The 39-year-old actress said it took a lot of persuading from her husband

Looks like congrats are in order for Grey’s Anatomy star Kelly McCreary!

The actress who plays Dr. Maggie Pierce in the ABC drama took to her social media accounts on Monday to announce the exciting news that she is pregnant with her first child with husband Pete Chatmon. She also did an exclusive interview with PEOPLE where she shared photos of her positive pregnancy test.

“We are really excited to share that my husband and I are expecting our first little one,” the 39-year-old told the publication.

(Credit: Instagram)

She and her director husband first met on the set of Grey’s Anatomy and then got married in 2019. However, despite coming to the decision that this was the right time of their lives to be parents, she admits she was still shocked when her pregnancy test came out positive.

“I actually screamed in shock when I saw ‘pregnant’. I mean, I just wasn’t expecting it,” she recalled of the moment she got the news. “I had really been mentally and emotionally preparing myself for the possibility that it might take us some time to conceive. So, I was genuinely shocked.” 

“You know, on the Clearblue test, it spells out very clearly: pregnant. Like, make no mistake, you are PREGNANT,” the expectant mother added with laughter.

McCreary also admitted that her 44-year-old husband was a lot more excited about conceiving than she was and that it “took some persuading” for her to not be concerned about how pregnancy would affect her career. But now she sees being pregnant as a “really empowering and really grounding” experience.

“I’m very lucky to have a partner who is just rah, rah, eager for this child to come into our life and find out all of the ways that being parents will disrupt and challenge everything that we have planned,” she explained. “But because we are doing it together, we will be able to roll with it. And because this child is so desired and so loved, whatever happens will be the right thing, and we’ll make it work.”

“My husband and I each made a shortlist of the top five things we would want to impart,” McCreary continued. “And, you know, I think on the top of that list is total self-love and self-acceptance. It’s all the stuff I would tell my younger self.” 

Despite the couple’s infectious enthusiasm about their impending bundle of joy, the actress says she’s pacing herself and prepared to take the whole thing on a day by day basis.

“It’s such a mystifying process,” she told PEOPLE. “I think I’ve ordered maybe like 15 to 20 books already. And I’m learning so much about just such a broad scope of things. I’ve just been diving in. I’m really eager to learn.”

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