Photo: Courtesy Alyssa Higgins
To her more than 100,000followers on Instagram, the 30-year-old documents her life with husband Jimmy, 31, and their 4-month-old sonLuke Charles. While being open about her personal life in the form of thoughtful captions and fun family videos, Higgins also encounters mom-shamers who question her as a parent.
“They are just underestimating and undermining her, her capabilities. Thinking certain people shouldn’t deserve, or that they’re putting your child at a disadvantage for not having a mom as capable of doing things, you know?” he says. “But it’s more important to have a mom that is loving. The emotional things are more important than the physical things.”
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Courtesy Alyssa Higgins
“I just want people to normalize other people being in inter-able relationships and being disabled parents. That’s what people need to realize. Like, it’s okay. It’s not un-normal, it’s normal,” says Higgins.
The couple recalls getting pregnant on their first try, something Higgins wasn’t sure she’d be able to do so easily: “I was like, ‘There’s no way.’ I was wrong,” she said of not expecting it to happen.
Her pregnancy was “pretty smooth,” she says, except the last few weeks when it began “taking a toll” on her body.
“It was pretty smooth, I’m not going to lie, but the ending, just like anyone else, it was difficult,” recalls Higgins, who also developed gestational diabetes. “It was so hard on me that I couldn’t even move at all during the last month.”
“People will say you get no sleep or whatever, but he’s a pretty good sleeper. I’m kind of surprised,” Jimmy says. “Not saying it’s been easy, but a little easier than I expected, just because there were people that scare you saying babies don’t sleep at night.”
“When Luke gets older, I’m just excited to see what kind of person he becomes and help him achieve whatever it is he wants to do in life,” the dad continues. “And be there for him every step of the way, to be a supportive dad no matter what he wants to do. I’m excited to be his biggest supporter.”
And Higgins plans to keep her fans up to date on their family life, negative commenters aside.
“I’ve met so many people. It’s insane,” she tells PEOPLE. “Even for me being disabled my whole life from 1990, you never had any support because you never knew anyone else who was disabled. You never had social media, obviously. Now you get to see so many people that are just like you that you can get support from.”
source: people.com
