A Premature Baby, Living Away From Family and 'Bouncing Back' Culture. Uncut with Sheri!

Today's episode is a special bonus episode with Britt's sister Sheri!
We put a call out a little while ago and Sheri was one of the most requested guests so we thought it was time to get a bit of a life update! Since we last had Sheri on the podcast, her and her husband have moved over to Scotland and had their first baby Maya. Maya was born 5-7 weeks premature.

We asked Sheri:

• How are you going wearing hearing aids now? Do you feel stigma about being so young?

• How does Sheri feel about Britt's long distance relationship and pending marriage?
• What made you want to move overseas and did you feel guilty being so far away from family?
• Their pregnancy journey
• Maya's birth story
• What was the best gift you were given after birth?
• Have you lost much of your identity since becoming a mum?
• How did you navigate getting 'back' nutrition and exercise? 

   

You can find Sheri's Instagram and Strive here.

You can listen to Sheri's previous episodes with us:
Talking Diet Culture and Nutrition with Sheri Hockley

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Or join the Facebook Discussion Group

Tell your mum, tell your dad, tell your dog, tell your friend and share the love because WE LOVE LOVE! xx

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
Hi guys, and welcome back to another episode of Life Uncut.
I'm Brittany, and today we have something a little bit different.
There is no Laura on the podcast. So a couple
of months ago I put a call out on my
Instagram and I said, Hey, who do you guys want
us to interview? And there were actually hundreds of responses,
but overwhelmingly, my sister Sherry came through as one of

(00:32):
the top people that you guys wanted to hear from. So,
just to set this up, if you've been with Life
Uncut a long time, you'll know who Sherry is. Sherry
has been a part of the Life Uncut family from
the very beginning. She's been working behind the scenes. She's
been in the Facebook group. Everyone in the discussion group
knows her. She's come on the podcast quite a few
times because she's a nutritionist. On Instagram, she's Sherry Health

(00:55):
and we have done an episode on nutrition with Sherry before.
She's also popped into another episode to talk about hearing
loss because Sherry wears hearing aids and is very slowly
going deaf. So today I'm very happy to be sitting
directly across from Sherry in Romania. Recording this episode for you, Sherry.

(01:15):
Welcome to life on Cut again.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Thank you, Britt. Happy to be here in Romania.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Yeah, I know, so random who. We haven't seen each
other for six months, and in that time you've had
a baby. You've had your first baby, daughter, Maya, who
is my new niece. I'm obsessed with her. I just
met her a few days ago. So a lot of
this podcast today is going to be talking about that
life over here and your birth story and what it's
like being a new mum.

Speaker 2 (01:40):
But we're going to go back.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
To the start, and you are no exception to the
rule we start every interview with an accidentally unfiltered.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
And you know that. I'll no, I do know that,
so you should have been prepared. I know. I can't
escape it.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
I think a few years ago, what accidental I'm filtered?

Speaker 2 (01:56):
Did you say? I am just trying to think. I
think that I told the story, sorry, j about when
we used coconut oil as loop, which is fine, which
is fine, it's great, it's really nice and oily. But
it was kept in a TopWare container in my bedroom
and I didn't realize that mold, like black mold had
grown in the topwak container, and then we were.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
In the dark.

Speaker 2 (02:20):
We were middude and Jay's like baby really like there's
you're really bitty, like there's bits all over you. And
we put the light on and in me, on me,
all around me was chunks of black mold.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
So he was like eating black mold off and out
of you.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
It's actually so disgusting.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
Like it's bombitious and he could probably get really sick
from that.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
I really try not to think about that time of
we love well, what is.

Speaker 1 (02:48):
Your new accidentally unfiltered?

Speaker 2 (02:50):
My new accidentally unfiltered? I really had to think about this.
I don't think I've said this one on the podcast,
but it is an old accidentally unfiltered. It was, and
you'll remember it, like I mean, you'll never forget when
you got a liver parasite in South America and then
I got the same liver parasite and we were both
so sick well for years, like you were sick for years,
so was I, And it was like peak IBS territory

(03:13):
for me. I have IBS very well managed now, but
years and years ago, when we first got back from
South America, it was it was horrific, like we both
couldn't leave the house without needing emergency toilet stops. It
was awful.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
Oh yeah, we were proper sick, but we didn't know
there was a parasite living inside of us, just having
a field.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Day liver parasite, the egg sulfur burps if you remember. Okay,
we don't need to go there anyway. I was camping
and it was the middle of the night, and I
woke up pitch dark and something. It just didn't feel right.
You know when you get your period in the middle
of the night and you wake up and you know,
because it's a little bit moist, it's a bit you
feel it, you can feel it. I don't know what

(03:51):
possessed me in the middle of the night to think, shit,
I've got my period.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
But how do I know because in the tent, Yeah,
because you're in a sleeping bag.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
I don't know what possessed me to do this. So
I kind of reached to just have like a little feel.
What were we gonna do? Is I don't know what
I was going to do. I don't know what I
was going to do. I was in the like in
this tent, and then I pulled my hand out and
I'm telling this, I had pood myself in my sleep

(04:19):
without even knowing this parasite slash Ibs has. It's just
racked havoc on me. It was horrific. And now it's
on your hand. And I have, like one of my
very best friends, Rachel, shout out for the real MVP
of this story. I woke her up and I told
her what had happened, and she said, I thought a
baby in the next tent shit itself. What she could
smell it, She bless her. She unzipped the sleeping bag,

(04:43):
She got me up. She put pants on me because
I didn't have pants on.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
And sure is making this sound like you've been out
in the drink whole night.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
She got me up, like you just had shit on
your hand. Get rest yourself up. And I made it
to the toilet the camp. We're in a campground. I
should have clarified that it was like the end of
a four day camp. So we've been in the bush
eating like you know, dried food and all that, and
we're in a campground. And I made it to the
toilet and had a shower. But that is by and large,
like the most embarrassing story.

