Woman Who Adopted 3 Sisters 9 Years Ago Is Pregnant at 39: 'Families Are Made in Different Ways' (Exclusive)

Nicole Walters, a mom of three, is expecting a baby in January 2025

When Nicole Walters found out she was pregnant at 39, she couldn’t believe the news.

The entrepreneur, motivational speaker and former reality star on USA's She's the Boss was previously told by her doctor the chances of her becoming pregnant naturally due to her age and diminished egg count were “not looking very good.”

“The doctors were like, 'Don't hold on to any expectations, and the longer you wait, the harder it's going to be.’ So we were fully ready to engage in IVF [in vitro fertilization],” Walters tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview.

She and her husband Alex Csillag, a trombone player and composer whom she married this past June, were initially heartbroken.

Still, she was already a mom to three girls she welcomed through adoption in 2015 when married to her first husband, Josh. Over the past nine years, Walters guided her daughters through multiple challenges, including one who had stage 4 cancer and another who experienced alcohol addiction but is now in recovery.

Just two weeks after deciding to start the egg retrieval process needed for IVF and surrogacy, Walters and Csillag found out they were expecting. Now four months pregnant, they are excited to welcome their baby in January 2025.

“Nothing about our life is traditional,” says Walters. “Families are made in many different ways, and we are a perfect example of that. We were just like, ‘Okay, great. No matter what, a baby is at the finish line of this process and we don't care how it happens.’”

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Related: Entrepreneur Who Adopted 3 Sisters Reveals Secrets of Resilience, Including 'You're Allowed to Cry'

The two announced their exciting pregnancy news at their wedding in June.

“As an older mom, people said not to share the news just in case something happens,” Walters says about their decision to share their pregnancy at two months along. “We're not counting on anything happening but if it does, we want the people closest to us to support us and to be here to love us.”

Walters, author of a best-selling memoir Nothing Is Missing, admits she has more experience parenting toddlers and teenagers than caring for a newborn. Her older daughters Daya, 25, and Krissy, 22, both have jobs and live on their own while Ally, 12, is still in middle school.

“It's kind of cool,” she says. “You get to have one kid at a time in your home and each one is in their own phase of life.”

One thing Walters is embracing during her pregnancy is the fact that she is an older mom. “I'm enjoying the fact that I feel more financially stable, I'm comfortable in my relationship and I don't have a lot of the hang-ups I did in my 20s,” she says.

As for whether the couple is looking to have more children in the future, Walters jokes she is “team one and done.”

“I think this is the end of our family so I want to lean in and enjoy this infancy because each moment is the last time I get to do it. I keep saying to myself, ‘You're only going to do this once so love up on your baby and be grateful.’ I'm keeping that mindset through the next 18 years.”

She hopes other women starting their families at a later age or who are struggling with infertility recognize that there are options. “If you desire to grow your family and a baby is at the finish line for you, keep your mind open about how that's going to happen,” she says.

“We've got women who are adopting in their 60s, parents that are becoming foster families in their 70s, and women who are carrying and delivering in their late 40s and 50s. So let's chuck all the stigma and stereotypes to the side and allow others to build the family they want.”

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