'Grey's Anatomy' 's Kelly McCreary Welcomed Daughter Two Months Ago; Says She's 'Home and Healthy'

Kelly McCreary and husband Pete Chatmon have welcomed their first child, daughter Indigo Wren Chatmon.

Speaking exclusively to PEOPLE, the Grey's Anatomy star, 40, opened up about the birth of their daughter, who arrived "several weeks" early, the emotional but empowering roller coaster that is motherhood and getting back to work in time for the ABC medical drama's midseason finale.

"We had planned a lovely, intimate home birth, but my bag of waters broke several weeks early, so I wound up delivering in the hospital," says McCreary, who gave birth to her baby girl on Sunday, Oct. 3 in Los Angeles.

"Like many birthing people, about the only thing that went according to our birth plan was that the baby came out! I was just so relieved that we both made it through safely. Indigo had to spend some time in the NICU to finish cooking, but fortunately, there were no other complications. She is home and healthy!" she adds.

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"As stressful as it was to have Indigo in the NICU, it also meant we had a lot of parenting support in the early days," the actress says. "We were able to enter into parenthood with a little more sleep and a lot more knowledge than we might have otherwise had thanks to the incredible medical professionals at Cedars Sinai"

"Emotionally, it has been a roller coaster, of course. Mostly highs, but also many moments of self-doubt and worry and guilt," she continues. "I am grateful for an incredibly supportive family and community and so lucky to have several close friends who are also new moms and are sharing this journey with me. I want to model wellness and mindfulness for Indigo, so I'm also integrating as much of those practices back into our schedule as I can, which is good for us both."

In August, McCreary revealed exclusively to PEOPLE that she and Chatmon were expecting their first child together and shared photos of her positive pregnancy test.

"We are really excited to share that my husband and I are expecting our first little one," McCreary told PEOPLE at the time.

The actress said that she and her director husband — who met on the set of Grey's Anatomy and married in 2019 — knew they wanted to start a family but both decided that now was the perfect time. However, McCreary admitted she was actually surprised when her Clearblue digital pregnancy test revealed she was going to be a mom.

"I actually screamed in shock when I saw pregnant. I mean, I just wasn't expecting it," she said. "I had really been mentally and emotionally preparing myself for the possibility that it might take us some time to conceive. So, I was genuinely shocked."

Now that her daughter — whom McCreary sweetly refers to as Indi — is here, McCreary is focusing on all the joys that motherhood brings.

"Breastfeeding her makes me feel like superwoman," McCreary tells PEOPLE. "Watching all the cute faces she makes as she sleeps, seeing how much joy her very existence brings to the whole family, and all of our friends, even the Grey's crew — it's such a profound reminder of how much each of us matter just by being here, and that we are not made lovable by the superficial identifiers we attach to ourselves."

While she's still soaking it all in, McCreary — who will appear in Thursday's midseason finale of Grey's Anatomy — says she's happy to be back at work and has received plenty of love and support from her costars and the crew.

"I went back to work in time to shoot the midseason finale," she says. "Everyone at the show and Shondaland had been so incredibly supportive, and put no pressure on me, and they made it possible for me to ease my way back in gently."

The midseason finale of Grey's Anatomy airs Thursday at 9 p.m. EST on ABC.