Shane Burcaw has opened up about his fears over becoming a dad as he and wife Hannah enter the final stretch of their first pregnancy.
The interabled couple, who married in September 2020, announced on Instagram on September 8th that they are expecting their first child this coming January. Hannah, who is able-bodied, was 20 weeks pregnant at the time of the announcement, while Shane lives with spinal muscular atrophy, a severe muscle-wasting disease that leaves him reliant on a wheelchair.
In a new video update, the pair revealed they are now one week away from the third trimester. Hannah said the second trimester has been better than the first because she has not had any food aversions, and she is finding it fun to feel the baby kick. Towards the end of this stage, though, she has started experiencing pelvic bone pain and having some issues with her ligaments.
Shane has been candid about his anxieties surrounding fatherhood. On Facebook, he wrote: “One of my biggest worries about having children is the extent to which I’ll be able to physically interact with them.”
He added that he knows and believes parenting and love do not require physical ability, but still grapples with ‘deep down anxieties’ at times.
The couple have also used their platform to push back against viewers who repeatedly insisted Hannah does not look pregnant. Shane responded directly in the video, saying: “I guarantee you with my own god-given eyes, she looks pregnant right now. There’s a big old belly there.”
Hannah explained that people forget how tall she is. “I’m almost 6 feet tall. So this, you know, there’s a lot of vertical room for baby. They don’t need to go out as far as if I was shorter. So that’s definitely why I have less of a bump.”
Shane has since felt the baby kick in a recent video, quipping: “It’s the most wild thing in the world to feel it moving around in there.”
The pair showed off their Toyota Sienna, which features a BraunAbility side-entry ramp, noting they feel ahead of the game because they are already ‘minivan people.’ Installing the car seat did not go smoothly at first. They struggled to work out how to attach the base to the van’s built-in anchors, and eventually turned to the manual. “If we had read the directions from the beginning, this would have taken 2 minutes,” one of them said. Once they followed the instructions, the base clicked into place, and they described it as ‘rock solid.’
Looking ahead, the pair said they have spoken to couples in interabled relationships about their experiences. “One thing that has made me feel good is that they are reminding me that so much of parenting is not the physical stuff,” Shane said. “A human being, yes, needs physical care as a baby, but a lot of parenting is about the mind and emotions and learning and love.”
The couple document their life on social media, where they have been sharing regular updates on the pregnancy as the January due date approaches.