to blame, especially yourself,” Teigen explained to New York Magazine’s The Cut in April (…)
More than halfway through her pregnancy, Neka said she felt “more stable” and her baby was “very healthy and very strong,” according to her doctors.
Let her do it RHOP debut in season 8 in 2023 From the beginning, she took fans on her fertility journey, which included two rounds of intrauterine insemination (IUI) before turning to IVF. (She quit the Bravo show after one season.)
The ups and downs made Neka and her husband, whom she married in August 2021. to consider surrogacy and additional options. In September 2024 the couple decided to try IVF one more time with “zero expectations” and it was successful.
“Up until that point I had a lot of anxiety, but this round I just didn’t put any pressure on myself,” recalls Neka people. “I was in a very soft mindset; much more carefree. I even went to Paris with my friends. And the next thing I knew, I knew the good news: I was pregnant.
Brian Stukes/Getty Images Real Housewives of Potomac’s Candiace Dillard Bassett is pregnant and expecting her first baby with husband Chris Bassett. “I’m about 13 weeks along … so I’m almost into my second trimester. It was strange, but also really wonderful, I think, to kind of keep it to ourselves until this moment,” Dillard Bassett, (…)
Although Nneka is still dealing with the loss of one of her pregnancies, she said she had an “amazing” support system in Ikenna, 40, and was ready to be a parent.
“He’s so excited. He can’t wait for this child to come,” she said of her husband. “It’s a dream come true for both of us.”
Let revealed: “Sometimes I still have to pinch myself, it’s so surreal and shocking.” She added that even the fun stuff doesn’t feel real. “Even now I’m trying to plan my baby shower and I’m just like, ‘Wow, this is really happening to me,'” she said.
