Hayley Erbert’s Heart Breaks in the Best Way After Welcoming First Child With Derek Hough

New baby, brand-new feelings. Hayley Erbert just posted a raw, very real check-in about life with her and Derek Hough's first child, and it is both sweet and a little gut-punching in the way only new-parent honesty can be.

What Hayley shared

On Saturday, April 11, the pro dancer (31) put up a four-photo carousel on Instagram featuring daughter Everley, who arrived December 29, 2025. The shots are simple and tender, and her caption digs into the whiplash of early motherhood: the joy, the ache, and how those two things somehow live in the same room.

"Motherhood is even more complex and contradicting than I could have ever imagined."

She describes feeling pulled between holding on and letting go, celebrating every tiny milestone while quietly missing the version of her baby that existed a minute earlier. Her take: if this is the deal, she is meeting it with open arms and paying attention to every detail, every phase, every blink-and-you-miss-it moment. She ends on the biggest possible note, saying she loves being a mom to Everley and has never felt a love like this.

Who chimed in

Derek (40) jumped into the comments with a teary-heart shoutout to "my girls." Fellow Dancing With the Stars pros backed her up too: Jenna Johnson Chmerkovskiy called the post beautifully said, and Daniella Pashkova dropped a simple but emphatic the best with a purple heart.

The road to Everley

• 2015: Erbert and Hough start dating.
• June 2022: Engagement.
• 2023: Wedding.
• July 2025: After nearly two years married, they announce they're expecting. Her caption leaned into the tiny-but-life-changing vibe, paired with sonogram photos.
• December 29, 2025: Everley Capri Hough is born.
• January 5: Derek shares a black-and-white photo of their hands holding Everley's feet and writes that every step in their lives led to her, that their hearts are cracked wide open, and their world is changed for good.
• January 29: They post footage from the birth at home: Erbert in a candlelit birthing pool, Hough by her side, and those first post-birth moments together. She opted to skip pain management and go all-in on a home delivery.
• Previously: The couple have also been open about a past miscarriage, calling it heartbreak.

Why this hits

New-parent posts can get glossy fast; this one feels lived-in. Erbert is clocking the strange double-vision of early days with a newborn — the part where your heart keeps expanding while it also breaks a little for yesterday's version of your kid. It is messy and moving, and honestly, it tracks.