Speaker 1 (05:10):
And you've never told anyone until this day, and then
you've gone full hog and yourself and I've told the world. No,
I don't think I've told anybody.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I've never told anyone. I was going to take it
to the grave, and you pulled it out of me
on podcast.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Okay, well, less we forget, let's crack onto some of
the questions. So we did this a little bit different,
and we asked you guys to sending questions that you
wanted to speak to Sherry about. And as I said,
most of it is about her birth story, living overseas
and coming into this new chapter of life away from
your family. And you did come into this new chapter
of life in a bit of a different way. It
was very quick and it was far sooner than you thought.

(05:45):
But there were some other questions that people sent in
that will quickly get to before we get into the
birth story. Hit me, Okay, So a lot of people
wanted you to expand a little bit on your hearing loss.
So you were hearing aids. Talk to us about how
old you were were For those that haven't listened to
the episode we did a few years ago, how old
you were when you started to feel like something was wrong?

Speaker 2 (06:06):
I'm actually trying to remember. It was actually you and
my now husband Jay that picked up on it. So
I think I must have been mid twenties when people
started noticing. It was more like you and he were
saying like, oh my god, you are so deaf, like
I can't hear anything. You're saying more of a joke. Yeah,
like a joke like can put your listening ears on?
Hah ha, Yeah, what are you deaf? And and then

(06:27):
you were like, yeah, well, actually it might be. And
so like you guys made me go to the hearing
test place, the hearing place, and they did the hearing
test and they said, yeah, you're like forty five if
we had to put a number on it, you're forty
five percent deaf. And that was mid twenties when I noticed.
And then they said, like, you can get hearing aids,
but you know, like we kind of recommend wait until
it's so bad that you really need them, Like you

(06:49):
don't have to get them right now. You're still managing.
I was still managing through my daily life. I was
working at the hospital back then, and I was still
getting by. And then it was a few years later
then I was struggling at work in you know, we
did so much theater work and you'd have a mask on.
Surgeons had masks on, and I couldn't hear what anyone
was telling me what to do.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, it would be in the operating theaters because we
were working as emergency radiographers, so we were in the
theaters and you'd have to wear masks all the time.
So when someone's trying to talk to you, you can't
lip read because they have a mask on.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah, exactly. And I think I realized how much I
was relying on, you know, social cues and body language
and lip reading to figure it out. And so that's
kind of when I went back and I said to them, like,
I really need I think I need hearing aids. Lol.
I did not think i'd be saying that at you know,
my late twenties. Twenty nine, I think I was when
I got my hearing aids.

Speaker 1 (07:34):
No, I was in the Bachelor So I remember I
went into the Bachelor Mansion and you were fine, Slash
didn't have hearing aids. And I came out three months
later and you had hearing aids. And I was twenty
nine thirty, so you were like twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (07:47):
Wow, yeah, so you were quite young.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
Yeah, and then what has it been like dealing with
I guess the stigma attached to being so young and
wearing hearing aids, Like, did you ex experience different treatment
from anyone? Did you feel like people looked at you differently?
Was it more internal, like a little bit of an
internal battle to be like, Wow, I'm in my twenties
and all of a sudden, I'm wearing hearing aids.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
I actually think I have a really good relationship with that.
I expected to feel like that, but I actually don't.
And I know a lot of people do, because I've
spoken about this on my Instagram and I have had
so many young women message me saying like, thank you
so much. I was so embarrassed, or you know, my
daughter needs hearing aids and they were so embarrassing. You know,
I never forget This young girl and I actually think

(08:29):
she's a lifer messaged me and said I need hearing
aids and I have not been wearing them to school
because I was so embarrassed and she was struggling through
her lessons and when she saw me post about it
and how normal it wasn't, how cute and rechargeable they
are that she started wearing them to school, and like
that absolutely broke my heart that she felt like that.
I think that stigma is stigma that we put on ourselves.

(08:50):
I think realistically, if you go out into the world people,
I'm not bullying grown adults for wearing hearing aids. People
don't even notice them. They're so small and rechargeable. The
technology is insane these days. I don't know. Unless I
have my hair pulled back really tightly, you can't even
see that they're there.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
You do have the Rolls Royce of hearing aids, though,
like if you have your hair up, I can't see them.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
I can't see when you wear They're amazing, They're insane.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
I can tell when you're not wearing them, because like
even now, you just said, can you hear my crying?

Speaker 2 (09:18):
And I were in the podcast room and I can't
even hear my own giant. I should have.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
Laughed about that. She is with Jayaus with our dad.
Don't worry, guys, Yeah, she's fine, but she is crying.

Speaker 2 (09:26):
She has just stopped.

Speaker 1 (09:27):
But it's funny because obviously Sherry's wearing headphones now to
do this episode, which means she takes the hearing aids out,
So that's interesting that you can't even hear her crying
in the next room. Has it gotten worse? Has your
hearing loss gotten worse?

