Of all the things Lauren Speed-Hamilton was prepared for during her pregnancy, one thing she wasn’t prepared for was the congestion.
“How come we don’t talk about how you can’t breathe?” she said with a laugh.
With just weeks left in her pregnancy, the 37-year-old reality TV star and her husband, Cameron Hamilton, are opening up about their journey thus far, from unlikely surprises to some of the most memorable moments.
In addition to breathing challenges and some pesky heartburn, she was expecting extreme tiredness — just not to this degree.
“People mention that, but it’s really real,” she explained, adding that she has been sleeping a lot.
However, she sees it all as a small price to pay for such a major “blessing.”
“It’s all a blessing,” she said. “I look at it like it’s all worth it. It’s my sacrifice for my baby boy.”
Lauren and Cameron met and fell in love in 2018 during the first season of Netflix’s hit show, “Love is Blind,” a reality TV dating competition that city hops where hopeful singles meet and a few get engaged without seeing one another first. The pair made it all the way down the aisle during their momentous season and have remained firm fan favorites.
In the years since, the couple launched a YouTube channel and a podcast where they often get candid about the goings on in their life, including their journey with in vitro fertilization (IVF).
Last October, the couple opened up on their podcast “The Love Seat” about how their years-long and challenging journey with IVF brought them closer together.
“It has made us feel more connected. I think we support each other, we’re more in tune now,” she said then. “I feel like in marriage, or any type of relationship, when you go through something that’s big and heavy or weighs on your heart, it creates a bond.”
She added, “I think that it’s actually made us stronger.”
Within months of that episode, the couple finally received a positive pregnancy test. They announced they were expecting in May. So far, Lauren, who just celebrated her baby shower, said her journey has been filled with lots of gratitude.
“We’ve been trying for over four years to get pregnant, so even though it’s a little challenging, I welcome it, just because we have been praying to get to this point,” the expectant mother noted. “So the fact that we’re here right now is a blessing. I don’t have any real complaints.”
Her journey has also been marked by quite a few memorable moments, like running into Miss Tina Knowles at the “Cowboy Carter Tour” this summer and having the iconic matriarch personally bless the baby.
“She was so sweet and so nice and so down to Earth,” Lauren recalled of the encounter. “She just gave me encouragement, and she rubbed my belly.”
She added, “We’ll have so many stories to tell him, you know, once he’s here.”
The couple also, somewhat inadvertently, kicked off a meaningful conversation around boundaries. Cameron posted a “PSA” earlier this year advising others not to touch Lauren’s—or any other pregnant person’s—belly without permission. The video largely went over well, with many agreeing about the importance of respecting people’s boundaries.
“I made that video telling people, ‘Hey, don’t come up to Lauren and just assume you can touch your belly,’ because that’s a private space, a personal space,” Cameron explained. “You know, that’s the thing that you need permission for. A lot of people misconstrued that to mean that no one could touch. But obviously, friends and family who ask can touch.”
And Mama Tina.
“She was allowed,” they both clarified.
As they continue to prepare, they’ve partnered with Pampers on the legacy baby care brand’s new campaign “Behind Every Baby,” to help other expecting families earn the chance to win the one thing every new baby needs: diapers.
Pampers is celebrating the campaign by launching the “World’s Biggest Birth Announcement,” which invites families nationwide to share their newborn announcements for a chance to win a year’s supply of diapers.
Joining the initiative was a no-brainer for Lauren and Cameron, who admitted he was a Pampers baby himself.
“I’m excited to keep that tradition going with our son,” he said. “They’re behind every baby, they’ve been around for so long, and they’re a trusted brand. When you’re a new parent there’s so many things swirling, like, what do I choose about this? What do I choose about that. But at least with dieapers, we got the Pampers locked down.”
In terms of where they are on their prep, the couple is as ready as they can be.
“I’m ready at this point because I’m getting tired [of being pregnant],” Lauren stressed. “I’ve got the waddle going on, my clothes don’t fit, my shoes don’t fit anymore. I’m just excited to hold him and see him and hear him laugh and cry.”
Cameron added how fortunate they’ve been throughout the pregnancy, especially with timing and that Lauren and the baby have remained healthy.
Lauren shared advice from her doctor, fellow reality TV fixture and “Married to Medicine” star Dr. Jackie Walters: “She’s like ‘be sure you’re ready because you can’t put him back in,’” Lauren recalled with a laugh.
