Aly Michalka is pregnant!
PEOPLE can exclusively reveal that the Aly & AJ musician and actress, 34, is expecting her first child with director husband Stephen Ringer, whom she has been married to since 2015.
“It was a very easy pregnancy, which I feel really lucky and blessed to have experienced,” Michalka, who is due to give birth in May, tells PEOPLE.
The and Zombies star found out she was pregnant in September – the day before she and sister AJ Michalka played a sold-out concert at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles in September.
Aly Michalka and Stephen Ringer.
Aly Michalka/Instagram
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“In another world, I could have waited another day to take the test, but for whatever reason I said, ‘I’m already a week late and I should just take the test,'” she says. “And then it was like, ‘Oh my God. We’re playing this big show tonight, and now I’m keeping this big secret.’ ”
Aly immediately told Ringer, 39, but waited until after the concert to reveal to others — which was difficult, considering she usually tells AJ everything. “I didn’t want it to take away from the special meaning of the night, and we already had so much on our minds that we were juggling,” she says.
A few days after the show, she took AJ out to dinner at Pace in LA to share the big news. “I thought, ‘There was a special guest who was in Greece that you didn’t know existed,’ and she said, ‘Who?'” Aly explains. “I said, ‘Here’s the baby,’ and I touched her belly, and then she said, ‘What?!’ She was very excited and overjoyed. From there we told the rest of the family.”
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Aly Michalka.
Courtesy of Stephen Ringer
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The pregnancy comes after nine years of marriage for Aly and Ringer. Although they had always wanted a family, the couple wanted to wait until she returned home from last year’s tour to start planning.
“It was nice that it ended quickly, but I also think it surprised us in a way that we were like, ‘Oh, we thought it might take us eight, nine months to get pregnant or a year,’ and it didn’t,” she says. “Recently it’s started to feel really real just because I’m starting to show up now – and I’ve got the belly ring out, which means the stomach is really popping out.”
So far the pregnancy has been without abnormalities. Aly found herself craving tacos and birria, but nothing “crazy,” and sought advice on what to buy and how to prepare from her mom, Carrie, as well as several friends who are also currently pregnant.
“So far it’s been going smoothly and I was lucky I didn’t feel nauseous at the beginning. I was just hiking as usual,” she says. “I’ve got to drink a lot more water and eat a lot more protein than I’ve had to in the past, which I’ve been sick of. But I’m trying to do it every day and be on top.”
When it comes to products, from pregnancy tests to belly oil, Alya’s favorite brand is Natalist, with whom she currently works. Before joining the company, she stumbled upon some items in a pharmacy and noticed that many of its values were in line with her own.
“They’re plastic neutral, which is really nice. Whatever plastic they put in their product, they make sure they work with a company that pulls plastic out of the ocean,” says Aly. “It’s actually a really cool brand that’s the first of its kind for fertility stuff.”
About three months before the due date, the musician discussed baby names with Ringer and they picked three options for a boy and three more for a girl. “We want the name to feel unique, but I also don’t want people to roll their eyes, like, ‘This is such a famous kid’s name. This is so funny.’ So I mean, let’s stick with a cool classic name, maybe something that sounds like an author or a writer or a musician,” says Aly.
Despite “most” acquaintances asking them about the sex of the child, the couple plans to wait until the birth to find out. “We’re not really a gender-revealing couple anyway,” she explains. – I think that, even if we knew the gender, not everything would be blue or pink.
Looking forward, Aly is excited about the journey of parenthood with her husband. “I can see that Stephen is a really great dad, obviously, which is why I wanted to have kids with him. He’s going to be very in tune with their feelings and emotions,” she says, noting that one of her big focuses is making sure their child he has “a really good palate – we can’t just eat chicken fingers and regular burgers.”
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On a more serious note, Aly wants to make sure her baby learns to have a “caring and kind” view of others. “[We want to teach them] they obviously have some privilege growing up in Los Angeles with two white parents. I think it’s early to bring that up as a topic of conversation with your child,” she says, “because then they’ll be empathetic to all kinds of people in their future.”
Her child is sure to gain a well-rounded view of the world, as Aly plans to take them on the road after she and AJ resume their tour. The sister duo are currently writing material for a new album which should “ideally” be released next year if all goes according to plan with her pregnancy.
Among the themes that will appear in the upcoming album’s lyrics, fans can expect Aly to reflect on motherhood. “We wrote a song the other day that kind of touches on that,” she says.
For more from Aly Michalka, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands everywhere Friday.
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Source: HIS Education