When Carolyn Aronson, the founder and CEO of It’s a 10 Haircare, found out she was pregnant at age 53, she was surprised, to say the least.
“I gasped when I saw it (the pregnancy test),” Aronson told TODAY. “It’s really exciting. Obviously there are a lot of steps along the way. There’s the excitement but also the worry and now that I am at 21 weeks, I am feeling much more relieved than I was in the beginning.”
Aronson and her husband, Jeff, have a blended family of four children, two daughters and two sons, ranging in age from 13 to 20. They decided to tell their children the happy news after Carolyn reached 13 weeks.
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“After dinner, we sat them all down and said we need to have a family meeting and we told them,” Aronson recalled. “There was an array of expressions. The boys don’t get quite as excited as the girls, but overall they’re really looking forward to it and as time has settled in, are getting even more excited.”
Aronson said she feels “amazing,” but there are some differences between the last time she was pregnant, at 40, and now at age 53. Doctors have advised her not to work out or do anything that strains her abdomen.
“I have never done this young!” she joked. “There are some moments where I joke and say narcolepsy hits me and I need to lay down, but I am a pretty busy person. Other than that, no sickness. Nothing.”
Aronson is also navigating being pregnant during the coronavirus pandemic. She’s been keeping busy by developing a Tiny 10 collection of tear-free hair care products for kids 0-10 years old, which will launch next year, around the same time Aronson welcomes her baby girl.
“I don’t really go to public places, so I pretty much stay in my house and only see people who are as crazy as I am about quarantining,” she said.
The last time Aronson gave birth, she had just started It’s a 10 Haircare and had no employees. She delivered her daughter on a Thursday and was back to work on a Monday. “This time will be different,” she said.
“They are only little once and it is an amazing time to cherish them. My guess is, I might take a little time off. I am older now. But truthfully, my mentality isn’t good at taking time off, so I am not sure how good I will be at it but I have always worked from home and I built my empire around my children. They have been my priority and I have set things up so I can do both.”
Aronson knows that her age might bring some criticism, but she said she can’t wait to be an active part of her new daughter’s life for a long time to come.
“Trust me, when I am 70 or 75, I am going to be 50,” she said. “These are different times.”
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