Less than a year ago, the future seemed very uncertain Dance With The Stars icons Mapa Murgatroyd and Maksim Chmerkoskiy.
Maks, originally from Ukraine, was visiting his homeland when Russia invaded in March 2022.
The situation looked bleak at first, but luckily, Chmerkovskiy eventually made it home.
And now, Maksim and Peta’s future looks very bright!
Peta took to Instagram this week to announce she’s pregnant with her second child!
In the caption of her post, she explained that after a long and often frustrating fertility journey, the child was a surprise!
“After 2 years of constant struggle and heartache, 3 miscarriages and a failed embryo transfer… we have a healthy loaf of bread in the oven,” Murgatroyd wrote.
“It was a surprise to everyone and we knew before I went into the second round of IVF,” she continued.
“I want to thank all of YOU who have been on this fertility journey with me from the beginning. It feels like this is my big family.
He finished his message by thanking his fans who have supported and encouraged him during these difficult years:
“Thank you for sharing your story and tips to get me through the IVF cycle and thank you for the plethora of encouraging comments and DM’s… I read them all,” she wrote.
“This news has brought tremendous joy to our family and we are very grateful.”
Talk to people magazine, Peta confirmed that she and Maksim are blissfully happy with this unexpected development.
“It’s all natural, it happened,” the 36-year-old told the outlet.
“I didn’t even know I was pregnant until it was so long ago that I felt sick. I danced with Dancing with the Stars,” added Peta.
“I started feeling weird, started feeling sick and a little bloated and I didn’t want to try for weeks.”
She then explained that she was now 18 weeks along, and although the first test left no doubt that she was expecting, she and Maks remained skeptical.
“I think it’s the fastest positive I’ve ever seen in my life,” Murgatroyd said people.
“It came so fast and I was surprised. It was really different from the last pregnancy.
“It’s not like I’m jumping for joy and shouting from the rooftops, ‘Oh my God, I’m pregnant.’ Yay!’
“It’s more like, ‘Okay, let’s see what happens because I’ve been through this four other times, and it hasn’t worked.’ So I was very skeptical. I didn’t tell Maks for a while.”
The exciting news comes after two years when Peta shared her heartache over the difficulty of conceiving, often noting that the hardest part was feeling like she had let down her first child, 5-year-old Shai.
“It was so emotional because I didn’t know what to say anymore. I told him a couple of times, but I still wasn’t clear. I didn’t make this whole, ‘Oh my God, we’re having a baby,'” she added.
“I just said, ‘Be careful of Mom’s belly. She’s got a baby in there.’ “
Welcome Peta, Maks, and Shai!