Eva Mendes Adjusting To ‘Wild’ & Sleepless Nights As New Mom

Eva Mendes, 40, has opened up for the first time about adjusting to motherhood since giving birth to her and Ryan Gosling’s first daughter in September.

“I thought my wild nights were over but these are some of the wildest nights I’ve ever had,” the actress joked with Violet Grey. “Everything is a struggle for her. For instance, I haven’t thrown up since the ’90s and she’s thrown up twice since we started this interview. Motherhood is cake compared to what it’s like to be a baby.”

Naming their little girl — Esmeralda Amada Gosling — seems to also have come pretty easy to the new parents.

“Ryan and I both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel ‘The Hunchback of Notre Dame’ and just think it’s a beautiful name. Amada was my grandmother’s name. It means ‘beloved’ in Spanish,” she elaborated.

One of Hollywood’s hottest couples understands it takes a village to raise a child, but they’re keeping it in the family for the time being.

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“I’m doing it without a nanny for now, but I’m open to the idea of having a nanny in the future,” she confessed. “Esmeralda has two amazing grandmothers and incredible aunties who come over and really help me. But as far as a nanny or a night nurse, for me that part of being a mother at this early stage is the struggle of not being able to sleep and not knowing what I’m doing and really going through it with her and battling out those nights.”

Eva may be willing to sacrifice her sleep, but one thing she and Ryan are careful not to jeopardize is their daughter’s privacy. Throughout her pregnancy, the mom-to-be attempted to cover her growing belly with oversized purses, car doors and armloads of items.

“Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it’s unfair, but that’s our reality,” Eva explained. “So Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that. It’s such an intimate time for the mother, too. I know that it seems all very innocuous when you’re flipping through a tabloid at the doctor’s office or see a photo of a pregnant lady online, but I find the media’s ‘bump watch’ obsession to be both intrusive and stressful. So I made a decision to eject myself from it completely. I was like, ‘Annnnd I’m out.'”

Now that she’s a mom, Eva plans to make wise career decisions Esmeralda won’t be ashamed of.

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She said, “…With the Violet Grey photo shoot, I thought, ‘Is this something that she’s going to be proud of?’ The idea that I would ever embarrass her is really heartbreaking for me.”

Read the complete interview at www.violetgrey.com.

— Paige Feigenbaum