Erin and Ben Napier Welcome Baby No. 2! 'We're Excited to Have Another Daughter to Love'

Erin and Ben Napier's family just grew by one!

The HGTV stars welcomed their second baby, daughter Mae Napier, on May 28, PEOPLE can confirm. The pair (who were college sweethearts before they got married in 2008) are also parents to 3-year-old daughter Helen.

"While we are excited to have another daughter to love, we are more excited to see the bond she and Helen will have. They're already so in love with each other!" the couple tells PEOPLE

Mae, who is named after Erin's beloved Aunt Mae, arrived at 8:23 AM on Friday, coming in at 7 lbs. 1 oz., and 19.5 inches.

Erin also shared the news on her Instagram, writing simply "Mae" with a heart emoji and a tag for Ben, @scotsman.co, alongside three photos from baby Mae's first few days.

courtesy Erin and Ben Napier

Ben and Erin announced their pregnancy news in April, telling PEOPLE at the time that they found out in September while simultaneously filming Home Town in Laurel, Mississippi, and their new show, Home Town Takeover, about 200 miles away in Wetumpka, Alabama.

"The last six months of 2020 really, you know, it was rough. It's all a blur," Ben joked of filming, traveling and preparing for a new baby during the ongoing pandemic.

"We were like, 'Ooh, this is going to be tough, but we can do it,' " added Erin at the time. "We don't remember anything, but I'm glad somebody was filming all of it."

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The couple wasn't sure if they'd be able to start a family due to a complicated, years-long health battle Erin had faced, they previously shared with PEOPLE.

For a decade, starting when she was 19, the designer suffered from bouts of severe stomach pain that would leave her bedridden for days. She saw countless specialists before an emergency exploratory surgery in 2014 finally revealed the cause: she had a perforated appendix.

Her appendix had been bursting and healing repeatedly for years causing her organs to become wrapped in scar tissue and bound together. But even after doctors removed the tissue, she was told the damage done would make it unlikely she would be able to have children.

"I was very sad. And not knowing is always the biggest hurdle for me to overcome. I like to have proof. And we had no proof that I would be able to have kids," she told PEOPLE in 2018.

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The Napiers were surprised to find out that they were expecting three years later — on Mother's Day 2017 — and welcomed Helen the following January. "There's nothing you can say that does [motherhood] justice," Erin said at the time of her change in fortune. She said in April that with her second baby, "I'm less nervous now. All is well."

In an April 11 Instagram post, Erin explained that she wanted to give her daughter a sibling because "they know and remember and keep the stories of a family alive."

"We wanted that for Helen. Someone to stand with her when we can't someday. ... We are so thankful," the mom wrote. "Even in our celebrating, I'm thinking of the would-be parents waiting for their own babies. For many it can be such a long and difficult journey and I pray for strength for you if that's where you are. God answers in His own time, not ours, awfully hard as that can be. Sending so much love to y'all today."