Speaker 2 (09:40):
Yes, it's definitely getting worse. And I will never go
completely deaf. It will get to a point and sort
of stop, like I will never not be able to
hear anything at all, but it will get progressively worse.
And it has gotten progressively worse, and it's more different.
It's different pictures and things that I can't hear. So
I can tell when someone's talking, but I can't hear

(10:02):
exactly what they've said, or I will miss the beginning
and an end of the word, and you would know,
like it interprets for me all the time.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
Yeah, I used to be well before you had the
hearing aids as well, and then at the start when
you weren't sure.

Speaker 2 (10:14):
You used to speak. People think that you were like rude, overbear,
like an overbearing sister, like let you let her talk
kind of thing. Because I know that when I haven't
heard a question, you would answer on my behalf to
try and like seamlessly slide in, like when someone says, well,
what do you guys fancy for dinner, and instead of
me just being rude and ignoring the person, you would say, oh,
we would love to have pizza.

Speaker 1 (10:36):
Well, yeah, I could tell when Sheridan hadn't heard, and
I could sometimes the person would ask a few times
and I could still tell you hadn't heard, And sometimes
you would look at them and just.

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Because how many times can you say like pardon before
you like a knob?

Speaker 1 (10:48):
But then sometimes you would take a guess and you'd
be like, I'm gonna guess that they've just said something funny,
and then you just have a laugh. You'd be like, oh, yeah,
so you'd laugh and.

Speaker 2 (10:57):
You haven't answered their question.

Speaker 1 (10:58):
So I would answer on your behalf, and I would
always be able to interpret and follow these conversations for Sherry.
But then I think people used to think that I
was like just speaking for you because.

Speaker 2 (11:07):
No one knew you were deaf.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Well, we didn't even really know you were properly deaf,
and we knew you were deaf unofficially, so that, yeah,
that was a couple of tricky years where people just
thought I was a crazy, overbearing sister. Yes, but I
was like, I will ride for you at dawn we
ride it, I'll protect you. So our other brother, Mitch,
he also has hearing aids. He lost his hearing at
the same time. I don't even really know the answer

(11:30):
to this question. But have they told you that it
is genetic because we can't.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Surely we're not all.

Speaker 1 (11:36):
I'm in the process of getting mind tested up.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
You're not far behind me. Yeah, I'm going to.

Speaker 1 (11:40):
A geneticist because I'm also going deaf. But mine isn't
as bad as Mitch and Sherry, so I can still
hear a lot better than you can, but it's definitely deteriorating.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
So what have they said to you about it? They
have said that it is hereditary hearing loss and that
it will gradually decline up until a point. So if
if they said that, basically I have the hearing of
if I was to naturally decline, I have the hearing
of a mid sixty year old person. So I can
still hear if I'm face to face, I can have
a conversation with you, But if you're standing behind me,

(12:11):
I won't hear you. If there's loud music, I won't
hear you, and it's happening to you. So three out
of the four siblings you know are hard of hearing.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
And do you think that that can be passed on
to Maya, your daughter.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
I don't actually know. She passed her hearing test with
flying colors. They took all our details that her hearing
so far is great, but so was ours as a kid.
So I guess that's across that bridge when we come
to it. If we come to it kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
Well, if anyone has any other hearing questions, they can
slide into your DMS and have a chat to you after.
But now we're going to move on. There were some questions.
I'm only going to give you one or two, Max,
because kind of want to talk about Bet on this episode,
but a lot of questions came through about Ben and
my relationship. So a lot of the questions were Sherry,
what are your thoughts on my long distance relationship and

(12:58):
pending marriage, which.

Speaker 2 (13:00):
Is a funny question. Yeah. Well, first of all, I
loved because it was so on brand. I mean, you
guys talk about this all the time on the podcast,
but it's so on brand for you to get into
a relationship with someone who doesn't live in the country.
I know, I like pre Ben you were and I
can say because I'm missister you were such a commitment
fobe that you would intentionally choose people, and you wouldn't

(13:21):
say this. You would say, like, it just you know,
it's not for me. The only person I can much
and I can find. But I think you're intentionally choosing
people that were either emotionally or physically unavailable, because then
you didn't have to commit to them. And so I thought. Initially,
I was like, of course you would meet this guy,
have a bang first, and then decide to date him
when he lives in a different country. But then I
met Ben and I loved him. I want to preface

(13:42):
this with like, Ben and I are bestie. So we
are such good friends and you're not here. We text
about you. We hang out probably more than you guys
have because Ben lived in Scotland for so long. When
I first met him, my first impression was that he
was so serious. And I met Ben without you. You
were in Australia. You basically geat us up to go

(14:03):
to lunch together.

Speaker 1 (14:04):
Yeah. So, if you don't know, Sherry's been living in
Scotland with her husband Jay, who is Scottish. You've been
here for a few years and coincidentally they live an
hour away from Ben. So when Ben and I started dating,
I was like, Hey, I can't hang out with you,
but if you want to hang out with Mike Hapley
best thing, it's like you could have Sherry and her fiance.
And I didn't actually think you guys. I knew you'd

(14:24):
hit it off, but I wasn't expecting you all to
become best.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Friend, expecting us to have sleepovers.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, you would go and stay with him for days
at a time and have all these fun adventures together.
And I was like, okay, Like now I've got fomo,
I'm in the relationship, and I'm the best friend and
the sister and I'm like on the other side of
the world alone.

