2012 Ends With Baby Boom

@JessicaSimpson/Twitter

Last year ended with a boom - as in baby boom.

Several A-list celebrities announced at the end of the year that they were expecting in 2013.

On New Year's Eve, Kim Kardashian, 32, confirmed the news that she is pregnant with boyfriend Kanye West's child.

It's true!! Kanye and I are expecting a baby. We feel so blessed and lucky and wish that in addition to both of our families, his mom and my dad could be here to celebrate this special time with us. Looking forward to great new beginnings in 2013 and to starting a family. Happy New Year!!! Xo," the reality star tweeted Monday.

West, 35, first broke the news Sunday night during a concert in Atlantic City. The rapper told more than 5,000 concertgoers to congratulate his "baby mom" and that this was the "most amazing thing."

Steve Mack/Getty Images

Kardashian has long expressed her desire to have children. Around the time of her 30th birthday in October 2010, she told People that she thought she would have had four kids by then.

Instead, Kardashian married NBA star Kris Humphries the following year, and they split in October 2011 after 72 days of marriage. Their divorce is not yet finalized.

West and Kardashian began dating in April.

Also at year's end, Jessica Simpson made headlines with the news on Christmas Day that she was expecting her second child with fiancé Eric Johnson.

On Dec. 30, Simpson tweeted a photo of her blooming midsection while clad in a bikini, along with the words "Bumpin' and Proud!"

Simpson's baby news dominated much of 2012. First there was her dramatic weight gain during pregnancy, then daughter Maxwell Drew's birth in May, followed by the singer's struggle to take off the baby weight while serving as a Weight Watchers celebrity spokesperson.

Simpson will go off her Weight Watchers diet now that she's expecting again but will maintain her business agreement with the weight loss company as well as appear in the company's ads, including one in which she shares her "happy news."

Perhaps the biggest baby news of last year - and most eagerly awaited - came from Britain's royal family.

Steve Mack/Getty Images

In early December, St. James Palace announced that Kate Middleton and her husband Prince William were expecting their first child, who will eventually be the heir to the British throne.

The royal couple was forced to go public with the news of the pregnancy in Kate's first trimester, after the duchess was admitted to a central London with hyperemesis gravidarum, an acute morning sickness which requires supplementary hydration and nutrients.

Now that the guessing game over when Kate and William would produce an heir is done, a new watch begins for them and the other expecting couples over those very first baby photos.