I partied in Vegas days before giving birth at 40 – I judged women who didn’t know they were pregnant until I was one
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SITTING in a limo in Las Vegas, Carrie Renee felt incredible. What better way to celebrate her 40th birthday than sipping champagne as the sights of Sin City flew by?. But the production worker had no idea that something else was fizzing away. She was in fact nine months pregnant, just days away from giving birth to a baby she had no clue she was expecting and was about to become a mum for the third time.
![[Carrie Renee was celebrating her 40th birthday when she got the surprise of her life]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/d8bade02-b15e-4130-9b6a-e543a8a79a40.jpg?strip=all&w=515)
Baby or no baby, turning forty in July 2021 was a big deal for Carrie. “I used to tell friends that I didn’t hit my stride until I hit 35,” she says. “I had my two beautiful children young, Candace when I was 21 and Thomas at 23. “Both pregnancies were hard. With Candace I was constantly sick and struggled with fatigue. I had endless food cravings and ballooned from eight to 14 stone.
![[She went into labour with her daughter Julia, having had no idea she was pregnant]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/i-secret-baby-40th-i-959459616.jpg?strip=all&w=719)
“With Thomas I didn’t gain as much weight but had a big bump, as well as awful heartburn and nausea.”. After her marriage ended when she was 23, Carrie raised her kids as a single mum. When the children became teenagers and more independent, she felt she could also spread her wings a little.
![[She and her partner Chris, seen here with their daughter Julia, had not planned to have children]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/1b7e29fb-a464-4c93-8ad2-2ed17db68c13.jpg?strip=all&w=721)
“I was able to go to the movies and dinner with friends, without the guilt that I wasn’t with the children constantly,” she explains. In 2018 she started chatting online with Chris, a fun, kind man she’d worked with years before. They had their first date in October and soon fell in love.
![[Carrie was full term when this photo was taken of her in Las Vegas]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/i-secret-baby-40th-i-959459642.jpg?strip=all&w=704)