Speaker 2 (14:40):
So you thought he was okay. He is very serious.
He is very serious, but now I get his sense
of humor. It took a while. It took a while
for me to get like, quote unquote, to get Ben.

Speaker 1 (14:50):
It's the German as the europe the wedding. How are
you looking forward.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
To the Ermics? So excited? And I know that people
are like just move and be with each other, and
it's definitely not It's not that there's so many things
behind the scenes. It's not that easy, but Also, it's
not forever, like, this is a just for now kind
of situation, and I think it suits you both have
such busy lives and such busy jobs, and your careers
are so important equally to both of you. So I
think it's really unfair when people are like britt just

(15:15):
move to Europe, like, give up your career that you've
worked so incredibly hard for. It actually really grinds my gears.
That's just the question that you're supposed to give up
your career to go join ben like or vice versa. Like.
Neither of you should have to sacrifice what you worked
really really hard for. But it's not forever, and there
will be an end, insight, And I am so excited
for your wedding, like I'm gonna needs a break. I'm dying.
I was about to say, you probably just want to

(15:36):
palm me off. I do. I want to palm off
my child to anyone who will have her. I want
to drink the cocktail.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
Now you want to palm me off because I've been
You've just had to look after me forever. Okay, let's
get into your story. The last couple of years you've
been living over in Scotland. For two years now, So
what made you want to pack up Australia and move
over here?

Speaker 2 (15:57):
So we actually lived here before you and I in
Scotland many many years ago, and that's where I met Jay,
my husband. If those of you that don't know, Jay's
my husband, he is Scottish. We have made and decided,
we made the executive decision together that Australia would be
our home forever, that we wanted to have children there,
our life would be in Australia. After COVID, we really

(16:18):
really missed his family and we realized that we didn't
get to spend much time with them and that we
were going to spend our entire lives back in Australia.
So let's do one last, one last hurrah, because we
do that, you know, we've done that so many times,
One last urar before we settle down, One last ar.
Let's go to the UK spend some time with his
family before we ultimately proper settle in Australia. And that's

(16:39):
why we left originally. It's funny that we live like that,
isn't it?

Speaker 1 (16:42):
Like everything is, oh my god, this could be the
last time before I have kids, and we feel like
our life is going to be over Like you feel
like once you've had a.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Child, that's it totally, Like the.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Traveling doesn't come anymore. Everything's harder. You need a stable position.
I think that you will be a little bit different,
maybe because lives overseas. I think you'll do a little
bit more travel than normal. But I feel exactly the same.
I'm always like, oh, I don't think I'm ready for
a kid yet, Like thirty seven, I'm not done traveling.
I was like, oh, I haven't been to this country yet,
which is ridiculous because we've traveled for years. A lot

(17:12):
of people wanted to know about your pregnancy and falling pregnant.
Was it planned, did it just happen?

Speaker 2 (17:19):
Was it easy? Were you struggling for a while. I
actually haven't spoken about this because I know that fertility
and infertility is a really touchy subject for a lot
of people, and like, obviously, like the elephant in the
room me is the elephant? Is you right? Frozen babies
that were hard to know how difficult it has been.
And Jay and I decided that we were going to

(17:40):
try for a baby this year. The goal was to
maybe fall pregnant this year. Twenty twenty four and then
go back to Australia pregnant and have a baby there.
So Jay and I are actually really, really lucky that
we felt pregnant really quickly. And it's hard to say
that because so many people are like, it's such an
awful thing to talk about it when people struggle, right, Well,
it's not that it's awful.

Speaker 1 (18:00):
That you're hyper aware that it's not as easy as
everyone else, but you feel a sense of feel guilty.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
I felt guilty talking about it. But it did happen
so fast. You were here for Christmas last year, and
so were Mum and dad. You know. They flew over
for two weeks over Christmas and they were staying in
our flat, which you've been to. It is tiny. We
live in the smallest little flat, so the walls are thin.
For two weeks we didn't have sex. And then the
day they left, Jay dropped them at the airport, got
home and we went to poundown and that is we conceived.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
So you conceived, you dropped mom dow of the airport,
had sex ones and then conceived.

Speaker 2 (18:35):
Correct, I didn't, And I actually looked in my app.
I had been tracking my ovulation the month prior and
I think I was on a green day, like it
was clear, like you're not ovulating, you're clear for sex,
and that's when I felt pregnant. So I was obviously
off slightly because I'd only had, you know, two months
of tracking. I think that's interesting too.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
I think so many people swear by tracking like the
ovulation app, and you're saying that you were not even
in the window and still felt pregnant.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
I think from memory, I was like the day out
like one like the day pasted ovulation, where it's like
the chance is really low, and that's the day because
we were going to wait like another six months to
start really trying. So I was off the pill, which
is obviously like you're not trying to not feel pregnant,
but I wasn't actively We weren't actively having sex during ovulation.

Speaker 1 (19:19):
Yeah, I remember doing and you told me to. I
remember when you told me you were pregnant. I was here,
you told me you were pregnant, and then I was like, man,
I've been tracking my ovulation and I can't, and you
were like, get some ovulation sticks. Then I used the
ovulation sticks and it did not match my ovulation.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Ye, because I said that you actually like doing the
WE sticks and you said, no, I'm just going off
the app. But that's not that's just a prediction of
when you're ovulating.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Yeah, But I think that's really important for people to
know because a lot of people might not know that
I didn't know that I didn't know that the ovulation
app could be so far off and that I should
be doing those ovulation sticks. So I think that that's
really a good little life lesson there for someone that
doesn't know.

