Actress Naomi Watts, 38, having been a parent for 7 weeks now, is so enamored that she has taken to recommending motherhood for others. She tells the USA Today journalist interviewing her,
Have a baby. It's the best. I left it too late. I'd love to have one more. I'd love to have two more. Or three. For so long, I thought, 'I can't have a baby now. I've got this to do, that to do. I've got to achieve that and this.' The truth is, this just happened so quickly, and you can still do it.
That's two less possible children then Naomi mentioned on Tuesday! Perhaps this has to do with the fact that Alexander Pete -- her 'little fusspot' -- didn't sleep much last evening.
He's having such a rough day today. He hasn't had a long sleep. He keeps me happy, even when he's fussy. I'm tired. Last night was tough. He's having a growth spurt and seems to be eating every hour and a half.
For her part, Naomi is managing to keep up with him. She says she hasn't dieted at all but has still managed to lose most of her baby weight by nursing. Naomi's happy to discuss what's on her mind while sipping from a cup of Mother's Milk Tea -- and Sasha and schedules are the main topic.
In fact, I have been eating just as much as I was when I was pregnant because in order to produce breast milk, you have to keep the carbohydrates going. It's so funny. Six weeks after birth and right now, it feels quite strange to be at a press junket and hard to get excited about anything else. I'm thinking about when's the next feeding, when can I catch up on sleep, when do I pump, when do I file his nails so he doesn't scratch himself?
That's my life right now, and I love it. It's consuming me in the best possible way. But I know I'll want to get back into my work, because I love it, and it excites me.
The work that she's supposed to be discussing with USA Today is Eastern Promises, her new film opening on September 21st. As previously posted, Naomi researched her role as a midwife in-depth -- 'it made me not want to [give birth]' -- only to find out that she herself was expecting only a few weeks into filming.
[Fiance Liev Schreiber and I] were definitely talking about having a baby for a while. It was a nice surprise. We'd been together for two years by then, and we'd started talking about it from Day 1.
Despite the fact that she and Liev were thrilled by their unexpected baby-to-be, Naomi wanted to keep her pregnancy private until she was out of her first trimester.
We were shooting mostly nights. It was tough. I was not feeling my best. In the first 12 weeks of pregnancy, you like to keep it a secret, so I was tired and not feeling well and not getting enough sympathy either. By that stage [when I was outed at the Oscars], I was about 14 or 15 weeks. Still, you want to keep it private.
A recent decision Liev and Naomi made was their choice to introduce their son to the world casually, bringing him out for errands to the post office. The couple realizes the paparazzi are a part of life in the public eye -- and usually seem willing to accommodate with a few shots -- and decided that, despite a few of the more aggressive snappers that Naomi finds to be irritating, photos of their day-to-day life were more normal than a posed photoshoot or hiding Sasha away at home.
I didn't even leave the house until two or three weeks after [Sasha was born]. [Paparazzi] had just been really waiting for the first picture. We tried to think of the best way to deal with it.
'People' offered to run the exclusive, and some people thought it would be a good idea. Once they see a close-up of the baby, [paparazzi] leave you alone. We didn't feel right about it. We wanted to do it as normally as possible. You can protect yourself so much, and then you start feeling not normal, and you want to be normal.
Source: USA Today
Your Comments
I doubt that he was really a surprise. Naomi has been spotted going to fertility clinics a few times before she got pregnant. Liev also said that he pumped his fists when he found out she was pregnant and said something about being relieved that he was not "shooting blanks" and he could get his girlfriend pregnant. So I think they wanted to get pregnant all along, maybe the timing of it was a surprise. Little Sasha sounds like my son who nursed every hour at this age. It's so tiring and yet so rewarding. I wish they've done the People exclusive.. I'd love to see some professional shots of Naomi and the baby or the baby nursing. It would do a lot of good to encourage other mothers to nurse if we could see more celebrities nursing and make it look like it's a normal, healthy thing instead of something one should hide.
Why not just name him Sasha instead of Alexander Pete?
Sarah's note: From the other interviews, it sounds like it was important to them that he have the family names.
also - in regards to alexander going by sasha - if they truly are trying to go back to liev's ukrainian roots - every name has a "diminutive" form - which is what the person goes by... alexander : sasha, mikhail : misha, natalia : natasha, etc...
She is clearly a "hands on" mother and very much in love with her child and in tune with what's truly important. It's refreshing to see a celebrity with both feet clearly planted on the ground like Naomi. I can understand someone in her position having a nanny, but somehow I suspect the nanny has a lot of time on her hands!
I nursed both my kids, but I don't have any desire to watch other women do it. If I see it in passing, I don't care, but I don't get a thrill from it and find it creepy when people "want" to see pictures of it or call it beautiful when they see it being done. Sex creates life, which is beautiful, but I don't want to watch that being done by strangers, either. JMO
Christine? Why are you equating breasts and breastfeeding with sex? Or getting a thrill? Breasts are just giant (or in my case tiny) sweatglands! Anytime a Mother is bonding with her child is a beautiful serene sight to see!
We have got to get out of this self destructive, unhealthy attitude towards naked bodies and sexuality...
I think nursing pictures are very sweet. I took a few, but I keep them in my private photo album for just my husband and me. I'm not really interested in sharing it with the world -- even though I nursed just about everywhere and don't find breastfeeding embarrassing or strange. Nursing photos are great though, because they encourage breastfeeding as the norm, but not everybody feels like sharing those intimate moments. I would LOVE too see any photos of Sasha and Naomi. The baby is beautiful and she seems like a wonderful and loving mother. I hope she gets her wish to have a few more babies.
Christine and PSB, ITA with both of you. I plan on breastfeeding my children and will probably have photos of myself nursing taken for personal remembrance, but I too think it's odd that people actually want to see women breastfeeding. I don't understand the thrills and excitement that arise when photos of women breastfeeding appear on this site or anywhere else. It is a beautiful, intimate experience, and you can promote it without being explicit.
Anyway, Naomi seems very thrilled with Alexander and motherhood in general, which is wonderful. I remember her talking about how she went through such a hard time when she first moved to Hollywood that she actually contemplated driving her car off a cliff and ending her pain. Thank God that she is in such a different place now.
Christine, PSB, and Lauren I agree!
Breastfeeding is natural and it's fantastic if a woman can do it. But I don't "want" to see it being done. That's just me, I guess, and no one can convince me that I think otherwise. Just this morning at work, I went to go into one of our spare offices and a woman I didn't know was sitting in there breastfeeding. Good, she's feeding her baby, but I wasn't all happy and excited to see it. I turned around and left because when I was bf'ing, I certainly didn't want an audience.
I don't care if I see a woman breastfeeding. It doesn't make me feel uncomfortable, nor would I consider it something intimate. Private maybe, but definitely not intimate.