Talking just weeks after giving birth to her second daughter, former Emmerdale actress Anna Nightingale is very much in the baby bubble and loving it.
She has exclusively introduced her new family member to OK! with a gorgeous photoshoot with her fiancé Daren Dixon and four-year-old daughter Autumn.
As well as filling us in on how the birth went, Anna told us how they came to decide upon a suitable name for the new tot – and it’s very festive!
Anna gave birth at 10.42am on December 1 in King’s College Hospital, South London and the timing gives a clue to the name, as the couple has called their second child Ava Noëlle.
The couple say they couldn't decide on a name straight away, as Anna explains: "We held off on naming her, actually. We had ideas but we wanted to learn more about her first. She looks like an Ava though."
Daren adds: "We wanted an olde worlde name – something that wasn’t super-modern. There are a couple of producers and directors that we respect, like Ava DuVernay, who inspired us."
"It also makes me think of old Hollywood," Anna continues. "It’s got that undertone of old glamour about it."
And when it came to the newborn's middle name, Anna explains: “We went back and forward with options but as soon as I knew it was 1st December, I was rooting for Noëlle
“You start to feel Christmassy at that time and hopefully every year it’ll be the start of that festive feeling.”
But there was almost a twist to this tale. With one daughter called Autumn, dad Daren had an idea for their second child.
He says: “I tried to call her Winter.”
Anna quickly shot this down though, and replies: “I was just like ‘we cannot have an Autumn and a Winter!’”
Anna is relaxing into maternity leave after leaving Emmerdale, where she played feisty Andrea Tate. She left in dramatic scenes as her character was killed in October’s Super Soap Week.
In her exclusive OK! interview, she talks about watching her final scenes in tears and blames pregnancy hormones.
She also talks about how she felt much more braver during her second delivery, and how Autumn has taken “great pride” in being a big sister.
Read Anna and Daren's full interview – and see all the beautiful pictures from the family's OK! shoot – here. For more celebrity exclusives and interviews, sign up to our daily OK! newsletter.
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