Shay Mitchell gets candid about first year of motherhood: ‘a little exhausting, definitely the most rewarding’

To celebrate her daughter’s first birthday, Shay Mitchell shared a video compilation of some of the sweetest—and hardest—moments of their first year together.

The Pretty Little Liars star took a year off from uploading new content to her YouTube channel following the birth of daughter Atlas Noa in October 2019.

“I wanted to really take some time to embrace motherhood and all that came with it,” Mitchell explained in the video. She described Atlas’s first year as “a little exhausting, a little tiring,” and “definitely the most rewarding year,” too.

The video supercut of Atlas’s first year features milestones like first baths, colds and pictures with Santa. It also documents those everyday moments that as a parent, you never want to forget, like giggles, smiles and babbling.

Mitchell also addressed challenging aspects of parenting Atlas, like dealing with mom-shaming.

“It was not always easy,” she said. “I’d say the first few months were definitely the hardest. And as a new mom, there was a lot of judgement in the beginning.”

Mitchell’s voice can then be heard over video of her scrolling through negative comments.

“I don’t check my comments that often but apparently people are really upset that I left three days after having a kid to go out and party. It wasn’t three days,” she added.

It appears that the You star is referring to Drake’s 33^rd birthday party last year, which happened on October 24^th, 2019. Atlas was over two weeks old at the time.

Later in Mitchell’s video montage, she shows a clip of her and boyfriend, Matte Babel, washing breast pump equipment in the same clothes they wore to the party. Mitchell jokes, “this is our afterparty.”

Mitchell also shared the very real struggle of trying to sleep train Atlas.

“But I would have taken on any challenges we faced in those first few months over sleep training – any day,” she said, over videos of her and Babel discussing how to handle Atlas’s cries.

The year was filled with so many happy moments, too. Mitchell and Babel documented Atlas’s first steps, first words, first foods and more.

The video ends with Atlas’s first birthday photo shoot, where the little girl happily ate cake in front of black and white photos from her first year of life.

Both Mitchell and Babel seem like down-to-earth parents who are in love with their little girl. We’re thankful that Mitchell shared such an honest and sweet look at their life as parents and are eager to see more of baby Atlas.