Eva Mendes has spoken about how the birth of her baby daughter Esmeralda has put everything into perspective – and how she appreciates her mother even more. The actress and her partner Ryan Gosling welcomed their little bundle of joy last September, after largely keeping Eva's pregnancy a secret.
"Now I understand so much," said Eva, speaking on Extra. "My mother's never gotten more 'I love you so much mummy' texts, I mean, randomly… yeah, I get it now."
The brunette beauty also said that while her six-month-old is sleeping through the night now, baby Esmeralda will occasionally surprise her mum.
© Photo: Getty ImagesEva Mendes gave birth to her baby daughter in September
"You never know, right," said Eva. "Something random can happen and she's just suddenly not sleeping through the night and you're like, 'Wait, I thought we were sleeping through the night, what's up?'"
"Why does it always happen at three or four in the morning?" she laughed.
Eva also shared her secret to keeping Ryan, one of Hollywood's hunkiest men, happy. "You can't do sweatpants," she said. "Ladies, the number one cause of divorce in America, sweatpants, no!"
© Photo: Getty ImagesEva Mendes said she appreciates her mum even more now and constantly sends "I love you" texts
The new mum, 41, and her actor boyfriend, 34, became parents on 12 September last year. The couple had been dating on-off for three years after meeting on the set of The Place Beyond the Pines.
Eva has previously paid tribute to her mum, who raised her family in different circumstances to the Hitch star.
"I cannot believe that by the time my mother was 24 she had three kids under the age of four," Eva told The Violet Files. "She was in Cuba and totally alone. So when it's the wee hours of the night and I'm feeling a bit insane I think about her and realise that I have no right to complain about anything."
© Photo: Getty ImagesEva Mendes and Ryan Gosling first started dating in 2011
The model also chose to name her baby after her grandmother. Explaining the inspiration behind her child's sweet moniker, Esmeralda Amada, Eva said of her and Ryan's decision: "We both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and just think it is a beautiful name."
She added: "Her middle name is Amanda, which was my grandmother's name. It means 'beloved' in Spanish."
