Olympic medalist Sanya Richards-Ross is the proud new mother of a baby boy.
Sanya, 32, welcomed a son named Deucey on August 12, and has just started sharing pictures of the little on one Instagram.
‘Moms have told me for years but until now I couldn’t fathom how amazing it is to become a mother!’ she wrote, captioning a picture of herself, the baby, and her husband Aaron Ross. ‘They instantly change you… your heart grows and your love knows no bounds. This is by far the most gratifying moment of my life.’
Ta-da! Sanya Richards-Ross welcomed her first baby earlier this month
Welcome to the world: The little boy, named Deucey, was born on August 12
Seventh heaven: ‘This is, by far, the most gratifying moment of my life,’ she said
Sanya appears to have been saving up her pictures from the first week and a half of Deucey’s life, and is now happily posting them all online.
She’s uploaded snaps of the baby at four, five, and seven days old, as well as an image from a photoshoot with People.
‘This is, by far, the most gratifying moment of my life,’ she told the magazine. ‘He gives me greater purpose and a reason to smile every day, and I just want to be the best mom to him that I can be!’
This is the first child for Sanya and her NFL player husband, though Sanya was pregnant once before.
The Olympian revealed in her new memoir, Chasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile Has Taught Me about God and Life, that she underwent an abortion right before competing in the 2008 Olympics, a decision that she has struggled with ever since.
Cutie: She and her husband have started sharing pictures on social media
Ready to go! Sanya also shared a last-minute picture from the hospital
Proud parents: This is the first child for the athletic couple
Opening up: In her new memoir, Sanya revealed that she had an abortion just before the 2008 Olympic games. She is pictured competing weeks after the procedure
Sanya had already won gold in the 4×400 meter relay at the 2004 Athens Olympics when, in 2008, she found out she was pregnant.
It was a busy time for her and her then-fiancé Aaron, and the two couldn’t even get together in person to discuss their options.
‘Everything I ever wanted seemed to be within reach,’ she wrote. ‘The culmination of a lifetime of work was right before me. In that moment, it seemed like no choice at all.
‘The debate of when life begins swirled through my head, and the veil of a child out of wedlock at the prime of my career seemed unbearable. What would my sponsors, my family, my church, and my fans think of me?’
So, over the phone, she and her NFL star to made the call to have an abortion. Aaron, who was at training camp, wasn’t able to be there for the procedure.
Together: She was then engaged to her now-husband Aaron Ross
Aftermath: She flew out to the Games immediately following the procedure and won a gold and a bronze medal
Shocking news: Sanya (pictured left at the 2008 Games and right at the 2012 Olympics) found out she was pregnant just before she was due to leave and compete in Beijing
Honest: In her new book, she said that the decision was rushed and it ‘broke’ her
‘We didn’t go into details,’ she said. ‘As if not saying it would alleviate some of the guilt and the shame.’
She also moved quickly to get past the moment, flying out to Beijing for training the very next day, in spite of her doctor’s warnings.
Keeping quite about their feelings didn’t work, though. While not saying outright that she regretted the abortion, Sanya wrote about her negative feelings following it.
‘I made a decision that broke me, and one from which I would not immediately heal,’ she said. ‘Abortion would now forever be a part of my life. A scarlet letter I never thought I’d wear.’
She went on, ‘I was a champion — and not just an ordinary one, but a world-class, record-breaking champion. From the heights of that reality I fell into a depth of despair.’
At the Olympics, she and her team took gold again for the 4×400 meter relay, and she snagged bronze for the 400 meter dash.
Back home, though, there was less celebration. Sanya wrote that she ‘harbored some resentment’ toward her husband because she ‘felt abandoned in the decision’.
Painful: She and her husband, pictured in 2013, didn’t discuss the decision much after, and both were dealing with burdensome feelings
It wasn’t until years later that they spoke openly about the abortion, and Aaron told her that he felt burdened, too.
‘He believed that our child in 2008 was a blessing we had rejected by always wanting to be in control,’ she said.
Speaking to ESPN, Sanya added that this was the ‘toughest moment in my life’, but she hopes that opening up about it will help other girls in her position.
‘I think there are lots of young girls who experience this, especially female athletes,’ she said. ‘I look forward to having more discussions about it and helping young women heal from it.’
Now, she and Aaron have finally welcomed their first child, whom Sanya appears to have nicknamed ‘My Deucey Doo.’