New mom Terri Seymour can’t help but gush about her “wonderful and lovely” newborn daughter, Coco Wendy Seymour-Mallon. The Extra host, 40, welcomed her first child with beau, British model Clark Mallon, on March 9.
Terri opens up to Celebrity Baby Scoop about her “good baby” and deciding on her cute moniker, her natural birth and the joys of breastfeeding, adjusting to motherhood and the reason she waited until her 40s to have children, and her upcoming Mother’s Day plans.
CBS: Congratulations on the arrival of Coco! How are you feeling?
TS: “Thank you, I’m good! I’m tired, but it’s amazing. She’s wonderful and a lovely baby. I’m very lucky – she’s such a good baby. It’s been amazing.”
CBS: How are you adjusting to motherhood so far?
TS: “Because she only cries when she’s hungry, and she sleeps so well at nighttime, it’s been, dare I say, an easy adjustment. It’s definitely hard work, but she’s so good. It hasn’t been easy, but it definitely helps that she’s such a good baby.”
CBS: Are you breastfeeding? If so, how is that going?
TS: “I am breastfeeding, which I love. It’s our special time together and I absolutely love it. She’s a big baby – she was 9 lbs. when she was born – and she eats a lot. As long as she’s eating, she’s happy. I breastfeed her every 2 hours, and she love it. She eats really well — touch wood because there’s no problems there either.”
CBS: Was breastfeeding easy, or a hard adjustment?
TS: “I wouldn’t say it was easy, but she took to it straight away so that really helped. I’ve just started going back to work doing a few off-shoots twice, three times a week, and she only just started taking a bottle. I was worried that I’d left it too long, but as long as she’s getting her food, she doesn’t care where it comes from.”
CBS: Why did you wait until your 40s to become a mom?
TS: “Just life — I was busy. I’ve got a career, and I was always so busy. But I realized that if I didn’t do it now, it would never happen. I always knew I wanted a baby, but I’ve just always been so busy. Times goes by, and you wake up and think, ‘I’ve got to do this.’ ”
CBS: Are you glad you waited until a bit later in life to be a mom?
TS: “I am actually, because I’ve done so many wonderful things — I’ve traveled the world, done and seen so much. I was worried that I’d waited too long, and was worried that it wasn’t going to happen, but I was lucky enough to have a baby. So I am happy that it’s worked out as it has.”
CBS: We hear you had a natural birth. Did the birth go well?
TS: “It did go well. There was a point where the doctors thought I was going to have a C-section because she had her head twisted to the side, and the doctor said my pelvis was a strange shape because she was such a big baby. But I really was determined to have her naturally – I was worried about having a C-section due to having peritonitis years ago.
So I was determined, I spoke to the nurses to let me go longer, my doctor agreed, and she came naturally. It took longer and it was hard, but it all worked out in the end. She was healthy and big and so beautiful.”
CBS: What are the greatest joys of motherhood so far?
TS: “Seeing her smile is amazing. She started smiling weeks ago — probably at 4-5 weeks. She’s just so happy, and her little face lights up. She gurgles away and has her own little personality already. It’s incredible to see; it’s really special.”
CBS: Did you celebrate British Mother’s Day with Coco? And are you celebrating American Mother’s Day this weekend as well?
TS: “Yes, I’m lucky I get two Mother’s Days! It’s Mother’s Day in March in the U.K., so I got to celebrate Mother’s Day with my mum when she was here for six weeks when I had Coco. That was amazing, I was a mess when she left; I didn’t want her to leave. But it was lovely to celebrate Mother’s Day together.
And now I get another one — my first Mother’s Day in the states! We’re going for lunch with a friend of mine who also just had a baby. So we’ll all have lunch together, it will be nice.”
CBS: Has motherhood made you want to get married?
TS: “Not really. I’ve never really been one who was desperate to get married. Having a baby has definitely brought us closer together, but I think having a child together is even a bigger commitment. It’s definitely something we’ve talked about – and we talked about it even before I got pregnant – but, no, it hasn’t made me want to get married.”
CBS: Is Clark adjusting well to fatherhood?
TS: “Yes, he is, he’s very hands-on. He does the early morning diaper changes and he’s really good with her. He just doesn’t like it if I’m at work and she gets upset; when she starts crying uncontrollably because she’s hungry and he’s preparing the bottle. That’s the only part he doesn’t like.”
CBS: Who does she look like more?
TS: “She looks like daddy. She has her dad’s mouth. She has blue eyes and we were wondering where that came from because Clark has green eyes and mine are brown. Clark’s mum had blue eyes, so she’s got her nana’s eyes. But they’re the shape of mine.
I would say she definitely looks more like Clark, but interestingly enough, she looks exactly like me in my baby pictures.”
CBS: We love the name Coco! Did you have fun coming up with that name?
TS: “We did. It’s funny, we liked Coco from the beginning when I got pregnant. I suggested the name one day, Clark loved it and immediately started calling my bump ‘Coco.’ And then when she was born, I had a panic and thought, ‘I don’t know if she looks like a Coco.’ She was so calm and gentle and feminine. I wasn’t sure if she was a Coco, so we had 2 days where we really weren’t sure and we were going to call her another name. And then I had to go back to the hospital to register her name, and on the day I was going back I had a panic because it just seemed weird to call her anything else since we had called her Coco the whole way through my pregnancy. So we stuck with Coco — and she is a little Coco.”
CBS: Does she have a middle name?
TS: “She does after Clark’s mum Wendy. So it’s Coco Wendy Seymour-Mallon. Clark’s mum passed away over a year ago so it was special for us to give her the name Wendy.”
CBS: Are you hoping to have a little brother or sister for Coco?
TS: “I’m not going to say we haven’t spoken about it, because, again, she is so good. You go, ‘Omigoodness, shall we?’ But, for now we are happy with Coco because it is a lot of work, but we’ve definitely spoken about it.”
CBS: It’s been highly documented that Simon Cowell will be Coco’s godfather. Has there been a christening or baptism?
TS: “Nothing yet. Clark is keen to get her baptized as soon as possible. We’re going home in the summer to visit everybody, so it won’t be then, but maybe on our second trip back to the U.K. we will do it then.”
CBS: What’s up next for you?
TS: “I’m slowly returning to work. Already, she’s changing so quickly — I want to spend as much time as possible with her. Whereas before, I was working 7 days a week. There’s some other exciting things coming up. And I’ll still be working for Extra, and doing other things as well. But I’ll be spending as much time with Coco as possible.”
My ????’s #Coco
A photo posted by Terri Seymour (@officialterriseymour) on May 5, 2015 at 1:23pm PDT
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