Bachelor in Paradise alum Blake Horstmann and his girlfriend, Love is Blind alum Giannina Gibelli, have announced they're expecting their first child together.
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"We're so grateful that life has led us here and over the moon to be parents to our sweet baby come spring 2024!"
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Alongside their caption, Blake and Giannina, 30, uploaded a carousel of beautiful maternity photos, which had been taken in their own home.
Congratulatory comments poured in from Bachelor Nation -- including from Blake's The Bachelorette ex, Becca Kufrin.
"Congrats to you and your growing family! Welcome to the best part of life," commented Becca, who starred on The Bachelorette's fourteenth season.
Jason Tartick, who competed against Blake for Becca's heart on The Bachelorette, wrote, "I am so damn happy for you two, love you guys! Congratulations!!"
Adam Gottschalk wrote, "This is the first pregnancy announcement this year. I'm fired up to see. Congrats you guys."
And Serena Pitt commented, "Omg! So happy for you both. G you look AMAZING!"
After announcing the big news, Blake uploaded a video of himself snuggling in bed with Giannina.
"Seriously tho, thank you all so much [for] the love. I am gonna like and reply to as many comments as I can," Blake wrote via Instagram Stories.
Giannina, 30, told People that she had a feeling she was pregnant "after a couple of weeks of traveling" with Blake.
RELATED LINK: 'THE BACHELORETTE' COUPLES NOW"We were on our way back home from the movies and I felt a fluttering in my lower stomach which I thought was weird, so we got a test and made it home, opened a bottle of wine -- because obviously, it's going to be negative this was just a precaution -- and after dinner, we found out our entire world had changed," Giannina shared.
"We're so excited to meet our spring baby!"
The parents-to-be were admittedly surprised by the news, and they noted how the reaction from their family and friends was also a "priceless" experience.
"No one was expecting it, but their reactions have been spectacular and we're so grateful for the love and support. We shared the news with Blake's family in Colorado and then Giannina's family in Florida," the pair explained.
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Giannina laughed about how there was "a lot of screaming, happy tears and jumping around," with jaws on the ground from shock.
"Our baby is so loved already," she gushed, adding how her road to motherhood "has been a dream" thus far.
"Zero to no sickness, I've been able to travel and all I want to eat is fruit. I genuinely love being pregnant. It's made me step into my femininity and I never thought I would enjoy it this much."
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Initially, however, Giannina said she "struggled" with her identity and how a baby "would change" her. She apparently found comfort in "talking to women in my life and doing what makes me happy."
"It has kept me grounded and feeling empowered," she shared. "The love for this baby is immense already and I know in my heart that this was meant to be for me."
The Bachelorette alum and his pregnant girlfriend said they don't "officially know" the baby's sex yet but they "have a hunch" whether a girl or boy might be on the way.
"We started a list of baby names after the first couple of months we met," the Love is Blind alum shared. "I think we low-key manifested this, with that list."
And Blake and Giannina plan to approach parenting "as a team" with good communication, mutual trust, and a belief in each other.
"We'd already hear, 'You're going to be such a good mom and dad,' I think because we both give off nurturing vibes. Yet, there's obviously still that feeling of, 'Am I going to do it right?'" Giannina said.
"No one gives you a manual and there is so much we don't know, but we're excited to do this together... The only thing is Blake is going to feel left out when the baby and I are speaking in Spanish and he has no idea what we're saying."
Blake asked Giannina to move in with him in Denver, CO, in November 2022.
Blake and Giannina went Instagram official in early April 2022 while they were on a trip to Spain, several months after reports began to swirl about the couple dating.
Blake and Giannina -- who called Blake her "worst kept secret" in June -- had to keep their relationship, which began in late 2021, under wraps for a while because they had met on a Paramount+ reality show called All Star Shore, which filmed in December 2021 and didn't premiere until June 2022.
When a fan asked Giannina about Blake in March 2022, Giannina responded, "I can't officially post him [right now], because we did a project together that hasn't been announced yet," Page Six reported.
She added at the time, however, that she was "really happy to be sharing these moments" with Blake "in private."
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Reports Blake -- who finished The Bachelorette's eleventh season starring Becca Kufrin as the runner-up and failed to find lasting love on Bachelor in Paradise -- and Giannina, who appeared on Love is Blind in 2020, were dating first surfaced in January 2022.
"They're taking things slow. But [they] seem really happy together," a source told People at the time.
Romance rumors sparked when eagle-eyed fans noticed Blake and Giannina were posting photos with similar backgrounds on social media.
Blake, for example, posted a photo of himself sipping on cocktails in front of a big wooden barrel at Mile High Spirits in Colorado on New Year's Eve that year, and Giannina's Love Is Blind co-star Kelly Chase commented, "Happy new year."
Giannina subsequently posted a picture of herself posing in front of similar barrels the next day.
Giannina, wearing a sexy white dress at the time, captioned her post, "Repeat after me: I am about to walk into the best year of my life."
One fan account, @myteaandroses, also pointed out how it appeared Giannina had uploaded an image from Blake's bed via Instagram Stories on New Year's Day.
And a few days prior, Giannina revealed on Instagram that she was about to travel from Miami "to the mountains," hinting she was headed to a colder destination on December 28, 2022.
Giannina got engaged to fellow Love Is Blind contestant Damian Powers on the show in 2020, but during the season finale, Damian reportedly admitted at the altar he couldn't go through with marrying her so soon.
The pair chose to stay together and continue dating, but then Giannina announced in August 2021 she and Damian had split.
"I am officially single. Me and Damian haven't been dating for a couple of months now," Giannina told Entertainment Tonight at the time.
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(According to People, however, Damian denied any romantic involvement with Francesca).
As for Blake, his breakup with Becca on The Bachelorette finale in August 2018 was excruciating to watch considering Blake had said he was madly in love with the show's leading lady.
Blake was admittedly "blindsided" by Becca's decision to dump him because he appeared to be her frontrunner all season long.
"I truly thought that if it came down to me proposing, that she wouldn't say no," Blake told ET in 2018. "I thought what we had was real."
Blake added it was "incredibly hard" to get over his heartbreak at first.
After appearing on Becca's The Bachelorette season, Blake had flings with The Bachelor alums Caelynn Miller-Keyes and Kristina Schulman.
Blake then appeared on Bachelor in Paradise's sixth edition and came across like a playboy.
He was romantically interested in Hannah Godwin on the ABC spinoff, but she chose to pursue a relationship with Dylan Barbour instead.
Blake said on Instagram in Summer 2021 that he has no interest in appearing on the franchise again for the sake of his mental health because he believes the franchise "breeds toxicity and emotional abuse."
Blake led Bachelor Nation to believe he and Becca were getting back together last year, but Becca denied that was the case and chose to look for love on Season 7 of Bachelor in Paradise in Summer 2021.
She's now happily married to her Paradise co-star and The Bachelorette 17 alum Thomas Jacobs, and they have one child together.
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About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski
