Gina Rodriguez Opens Up About Birth of Baby Charlie — and Reveals Significance of His Name (Exclusive)

The actress welcomed son Charlie Ray with husband Joe LoCicero in March

Gina Rodriguez is sharing an intimate look into her life as a first-time mom.

During a Mother's Day-focused collaboration with Orangetheory Fitness on Thursday, the Not Dead Yet star, 38, spoke with PEOPLE about her experience with motherhood so far after the birth of her baby son, Charlie Ray, last month.

"I'm like in newborn heaven, honestly," Rodriguez said.

Noting how each and every day brings "a new best moment," the star explained, "He's completely developing and evolving every single day. It went from him not making eye contact to making eye contact, him not smiling to smiling."

"He's starting to giggle. Every day is a new something. I swear, sometimes it's a nap and he wakes up and there's a new something, and you're just mind-blown," she added. "He's so freaking adorable, and you just want to eat him up."

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Rodriguez began dating husband Joe LoCicero, a fellow actor and MMA fighter, in 2016 after meeting on the Jane the Virgin set. They got engaged in 2018 and wed the following year, before they welcomed their first child together in March.

Speaking about her son's moniker, Rodriguez revealed that his first and middle names both are inspired by family members who have since died. "So Charlie holds a lot of beautiful ancestors in his name," she said.

Related:Gina Rodriguez Shares First Glimpse of Baby Son and Reveals His Name, Charlie

Rodriguez also chatted with PEOPLE about Charlie's birth and the hip injury she sustained in the delivery process.

"During pushing, I said, 'I feel like my leg is falling off,' and they were like 'Push into the pain,' and then I heard a loud pop, and I was like, 'That pain, you mean?' " she said. "And I kept pushing and kept going until my little man came out."

"My hip was severely in pain for a while after," she continued, adding, "Honestly, [it] still feels somewhat weakened."

Rodriguez credits exercise with helping her heal, however. "Walking has been very helpful," she explained, also noting that she is "pacing herself" in her "loving" fitness journey, which is amplified by Orangetheory.

"I just feel like the love, the care, the thoughtfulness of Orangetheory's approach to supporting mommies was something I didn't realize I needed," she said.

The company is marking Mother's Day this year with a free class for moms that will allow them to take some time for themselves, known as Mother's Other Day.

"Mother's Other Day is the day after Mother's Day because of this idea that on Mother's Day, we're always celebrating other mothers when you're a mom," Rodriguez told PEOPLE. "It's either your mom, your grandmother, your sisters, your in-laws, whatever it might be, and how much time do you really take to yourself? It is a celebration with your family, but it's not necessarily always a moment in time you get to have to yourself."

Rodriquez added that it's an "empowering" challenge "to also celebrate and uplift mothers, parents and whoever is caring for children on that day, to give yourself an hour for some self-care, some self-love, some gratitude moment, for a decompression."

Related:Gina Rodriguez and Husband Joe Locicero Welcome First Child Together — a Baby Boy!

The actress also said that she has learned "with a lot of therapy" that self-care is not selfish, it truly isn't."

"You really are able to give so much more of yourself. How you carve out that time is going to look different for everybody. How you negotiate with your mind, that selfishness or that guilt or that mom guilt, or even the missing of your family for that," she added.

As for her upcoming first Mother's Day, Rodriguez said she has plans to keep it low-key.

"My husband was like, 'What should I do? This is your first one. It should be such a big deal,' " she told PEOPLE. "I was like, 'All I want to do is spend it with my little man.' "

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Read the original article on People.