Echo's Alaqua Cox Says Welcoming 'Sweetest Baby Boy' Changed Her Outlook: 'I'm Learning Patience' (Exclusive)

While Alaqua Cox is blazing a trail in Hollywood and starring in the new Disney+ Echo, her most meaningful role yet may be that of being a proud mother to her newborn son.

Cox, 26, and her fiancé and partner of six years, Erich, welcomed their first child, a son, in October.

“He’s the sweetest boy,” the actress tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “I used to be kind of careless and carefree, and now that I have a son, I’m learning patience, how to be calm and how to take care of something.”

For Cox and her partner, who purchased their first home in Wisconsin in April, having a baby was a decision they arrived at once they were “financially ready.”

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“I have been dating my partner for about six years, almost seven years, and we decided we're ready to have a baby, to bring a kid into this world,” she explains. “That baby boy is everything to me. He's just changed my life. I love him. It's so hard to juggle this life and having a baby, but we will get through it.”

Cox — who, like her character in Echo, Maya Lopez, is an amputee and has been deaf all her life —envisions a hectic next few years as she has several acting projects already in the works after the Marvel series. She hopes to challenge herself with a wide variety of characters and not just the bad-guy parts she's often pitched.

A wedding may also be in store, provided she and Erich can make their schedules align.

“We're thinking about having a last-minute small wedding when we are both available, but it's just been so busy, so we're just going to see what happens,” the actress says.

Although Cox says more children may be in her future, for now, she is largely satisfied basking in her hard-won success, portraying a superhero who is paving the way in Hollywood for diverse performers who look more like herself.

"When I got this role, those people that used to bully me contacted me," she says. "I'm just very proud to be able to show them that I can do anything. I can achieve anything on the same level as any other normal person could. I can be a superhero. Anything is possible."

For more on Alaqua Cox, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. 

All five episodes of Echo are available to stream on Disney+.