Janette Manrara has described her baby daughter Lyra as her "little miracle" after opening up about her difficult journey to motherhood.
Dressed in a cute white ruffled dress from newbie, ballet slippers and a bow in her hair, Lyra sat on the sofa and looked directly at the camera with her big dark eyes, much like her mother Janette's. The former Strictly Come Dancing star captioned the snap: "Happy Mother's Day from our little Lyra to all the incredible mums out there. We count our blessings every day to have her in our lives. Our own little miracle."
This comes after the professional dancer, 40, admitted she had been trying for a baby with her husband Aljaz Skorjanec, 34, "for the past couple of years," but they had turned to IVF treatment when "nothing was happening." Much to the couple's delight, Lyra was conceived naturally shortly before Janette began treatment, which she knew would be "strenuous" on her body.
"We thought IVF was the next best thing for us to do," Janette explained in an interview with HELLO!. "I turn 40 later this year and the NHS offers really good services to women under 40. The doctor said that as soon as I got my period we would start injections, but my period never came.
"I know that IVF can be really strenuous on a woman’s body and there is no guarantee it will work, so to know that this little miracle just came from a wonderful night we had together is amazing. I think the baby decided to make Mum and Dad panic a bit before saying, 'Ok, fine, I’m coming up now.'"
The Strictly: It Takes Two presenter and her fellow Strictly star Aljaz – who got married in three weddings in 2017 – welcomed their first baby on 28 July 2023 at London’s Portland Hospital.
Janette recalled her "perfect" birth, which saw the new parents get emotional after welcoming their daughter via a Caesarean section.
"It was the most perfect day," Janette said as she introduced Lyra to the world in her first photoshoot. "We had a playlist, and Aljaz and I had a little slow dance before we went into theatre. All morning we had been humming the song Little Bitty Pretty One and that was the song we chose for her to be born to. There was a screen over my tummy, but as she came out, the doctors offered to drop it so I could watch.
"It was literally like a cue to a performance: the music started, the curtain dropped and out she came, onto the stage of life. It was the most beautiful, emotional moment; Aljaz and I were both crying. We were in heaven." Watch the moment baby Lyra met her grandparents...
Eight months on and the happy couple have been sharing regular updates about their daughter, who often enjoys playdates with Gorka Marquez and Gemma Atkinson's baby son Thiago.
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