Nikki Bella is giving fans their first up-close look at her son with Artem Chigvintsev, whose name she revealed almost one month after his birth on July 31. The Total Bellas star took to Instagram Wednesday to share a sweet photo of her first child, revealing how she and her husband-to-be had named him Matteo Artemovich Chigvintsev.
Alongside the photo of baby Matteo cuddled up to his mom, Bella wrote simply his name, adding his birth date of July 31, 2020, his birth weight of 7 pounds, 3 ounces, and length of 19 3/4 inches. The new mom’s big reveal came in line with twin sister Brie’s, who told PEOPLE Wednesday that her son, born Aug. 1, was named Buddy Dessert. Brie and husband Daniel Bryan are already parents to 3-year-old daughter Birdie.
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Nikkie gushed to the magazine that she is “so in love and happy,” revealing she and the Dancing With the Stars pro were “so not prepared” for the birth of their son. “We barely had bags packed. I labored for 22 hours, and I pushed for two hours while wearing a mask because of COVID-19,” she recalled. “It was 118 degrees in Phoenix, and our room wouldn’t get colder than 76 degrees, so I was burning hot the whole time. I had two more rounds of pushing [to go] until my doctor said, ‘You’re going to have to have a c-section.’ I said, ‘No, he’s coming out vaginally.’” Telling Chigvintsev to put on the Lumineers, Nikki quipped that the two “‘Hey Ho’-ed and ‘-Ophelia’-ed” Matteo into this world, adding, “I have never pushed so hard in my life. I almost tore off the handlebars!”
Chigvintsev told Entertainment Tonight earlier this week he was “sobbing” when Matteo was born, joking, “Like, I don’t think people have seen a man sobbing like that. It was awful but in the most joyful way.” He remembered his first moments with his son, “The baby, like, halfway opened his eyes and it just made me feel like, ‘Oh my god, this is the most incredible thing.’ This is like the miracle that people talk about, you know? So just that whole experience, I want to relive every single day. Honestly.”
Brie, who previously had an emergency c-section with Birdie, had a planned c-section this time around, which she told PEOPLE was “so different” than her first birth experience. “When they pulled out Buddy, they put down the curtain, and my husband was like, ‘Oh, I got a boy!’” she recalled. “We were really overwhelmed with joy.”
