Emmerdale star Amy Walsh has opened up about the difficulties she suffered as a new mum, having given birth to daughter Bonnie.
In an interview, Amy revealed the struggles she faced, during the first few months of Bonnie’s infancy.
Last year, Amy gave birth to her first child with fiancé Toby-Alexander Smith.
Amy plays Tracy Metcalfe on Emmerdale, while Toby played Gray Atkins on EastEnders.
Bonnie will celebrate her first birthday on December 27 this year.
Emmerdale star Amy Walsh reveals parenting nightmares
Speaking to OK! Magazine, Amy discussed some of the issues she had bringing up baby Bonnie.
“Breastfeeding was tricky and took its toll, and her sleep wasn’t great once she had passed the newborn stage – the only time she napped was on me or in the car or pram.
“She was uncomfortable with her tummy too and we didn’t know why until we found out she had a milk intolerance.”
Amy went on to say how she ‘barely left’ the house for eight months following Bonnie’s birth.
“All that teamed with pure exhaustion and sleep deprivation was really tough. I didn’t leave the house for eight months, barely, and if I did it’d be a couple of hours close by so I could rush home if she needed me,” Amy continued.
She also admitted the research she’d done for Tracy‘s postnatal depression storyline, which she filmed while she was pregnant, still didn’t prepare her.
“I was like, ‘Wow, this is hard’,” she said.
Amy opens up on baby Bonnie’s tongue-tie scare
In addition to Bonnie’s milk intolerance, the infant also suffered from a disorder known as tongue-tie.
This is a condition in which the muscle connecting the tongue to the mouth is shorter than normal.
It can affect a baby’s ability to breastfeed.
In the interview, Amy went on to discuss their decision to go private to have Bonnie’s disorder taken care of.
“Bonnie was tongue-tied and we paid to go private to sort it out because I couldn’t have gone another hour let alone six weeks, which is what the NHS was saying,” Amy said.
“It kills me that there are people who can’t afford to do that.”
Thankfully, Amy and Bonnie are on a much more even keel now.
She explained that once they got Bonnie’s sleep sorted, it was “life-changing” and they are “enjoying her so much more”.
However, Amy was keen to stress she liked the first eight months of motherhood, she just “found it a bit tougher.”
Read more: Who is in the cast of Emmerdale 2022? Meet the full line-up
Emmerdale usually airs on weekdays at 7:30pm, with an hour long episode on Thursdays.
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