Gina Rodriguez Reflects on Son's 'Difficult Experience' in NICU as He Turns 1: ‘So Much Gratitude’ (Exclusive)

The actress shares her son with husband Joe LoCicero

Gina Rodriguez is reflecting on a difficult moment with her son.

The actress, who stars in the new Netflix movie Players, appeared on PEOPLE in 10 where she spoke about celebrating her son Charlie's first birthday. While discussing how the past year has been, Rodriguez, 39, remembers where she was this time last year.

"This first year...you know, last year this week we were in the NICU [neonatal intensive care unit] because my son had a little more difficult experience after coming out," the star shares.

"And to think now...of course now I'm going to cry. To think now that we have this healthy, vivacious, loving, so loving little boy...there's so much gratitude in the journey. It's laughs and tears."

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Related: Gina Rodriguez Says She Threw a 'Rager' for Her Son's First Birthday Party: ‘I Went a Bit Far’

Rodriguez shares her son with husband Joe LoCicero.

Earlier this month, the Jane the Virgin star appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live and talked about celebrating her son's first birthday.

"We had a rager," she laughed. "It was basically his first wedding. It felt right, on the worst day of the entire [week], but that didn't stop us."

"It was indoors and half outdoors. Everything I planned was outside and so about five days prior I was like, 'I'm getting tents. Nobody's going to stop me,' and we had tents and it was great."

Rodriguez also had "Charlie merch" on hand — pins made "from my favorite pictures of my little man" — gifting Kimmel some of the pins celebrating the birthday boy as she explained, "I went a bit far."

"We expect you to wear it nightly, but it's not a big deal," she joked.

Kimmel then asked Rodriguez if she saw fighting in her son's future, as her husband is a Muay Thai (Thai boxing) fighter and her dad is a boxing referee.

"My dad raised us all fighting. We all learned how to box. It was always taught to us to do for self-defense, so we were never to hit first, only to protect ourselves."

Rodriguez also said that LoCicero is "super gentle" in general, and especially with their little boy.

"I have a feeling I'm going to be the mom that's like 'Well what were you doing? What'd they do back? What did you say?' And then my husband's going to be like, 'Stop.'"

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Read the original article on People.