A hard start but a happy ending. Ali Fedotowsky says her first weeks as a new mom have been surreal. The former Bachelorette, who welcomed daughter Molly with her fiancé, Kevin Manno, on July 6, opened up about motherhood in the new issue of Us Weekly.
She’s so in love with her “angel baby,” but the 31-year-old lifestyle blogger had a few complications during her difficult 20-hour labor. “I had a really, really hard labor. My epidural stopped working,” she said. “It didn’t work on half of my body, and it stopped working three different times during my labor,” she said, adding that it was “just exhausting.”
“It was like a crazy emotional experience,” Fedotowsky told Us. “It is so funny because you go through all of this pain — and the most excruciating pain you can possibly imagine — and a few days later you are holding your beautiful baby, and you’re like, ‘I could do this again.’”
While Fedotowsky said she and Manno used to be “awkward” around friends’ newborn babies, she has picked up on parenting techniques pretty quickly. “The most surprising part is how easily everything comes,” she said. “Before, I didn’t understand how to hold a baby, how to pick up a baby, how to move a baby. And with Molly it all just comes so naturally.”
The All Things Ali Luvs blogger praised her fiancé for how amazing he has been in the first two weeks of Molly’s life. “He has been a rock-star dad,” she said of Manno, adding that “he changes every diaper.”
“The moment that Molly was born, he just, like, swooped her up in his arms, and he was so comfortable,” she told Us. “He loves picking out her outfits for the day. What onesie is she going to wear today? It is awesome. And he is so incredible with her.”
The new parents haven’t gone out for a date night yet because they don’t want to be away from their precious daughter. “It is all Molly all day long,” she said. “She is all we talk about. We just look at her all day and say, ‘Look how cute she is! Look at what she’s doing!’”
Molly’s birth made the Bachelor alum even more excited for her upcoming wedding. “When we were filling out birth-certificate paperwork, it made me sad to write Fedotowsky. I want to be a Manno now. This is my family,” she said. “I think we actually have a date,” she hinted of the ceremony, which will take place early next year.
The couple previously canceled their wedding plans in Mexico due to Zika virus risks. The radio host popped the question to Fedotowsky in September 2015.
