Actress Catherine Tyldesley is photographed for the first time with her baby daughter in HELLO! magazine – and announces her name.
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In the family photoshoot at home in Cheshire with her husband Tom Pitfield and their seven-year-old son Alfie, Catherine reveals their little girl, born on 19 April, is called Iris.
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"These first few weeks have been so precious. I’ve been living my best life. Iris will find her own way and decide what she likes. But for now, I’m going with the pink. I am a very girlie girl," she tells HELLO!.
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"I've had the name Iris for years. A while back, I played a character called Iris Moss in the BBC drama Lilies and I have loved it ever since then."
Little Iris was born on 19 April
Their daughter's middle name is a touching tribute to photographer Tom's late grandma. "Iris Ella, it really works," says the 38-year-old star of TV's Scarborough, Viewpoint and 2019's Strictly Come Dancing, in which she competed with Johannes Radebe.
Catherine tells how Iris was born two weeks after her due date at St Mary's in Manchester at 10.12pm, weighing 8lb.
"It was the same with Alfie, who was 15 days overdue," adds the former Coronation Street star. "I had kind of hoped, as a second baby, that she might come quicker, but I had to be induced."
The newborn with her older brother Alfie
Even then it was slow progress at the hospital until Catherine reveals she suddenly felt Iris was about to arrive. "Within minutes, she was born. Even though it was super-fast and we were both in complete shock, it was a beautiful birth," says Catherine, who used hypnobirthing and meditation music, and reveals she cut the cord. The couple have had the stem cells stored, in case of future ailments or injury, something they didn't know about when Alfie was born.
Of having a second child, Catherine adds: "I feel like we are so much more chilled with Iris than we were with Alfie. With our first baby, we didn't have a Scooby-Doo what we were doing and I think I tried to cope on my own. If you talk to other mums, it can really help."
"It was a beautiful birth," says Catherine
Her pregnancy wasn’t an easy one, with the actress suffering with hyperemesis gravidarum and insomnia.
"With no sleep, you just can't function," she says. "I wasn't socialising. Even when my friends said: 'Let's do a baby shower,' I said: 'I can't. I’ve not got it in me.'" However, within a couple of days of the birth: "I started to feel like me again. As soon as Iris was born, I started sleeping again.
"Now, I just want to get out and meet people. We're all so excited to show her off."
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