Honesty hour! Carly Waddell gave her fans a candid update one week after giving birth to her and Evan Bass’ son.
“It’s been a week since Charlie was born. He is the greatest blessing and one of the greatest lessons for me as a mom,” the Bachelor alum, 34, captioned a Wednesday, November 20, Instagram photo of herself posing topless with cabbage leaves over her chest. “I had all these hopes and dreams that postpartum would be easier this time. But I still ache. I’m healing. I’m tried.”
The “Mommies Tell All” podcast cohost, who also shares daughter Isabella, 2, with the Tennessee native, 36, went on to write, “Bella was such a colicky newborn. She cried and cried for months. Threw up. Had gas pains. I breast-fed for months because that’s what I was told was ‘best.’ When I changed Bella to formula, she was a new, happy little baby. This time, I had hopes that Charlie would be different. But it just isn’t the case. I decided to stop breast-feeding and try him on the same formula Bella was on, and within a bottle or two, he was so happy. He stopped crying. He could relax. He could sleep. He smiled.”
The “Dream Train” singer opened up about the “stigma [around] breast-feeding,” which leads moms to feel as if they “don’t care about [their] children’s health” if they don’t nurse. “Honestly, I know my comments will prob be full of people telling me all sorts of things I could have/should have done to make it work for us,” Waddell wrote. “But the one huge thing I found this time is that I made a really hard decision within myself as a mom to listen to my gut about what was best for my child. And you know what… it worked. He is soooo happy and that is all that matters.”
Former Bachelorette Ali Fedotowsky commented on the honest social media upload, writing, “This is so important for so many women to see!!!!! Thank you for sharing it. #fedisbest #fedandhappy is even better.”
Waddell previously praised her friend Jade Roper for standing up to mom-shamers on Instagram. “Sometimes, when you feel really strongly about something, you will post a comment back that is so well worded,” the Texas native said on an October episode of the “Bachelor Happy Hour” podcast. “It’s, like, what every mom wants to say, but no one knows how to say it properly. You shut those people down in the nicest, kindest way.”
She and Bass, who met and fell in love on season 3 of Bachelor in Paradise, wed in 2017. The erectile dysfunction specialist shares three sons from a previous relationship.
