Ben Higgins is getting ready to become a girl dad.

Ben Higgins is getting ready to become a girl dad.

The former Bachelor star, 35, and his wife Jessica Clarke, 29, are currently expecting their first child together, a baby girl. On Thursday, Dec. 5, the soon-to-be dad chatted with PEOPLE at his baby shower about how he's feeling as he inches closer to their February due date.

"It's frightening," he says of raising a daughter, adding that he's a "sensitive dude" who knows "a girl's going to break me and I don't know in what ways yet, but it's going to happen and I'm prepared for it."

He goes on to share his excitement for being a girl dad, sweetly telling PEOPLE, "I'm ready to be the guy that she leans on to talk to about boys, and I'm ready to be the example for who she desires in a relationship and I'm excited about that responsibility. It gives me a little role, I think, in a new stage of life."

"But it's also frightening because I know she's going to have me wrapped around her finger and I'm going to get broken," adds the Almost Famous podcast host.

Despite his fears, Higgins tells PEOPLE, "If I'm honest, I'm really excited for when that baby can start actually moving. I'm really excited to get into it with her and play sports with her and tea parties with her and let her paint my nails. I'm excited for that stage of life," he continues.

But what he's the most excited for is "the idea of seeing life get brought into this world for the first time," because, "there was a period in my life where I didn't know if I was going to."

He says, "I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what that feels like. I don't know what the emotions are there. And I'm excited to experience that."

"I'm excited for the struggle a little bit," he admits. "I am excited to lean into that with my wife. Like I said, if I didn't have a partner that I fully believed in and trusted and loved, I'd be probably freaking out. But I'm like, I think this is going to make us stronger as a couple, and it's going to give us a whole new story to tell and a whole new story to build."

The former Bachelor star and his wife first announced their exciting pregnancy news in August with a heartfelt Instagram Reel.