Christmas came early this year!
Big Brother season 19 star Christmas Abbott welcomed her first child, a son named Loyal Atticus Abbott, on Monday, Oct. 8, according to Entertainment Tonight.
Born at 11:28 p.m. in South Carolina, baby Loyal measured 22½ inches long and weighed 8 lbs., 15 oz.
“My family has a history of strong and unique names so I wanted to follow suit,” Abbott told ET. “I chose his first name Loyal because I believe it will guide him to have strong integrity through his life. It’s a reminder that family comes first, which is why it is his first name.”
“I chose his second name Atticus from the Greek educator and philosopher to embrace balance and fairness through understanding,” she added. “Neither is a family name, but I hope he will embrace his name as his own and follow the greatness he can bring to this world through love, understanding and fair action.”
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“I had a short list of names and actually had a different second name picked that I felt VERY confident in it up until the moment he was born. To a point of certainty,” Abbott explained to ET about her last-minute decision.
“However, when I sat with him after the chaos and reflected on our journey together to this point and who he could become in his life, it was switched.”
“The name, which was not my first choice until this moment, stayed stuck on my tongue as I watched him in this new world,” she added. “My heart sang and I knew he was special and needed a strong, unique name to remind him of what he can contribute to this world.”
The fitness expert and Benjamin Bunn announced Abbott’s pregnancy in March via a since-deleted Instagram post, sharing a series of photos of the duo and one of their baby’s sonogram.
“Well, I’ve always expected the unexpected in my life and this year is no different! In January I discovered I am actually EXPECTING and a whole new life would be laid out before me,” wrote Abbott, 36. “After a challenging 2017 year it is turning out that 2018 is the best year of my life to date.”
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Over the past seven months, the new mom shared a candid look into her pregnancy on Instagram — including one photograph at 39 weeks pregnant, where she’s sitting on a toilet and tossing an annoyed look at the camera.
“I took this pic bc I’ve spent A LOT of my time while pregnant running to go pee .. .again & again & again!” she wrote. “Often I would stand up just to have to sit right back down. It’s a cruel joke. I became very judgmental of people’s toilet paper quality. Shopping with a slow waddle and a bladder timing of 5-7 minutes maximum, depending on the baby, things got interesting.”
“Take note — when a pregnant woman says 1 – she has to pee, she means RIGHT NOW. Holding it isn’t an option,” Abbott wrote elsewhere in the lengthy, candid caption. “2 – she says she’s hungry, she also means RIGHT NOW and not an hour later.”
She ended the post by advising, “If you have a pregnant partner at home rub their feet, head, back, hands, all of them but most of all tell them how beautiful they are and how proud of them you are. We don’t ask for much (if anything at all) so a little goes a long way & we not only appreciate it but need to hear it.”
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