Speaker 2 (19:56):
I'm sure if there's anyone listening that's.

Speaker 1 (19:58):
Actively really trying, you know, you know, but I wasn't,
I guess trying to that level. I was more like, oh,
we're in the window, like let's go, hands go ham Yeah.
And then what was your pregnancy?

Speaker 2 (20:08):
Like I also feel guilty about this, you're dream because
I had such a unicorn pregnancy. So we were do
you remember we were in Paris and I actually found
out like we were both saying, oh my god, I'm
so bloated and I think I'm due to get my period,
Like nearier of us really tired. We was so exhausted
and we were bloated, and we both said that we
were due to get a period, and then we went home,

(20:30):
and then I was due to go to a bottomless
brunch with my friends and I hadn't got my period yet,
so I thought I better just in case, like to
rule it out so I can get smashed, basically on mimostas.
And it came back positive, and you know, my first
thought was, fuck, it's too soon. This is not in
the plan. It was my initial reaction. And then I
had to go tell Jay. And he didn't believe me,

(20:51):
did he not? Who did not believe me? Why would
you think you were joking? Because I actually don't know.
He thought I gave him like a prank pregnancy. I
put the whole thing, like put it in a little
box and let him open it. And I had bought
a tiny little onesie of his favorite football team, Rangers,
for like months in advance, thinking like one day in
the future, I might need to give this, you know,

(21:12):
cute like surprise video, not thinking I would need it
three days three days later.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Oh my god.

Speaker 2 (21:17):
Anyway, he opened the box and he thought that I
had given him a negative test from like months earlier,
like I've done one like earlier at Christmas time, so
that I could, you know, drink at Christmas time, blah
blah blah. And he's like, it's too soon. We've only
done it once. And I was like, because I had
told him, like it could take us a really long time,
Like you don't know how hard it is for some people,
like it could take us six months to a year.

(21:37):
And then it happened once.

Speaker 1 (21:39):
So and then flash forward seven and a half months.
You're not quite ready for the baby yet, well not
at all.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
You haven't set up at all, so things. No, I
wasn't ready, Like I had stuff, but the nursery wasn't.
We don't have a nursery. But nothing was set up.
I wouldn't. We don't have a nurse. We live in
a tiny flash he sleeps in our bedroom. We didn't
have a nursery, nothing was set up. I was still working.
I still had five weeks left of work with my
nutrition program Strive, like running a nutrition program for women.
I still had five weeks of clients to see. I

(22:06):
had not wrapped up work. We were just not ready
to have a baby. And then things changed on a dime.
All of a sudden, I started feeling so awful, and
I even said to Jay, I think this baby is
going to come early. I started feeling like what I imagine,
because I've never made it that far, but what I imagine
you feel like in those last two weeks of pregnancy

(22:28):
when you feel you just feel like shit, Like everything
felt heavy, my hips hurt, I felt like she was
about to fall out of me, like I felt awful.
And I was texting my friends like did you feel
like this? Like I had to stop going to the gym,
I had to stop everything. I couldn't walk, and they said, yeah,
but not until like thirty nine forty weeks. And I
was only thirty four weeks And I went out to

(22:49):
the festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, to a comedy show
and laughed so hard. I went to the toilet before
a show and I had lost my mucus plus, which
if you don't know, if you don't know, it's like
a giant snot plug that comes out. And I was like, well,
that's not ideal because I was thirty four weeks pregnant

(23:10):
when that happened, and I called up. I called the
triage line and they're like, oh, this happens sometimes, it
doesn't mean the labor's on the way. Keep going as normal,
you'll grow another one, like you'll grow a little bit
more because it covers your cervix, right, so you just
grow another plug. You can grow a bit more. Yeah,
if it comes early, doesn't mean but labor's coming. So
off I went went to the show. Jane and I
went for dinner, and then that night I got up

(23:33):
and my undies were a bit wet, like not a gush.
It's not like the movies. Well it is for some people,
but it wasn't for me.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Just like your laugh too hard?

Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah, And I was like, oh, have I lost my
wors like this my water is going because it was
I mean, this might be a bit too much information.
There's no such, no such thing. It wasn't urine. It
didn't smell like we and it was clear in my
undies and I went to the toilet and I was like, oh,
that's so weirdly way, I went back to the couch,
couldn't slap because I felt like I felt some pains

(24:01):
really well in my hips. And so that morning I said,
I'm just gonna call the hospital and tell them I
think I've lost some fluid and they said it's probably
just urine, but like, just pack a bag just in
case and come in just to get checked. And I
remember texting, texting you saying, they think I've just it's WE.
It's like how embarrassing.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
You were like, Hey, I'm just going to the hospital.
They think I wet myself, but.

Speaker 2 (24:23):
I've got to go in. I was like, how embarrassing
if I've done I've gone to the hospital because I've
done a WEI in my pants. But I knew, like
I knew it wasn't WE, which.

Speaker 1 (24:30):
Is annoying because you know, if you've wet yourself, like
you know what urine looks like and smells like.

Speaker 2 (24:37):
So just for you, I was like, it's not we.

