Pre-baby jitters! shared his worries about becoming a first-time father before fiancée gave birth to .
While driving to the hospital before the former , 37, gave birth, the Dancing With the Stars season 29 winner, 38, explained during the Thursday, January 14, episode of Total Bellas that he was “nervous” about connecting with their baby. “I don’t have the same attachment because it’s not within me for nine months,” Artem told his longtime love in Us Weekly‘s exclusive clip. Nikki assured the professional dancer that he was “an amazing dad.”
During his confessional, Artem admitted that he was “s–ting” himself. “I’m sitting in the car thinking, ‘This is it.’ You don’t really get it until you process it,” he said, about Nikki going into labor. “I’m like, ‘The water broke. The water broke? Oh s–t.’”
Nikki, for her part, told viewers in her confessional that she “couldn’t wait to experience” being a mom. “I’m about to push a life out of me. That is crazy. I cannot wait for that. I cannot wait to meet Matteo,” the “Total Bellas Podcast” host gushed. “It’s sinking in as I walk into the hospital, this is the last time it’s gonna be just Artem and I.”
The couple first met when they were partnered together on season 25 of DWTS in 2017. Things didn’t get romantic between them until years later. Nikki and Artem sparked romance rumors in January 2019, and after less than a year together, the Russia native got down on one knee and proposed in November 2019. The pair didn’t announce their engagement until January 2020.
That same month, Nikki and her twin sister, Brie Bella, both revealed that they were pregnant and due a week and a half apart. Nikki and Artem welcomed their son, Matteo, on July 31, 2020. “Our baby boy is here and we couldn’t be HAPPIER and more in LOVE!” the Incomparable author wrote on Instagram at the time. One day later, her sister and husband welcomed their second child together, a son named Buddy.