Matthew Okula Says He and Wife Nurse Hailey Planned to Have Daughter Next

Matthew Okula says he and his wife Hailey were so excited to be parents that they'd already planned on going through another round of IVF and picked a name for their second kid before the influencer's tragic death.

We spoke with Okula -- a Los Angeles Firefighter -- in an interview Friday about his wife, known by many online as Nurse Hailey ... and, he says the couple had been blessed with another successful embryo, this one a girl, to implant at a future date.

He says he and Hailey were choosing which to have first -- a boy or a girl -- and ultimately settled on the boy because they wanted their little girl to have a protector.

The little girl's name was going to be Oaklie Anne Okula ... seemingly a reference to Wild West legend Annie Oakley.

Matthew says Hailey really wanted to be a mom ... so much so, he actually turned down the chance to hold Crew at first because he wanted the whole family to be together before anyone picked him up.

Of course, Hailey never really got the chance to meet their child ... because she died after suffering an amniotic embolism -- a medical complication during childbirth where the fluid surrounding the baby in the womb enters the carrier's bloodstream, causing damage to multiple organs.

Matthew says he spent a long time holding and talking to Hailey in the hospital ... willing her to come back to him so they could "have this life that we talked about so much."

While Hailey didn't make it, Crew survived ... and, Matthew's even holding him during our chat -- letting the little guy rest while he speaks emotionally about his late wife.