Speaker 1 (24:38):
Yeah, for them to be like, come on, honey, you've
pished yourself.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
It's not it's not. So I packed, I packed some stuff,
and I think, deep down, in my heart of hearts,
I knew she was coming, but I was in denial
for sure. Like Jane and I were in the car
and we had tickets to a show that night, and
he's like, so, do you think we'll be out for
like four so we can go to dinner with our friends.
And I was like yeah, Like well they'll do a
quick little test anyway. I got in there. They did
a quick little test and she's like, so it turns

(25:03):
out that is amniotic fluid, like all positive, and she's like,
so you will be admitted and you're probably going to
have this baby. I was like, oh my god, it's
too soon, Like she's got she's so small. I was
in shock for sure. At the start. I was in shock.
And they said, she doesn't have to come now, she
might not be coming. You know, you can lose some
of your waters and go for another four weeks, but
you need to stay in hospital because if you are

(25:24):
going to have a baby after you lose your waters,
it's going to be statistically within the first twenty four
to forty eight hours. So they said, you're not dilated,
you're not having any contractions. We've got We'll give you
some antibiotics because you've lost to fluid. Sit tight doesn't
mean babies coming. And then I stayed in hospital that night,
and then the next day I started getting contractions in
the morning and I was telling them, hey, you know,

(25:44):
I'm feeling this, I'm feeling that, and you know, they
were really unbothered. They were really unconcerned all these tightenings
that you're having and I was like, pretty sure there
are contractions, so and what were they telling you they were?
I mean, they could be Braxton Hicks or they could
be little contractions, but that doesn't necessarily mean that you're
about to get birth. And so by the end of
that day, it was eight pm and Jay said, I'm

(26:07):
going to go home, have some dinner, get to bed.
I'll be back first thing. And I said, I just
think I just think you should stay. Something is happening.
I'd been having these contractions consistently all day, just like period.
It just feels like a period pain. And everyone said
that and it's exactly what it feels like, that pain
deep in your belly right before you do to get
your period. And so they called the midwife and I said, look,
I think like they're getting a bit stronger. Can someone

(26:29):
just come, you know, check me out. So the obs
reg came and she said, let's do an internal, you know,
two fingers up, have a little feel, and she said,
you're two centimeters dilated, but she is still the baby
is still in a partial sack. So I'd only lost
a little bit of like a partial break, and so
she said, we're not going to break that. We really
want to we really want to avoid breaking that sack.
Sit tight. You're not leaving this hospital without a baby. Anyway.

(26:53):
Five minutes after she did the internal I stood up
and then it was like the movies, like huge gush
all over the floor. So she had inadvertently broken my waters.

Speaker 1 (27:02):
She's like, we really need to keep this sacking tack man,
and then she's like, we want to avoid bursting.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
At burst it goes ahead and burst it with a
fingernail and it was like the movies all over the floor.
I'm stood there like wet, you know, head to toe
basically in a'mnatic fluid. So I did a little buzzer
thing and a student comes and I was like, hey,
just to let you know, just to let can you
just go and let your midwife know that I've lost
the rest of my waters. She'll know what you're talking about.

(27:29):
She knows me. I'm up in the back in you know,
four B or whatever. But the woman that's not supposed
to be giving birth is giving He's giving birth, like
at thirty four weeks. She's like, oh, yep, yep, yep. Cool,
so off she wet. I mean, I think she relayed
the message in that time, I had had one pound
a doll. That was my pain relief because it was
manageable until then. I just was like, you know what,
take the edge off with a bit of a one paracetamol.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
So what was your pain like in that time then?
Because it sounds like you had no idea that you
were in labor, and they didn't know you were in labor,
so it's like you weren't. It's like this unicorn pregnancy
went so far as you didn't even have a looking back.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
It was so for like eight hours, I was getting
these period mates, but they weren't ramping up in pain,
Like it wasn't getting worse and worse and worse, and
it was so manageable. I was dealing with it fine
until I ould mate pierce my waters accidentally. Then immediately
it was like I started crying each one. I was
bent over the bed tears. I was like trying to

(28:21):
breathe through it, thinking like this is just what contractions
feel like. And I don't know, I think Jay called
the midwife or the student back or something, but within
forty minutes, I was like fucking mooing, like I could
not stay quiet. I was like in the like a
Highland black. I was Highland cooing over the bed and
these poor I was on the anti enad awards, So

(28:43):
all these pregnant people that were getting induced just like casually,
you know, waiting to go in for their C section
had to listen to me basically give birth in a
ward like with four other beds, like with just a
curtain between us. And then I think the mooing brought
the midwife back and she came and said, how long
have you been like this? And I said about twenty
minutes and she goes, all right, get on the bed.
I was like, I can't get on the bed. I

(29:03):
was on my knees on the floor of the ward, mooing.
How had they left you there? I don't under stay
they were. They were amazing. I don't want to speak ill.
Like the whole team at the hospital I had delivered
at was insane. They are so busy and I was
completely uncomplicated, you know, aside from being early and having
lost my waters. There was nothing, you know, They're popping
in on me doing my obs and things like that.
That they were so busy and it ramped up really

(29:24):
really fast. So after they did this internal the baby
was here in an hour and a half after doing
the internal that's how quickly it was an.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Hour and a half on one parasata mal after an
angel pregnancy.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Yes, but I thought I was dying.

Speaker 1 (29:39):
And so what was it like when you shot her out? Like?

