The Bachelor's Liz Sandoz Reveals She's Expecting First Child After Suffering Chemical Pregnancy

Elizabeth Sandoz Presta is pregnant!

The Bachelor season 21 contestant revealed alongside husband Vito Presta on Monday’s episode of her Miraculous Mamas podcast that the couple are expecting their first child together after having a chemical pregnancy last year.

“I’m halfway through my pregnancy, 20 weeks, and I’m super excited,” said Sandoz Presta, 32, revealing in an exclusive photo with PEOPLE that the baby is due between late August and early September.

The mom-to-be shared that the spouses did not immediately tell those closest to them about the exciting news, unlike their last pregnancy.

“I think just because of the chemical pregnancy that we had, obviously we were so excited that we got pregnant,” she recalled. “We told our parents and our siblings and just a few close people right away. Then we had that loss.”

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“With this one, we decided to wait and we didn’t even tell our families until after we went to the doctor, after everything was confirmed,” she shared. “Then we told our parents and our siblings. We still waited quite a while to tell other people.”

Sandoz Presta said that the couple conceived while at her parents’ house. But after learning she was pregnant, she admitted that she “didn’t really feel excited” and “felt scared,” to which her husband agreed.

“It was really hard because then I felt guilty,” she said. “As the weeks went on and I’m still pregnant but I’m still scared, I felt guilty that I wasn’t enjoying it. That I was just, like, waiting for the worst.”

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Sandoz Presta shared that she “had a few scares in the beginning” of this pregnancy, including spotting and nausea early on. But now, the proud parents say that everything looks healthy for their unborn baby.

Presta also said that should the coronavirus pandemic extend until Sandoz Presta’s due date, he would want them to have a home birth, assuming all parties involved are healthy.

“If we were to have a home birth, it would be everything’s good, all the vitals are good, you’re good, you’re not at risk for anything, the baby is not at risk for anything,” he told his wife. “The chances of us having a healthy birth are very, very high.”

“But if there was anything that showed this may not go well, then we are going to the hospital,” Presta added.

Elizabeth Presta/Instagram Elizabeth “Liz” Sandoz Presta

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In December, Sandoz Presta revealed on her podcast alongside Presta that she had suffered a chemical pregnancy accompanied by “severe cramping.” While she said she felt “at peace” with what happened at the time, she admitted tearfully, “When I do talk about it, I get really emotional, ’cause I’ve never been pregnant before.”

“It was the couple weeks of the positive tests and the excitement and ordering things,” she says. “I already had our nursery wallpaper picked out, you know? And then it’s such a letdown. … And then I feel stupid for crying ’cause it was a chemical pregnancy — it’s like nothing was ever really even there. Which I know is ridiculous.”

Despite the setback, the pair promised they’d “keep trying” to expand their family. “Life is gonna kick us down, life’s gonna kick everybody down, you just gotta get back up and fight back. You just gotta keep getting up,” Presta said.

Sandoz Presta, a birth doula, competed in Nick Viall‘s season of The Bachelor in 2017 and was eliminated in the second week. She went on to tie the knot with Presta at Glacier National Park in Montana in February 2019.