So scary. Dancing With the Stars pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy revealed in an interview on Thursday, March 16, that he had to rush baby son Shai to the emergency room when he was just a few weeks old.
“We’ve gone through a lot of stuff with him already — some drama and traumatic experiences,” the professional dancer told ABC News.
When Shai was just “a couple of weeks old,” Chmerkovskiy says “he got a fever and we had to go … to the emergency room.”
The 37-year-old admits that he and his fiancée, Peta Murgatroyd, were more than a little freaked out to see their newborn so ill.
“We were so, like, not prepared for the protocol [and] procedure that happened at the emergency rooms with infants that small,” he admitted. “Nobody really ever told us anything about that. It was a big shock to the mind and to the heart.”
“You start to see a little IV on a little baby and you’re like, ‘Oh, my God, this is crazy,'” the new father added. “It was a lot for us.”
Chmerkovskiy and fellow DWTS pro Murgatroyd, 30, welcomed Shai, their first child together, on January 4, saying in a statement, “This is, without a doubt, the best thing that has ever happened to us!”
One week later the doting dad shared a sweet pic on Instagram that showed him cradling his son. “It’s been one week plus one day of my fatherhood and I’m the happiest person that’s ever lived,” he captioned the photo. “I’m also feeling very protective and now understand what every parent in history have been going through for as long as humans have been giving birth.”
Chmerkovskiy, who is partnered with Glee alum Heather Morris on the new season of Dancing With the Stars, told ABC that Shai’s hospitalization had made him and Murgatroyd even “more diligent.”
“I’m such an overprotective, overthinking, overplanning type of person,” he said. “You can’t foresee some things; you can try your best.”
Dancing With the Stars returns to ABC Monday, March 20, at 8 p.m. ET.