Speaker 2 (29:42):
How quickly did she come out? Hold on, there's more. Oh.
I was on my knees and the midwife comes and
she goes, hun, you gotta get into bed. I was like,
I can't. I can't get into bed. I cannot move
during this contraction. So I think they lifted me. I
think Jay and the midwife lifted me from memory, but
I said to her, I had this overwhelming. I said
as loud as I possibly could. I am going to
do a pooh right now, Like I am going to
pooh ha, it's coming. And I wasn't embarrassed because I

(30:05):
was like, it's so overwhelming. You could say, here is
five hundred million dollars to not pooh and I couldn't
do it. Yeah, But it turns out it wasn't a poop.
It was the baby. So that's that feeling. Because everyone
says it feels like you're doing a giant pooh. You
are as soon as I said that, she pressed a
buzzer and like we know from working in a hospital, right,
like you know when they're serious, when they start doing
things like quickly but like calmly. Yeah, And I was like,

(30:28):
oh shit, like this is happening. And so they lift
me on to the bed. I was pulling off my
pants and screaming down the corridor. I'm like, she's coming.
I'm pushing now. I was pushing and pulling off. I
was naked from the waist down down the corridor as
they reeled me out of anti nadle into a delivery suite.
And then as soon as the door closed, I was
just like unlaging, just started pushing. I said, I have

(30:48):
to push. So who birthed her? A midwife or a midwife?
One midwife and there was no one else there was. Yeah,
she was just like the one that was answered the
buzzer and was like, oh this is me tonight delivering
a baby. Man, I'm true. The short She's like, oh fuck,
I should have got on my break. I should have
gone broke Kappa. Yeah, I was screaming that she was coming.
Jay was amazing. He said that he couldn't even think
about the baby. He was just like I was in

(31:11):
so much pain by that stage, it was absolute agony,
like agony I thought I was dying.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
I think most women like really exactly the same.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
Logically, I knew I wasn't dying. I feel like you are.
And you also had like low levels of pre clampsia.
Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned that, have I. So while
I had a unicorn pregnancy, I had hypertension. I have
a bit of background hype atension normally, so it was
something that was monitored. And then I got to the
hospital and it was super high, like really high. So
basically they were like, it's not officially preclamsier because I

(31:43):
had no protein in my urine, but my blood pressure
was offensively high, like one ninety on one twenty kind
of high, really really high. And so I think that
that's probably why she came.

Speaker 1 (31:55):
And then as soon as she came out, did the
pain just go? Is it like everyone says where it's
just like if this euphoric moment is.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
So instantaneous, So it was. I ended up pushing for
an hour pretty much that whole time, So an hour
and twenty minutes I was pushing, And I see why
so many women you know, end up in emergency caesars
from exhaustion, let's you know, let's give you their perjural
or whatever. It's so exhausting. And I had this moment
and they call it as talking to before about it.
They call it rest and be thankful. And it's where

(32:21):
you have this break in you know, contractions and paining.
You almost have a little sleep, like I think I've
almost fell asleep in between contractions, this really long break
in between a contraction, and it felt like I was
outside my body, looking down, like an outer body kind
of thing. I was having a sleep, and the midwife
did not say a word, and Jay did not say
a word. I was holding his hand and I was
making no sound, and I had a little rest and

(32:43):
then after that a few big pushes and out she came.
And the head ring a fire is a real thing,
just so they call it ring a fire is when
the head is coming out. And then the midwife will
say stop pushing now and just breathe her out so
they to avoid tearing, which I did. And then once
she's out on the next contraction, it's like a little

(33:04):
loaf of jelly that is like like she flies out
and she was one point a kilos, so that wasn't
much too. She did just fly it on out and
then the pain was gone instantaneously.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
And then you had a little mind and then Maya
was in the world. So a big question people had
for you is how do you feel having your first
baby being away from your family, like you're on the
other side of the world. We have such a close
family and you, I imagine have this innate in built
feeling that you want your family around you, but you

(33:36):
didn't get that.

Speaker 2 (33:37):
It's so hard. It's so hard. Man. I initially was
going to have Maya in Australia. I was going to
go home, and then we made a really difficult decision
to stay for a lot of reasons, you know, to
be around Jay's family because we're going Maya is going
to live in Australia forever, and to give them some time,
Like cost of living wise, it really made sense for
us to be in the UK because we're staying in

(33:59):
a family home, we have help there. It was like
a bit of a no brainer from that aspect.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
But and you just never will have that in Australia.

Speaker 2 (34:06):
It's just so expensive. Yeah, yeah, exactly, So it really
made sense from us. From that perspective, it was so hard.
I cried on the phone to mom and Dad. I
cried on the phone to you, like we were going
through pros and cons about, you know, having her here,
and then actually worked out really well because I got
so unwell towards the end that flying would have been
really difficult with my blood pressure, and then her coming,
you know, six weeks early, would have been crazy.

Speaker 1 (34:26):
So what's your advice for people that are looking to
or have had just recently had a baby away from
their family, because a lot of people wrote in saying
that that's on the agenda for them. You know, I'm pregnant,
but my partner lives overseas a lot of UK based people,
which I guess is pretty normal. A lot of Australians
immigrate to the UK.

