Actor-couple Debina Bonnerjee and Gurmeet Choudhary welcomed their first child, a daughter, on April 3 after 11 years of marriage, and Bonnerjee says that the feeling of becoming a parent hasn’t hit her yet. She’s emotional, overwhelmed and anxious, all at the same time. She admits that her pregnancy was difficult, but it was all worth it.

“I have a sense of anxiety combined with a total sense of calmness, if that even makes sense! I understand my own mother so much better now because the emotion of holding your child and the protective instinct as a mother to your infant is something you can only comprehend after you have your baby,” Bonnerjee tells us. 

So, what is the name of their new baby? “Pehle toh kaafi ladai jhagde chal rahe,” Choudhary says without revealing anything. He adds, “But we’ve reached an agreement now. We’ll reveal it when we feel like it.”

The couple met each other when they were 18 years old and have been married for almost a decade. For Bonnerjee, her daughter is her “little miracle” as she walked down the arduous path of conceiving for a long time. But Choudhary says that he waited for the right time to have a child.

He says, “Mere mum and dad ne mujhe humesha pyaar se rakha hai, but kyunki hum middle-class family se the, mujhe bahut saari cheezein mil nahin payi. My parents did the best they could, but as a kid, I wished things were a little different. When I started working, I used to discuss it with Debina too and told her ki bachche tab honge jab meri wo aukaat ho. If my baby wants something, I should never need to worry about it.” 

Finally, they mention that their house is flooded with “rishtedaar and khaandan” just a week after the baby arrived. “It feels as if there’s a wedding,” they conclude.