Last week was supposed to be a celebratory one for Cincinnati Bengals player Dalton Risner and his family as he turned a year older. But with his wife, Whitney, announcing her pregnancy loss, plans quickly turned. Their birthday plans got scrapped the moment they found out, and neither of them felt much like celebrating. Still, Whitney wasn’t willing to let the day pass unmarked for him.

“We canceled all of our plans as soon as we found out, and even though we didn’t feel like leaving the house, I still wanted to make sure he knows his birthday is my favorite day of the year 🩵,” Whitney Marie posted a video with the caption on Instagram.

The Bengals guard Dalton Risner’s birthday is July 13. But the video celebrating it didn’t show up until days later, and once you know what the Risners were going through that week, it makes sense why. Nobody’s said exactly when the celebration actually happened. What is clear is that it fell right in the middle of the hardest news the couple has faced.

On Friday, July 17, Dalton and his wife Whitney shared that they’d lost their baby at 16 weeks into the pregnancy. Whitney broke the news herself, posting photos, including the beachside shoot where they first announced they were expecting.

“At 16 weeks, Dalton and I found out we lost our sweet baby boy,” she wrote. “I wish I was writing any other post than this right now. I never imagined our journey to starting a family would begin like this.”

She added that this was their second loss in just a few months.

“I don’t know exactly what the future holds, and that uncertainty is incredibly hard. But even in the midst of heartbreak and grief, I know God is still good,” she wrote. “More than ever, I’ve realized how important it is who you marry and choose to walk through life with. Life is hard in so many different ways. I truly can’t imagine getting through this without my rock and best friend.”

Dalton and Whitney got married in 2022, and they announced the pregnancy back in June with a lot of excitement. Since the loss, Whitney has been sharing bits of the grief on her Instagram stories, and in one of them, she talked about how Dalton has been holding things together for both of them.

“He has been so strong for me while also grieving himself, and I truly don’t know how I would have gotten through this without him,” she wrote. “He is my rock, my best friend, and I can’t imagine walking this road with anyone else.”

And somewhere in the middle of all that, there was still a birthday to get through. Whitney made sure it didn’t pass without being celebrated.