Speaker 2 (34:45):
I think it's like, it's so innate right that, like
the woman wants to be near her family, like especially
near her mother if she's in the picture. You've got
to have a network around you. If you are totally alone,
it can be so isolating and lonely. Jay's brother lives
close to us, which is amazing, and I have two
friends over here that have had babies at the exact

(35:06):
same time. So we're in like a little power group
chat and that has totally got me through. But it's
so hard, like we're FaceTime you all the time. I
had to really reconcile what I thought my first year
of motherhood would look like versus what it does look like.
Like I had pictures of you holding Maya when she
was first born in my brain, and Dad cuddling her
when she's a few days old, and they're like, they're
never going to get to see her until she's nine

(35:28):
months old. You've only seen her now at nearly four
months old. You've got to have a support network, even
if it's just sort of friends, take yourself to classes.
It's also easier for you.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
I think it's important to note to you and Jay
both work from home, so Jay is around and his
hands on all day, Like you can work your work
around your baby schedule, Whereas it'd be very different if
you were here alone and your partner was at work
for eight to ten hours.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Old. My god, it would be impossible. It would be
so hard. I am so so lucky that he works
from home and can help me like that. It would
just be so hard. What was the best.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
Gift you received after birth food.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
Honestly, we got gifted a few little deliveries of like
meal deliveries from friends. It was ten out of ten
the best gift we got the most helpful for sure.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
That's interesting because you think that you both. I remember
you saying when you went into pregnancy, you were like,
I don't get how people say that they don't have
time to eat. I remember saying that.

Speaker 2 (36:28):
You were like people totally like, I know, I obviously no,
I'm not an idiot, like you have way less time, right,
But I was like, surely you've got time to put
a piece of toast in the toast, like or put
something in the oven. You truly, I was getting to
like two PM and having not eaten. And I don't
know if that's because Maya was premi and it was
so hard at the start for us with her, like
we had such a difficult start to life that I mean,

(36:48):
I don't know what it would be like if she
was a term baby or if it is just always
that that hard. But I couldn't feed myself.

Speaker 1 (36:54):
So food would be your number one recommendation for people
if they've got friends or someone that is giving birth one.

Speaker 2 (36:59):
Hundred percent flowers beautiful, but then like you have to
clean them up, like it's one more thing that you
had that the mother has to deal with. Put them
in the bin. That's really true, It's so true.

Speaker 1 (37:07):
And also if pollen drops on furniture, it's stained exactly.

Speaker 2 (37:10):
Food, Yeah, like either cook for them or meal delivery
like some Waitrose orders, Tesco orders, whatever, like send food.
Jay would just chuck it in the oven and then
bring me food and I would eat one handed.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Have you felt like you've lost much of your identity
since you become a mum, because you hear that a lot.

Speaker 2 (37:26):
I don't think so. Maybe I get why people say
that I don't know I've been in such a bubble,
a Maya bubble that I haven't I don't think so.
I haven't thought about it. I haven't really thought about
that much, to be honest, I really put life on
hold for months with Maya.

Speaker 1 (37:40):
Well, I think that question came in probably more specifically
around you and your job, Like you're a nutritionist. You
help people with body image with diet and nutrition on
the daily. So there's probably this expectation of people to say, oh,
you always have to exercise because you're a petea as well.
You have to always be eating well and look after yourself.

(38:00):
And I guess when people think that's your job, it's
so outward facing that maybe you do have an internal
battle with the fact that your body has changed. So
I think when people say, like, are you struggling with identity,
I guess it's like your friends aren't there anymore. Your
work is changing, the way you look at the world
is changing.

Speaker 2 (38:17):
I guess, yeah, that's true, and who are you outside
of just being a mum and the primary caregiver? But yeah,
I guess, like with work, that definitely showed up like that.
I suppose no, no, you mentioned it now we branded it. Yeah,
it was. It was hard to turn up online because
I'm like, I'm not eating well, I'm not exercising, I'm
not even cooking for myself. I'm eating meals that other
people are prepped for me the other and I don't
have anything to talk about that isn't the baby Like,

(38:40):
I feel like that's all we talk about now. But
I am starting to, you know, find my way back
to myself. I'm exercising again, I'm feeling good again, I'm
feeling more like myself. Again, and it will never be
the same. My body will never be the same. I
won't look the same, and that's okay, that's completely fine.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
But I guess it's just managing that. It's managing the
expectations within yourself that things have changed. I think a
lot of people it takes them a lot longer or
it's a lot harder to get there and be like, Okay,
maybe I won't be able to do quite what I
did before. Maybe I will do exercise now and wet
myself a little bit every single time.

Speaker 2 (39:16):
Which isn't normal. Guys. It might be common, but it's
not normal. So see your pelvic floor physio. If that
is the case, that is definitely things that you can
do for that.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Another common question was what sort of exercise are you
doing and when did you ease back into that.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
It's a good question. I started walking maybe maybe three
or four weeks. It was really hard for me to
get out of the house. I saw all these and
I spoke about this on my Instagram a lot as well.
I saw all these people you know, out and about
having coffee, you know, two weeks a week after having
a baby, like first, you know, mama's first day out
with a cafe at a cafe, and I was like,
why can't I do that? Why can't I get my
shit together? I can't even get out of the house.

(39:52):
It was almost debilitating. And again I don't know if
that's you know, that was definitely harder because Mie was premier.
We had a lot of feeding issues and things like that.
She was just so small, and I was really comparing
myself to other mums on Instagram or even maybe you
know second time mums where they don't have a choice,
they have to get outside because they've got a toddler.
So it's actually, it was so much harder than I
thought it was going to be getting back into normal

(40:13):
exercise and like, I couldn't. I couldn't get my shit
together and get out of the house for weeks on end.
So I've really only started easing back in at like
three months postpartum. I started back at a gym at
about eight weeks, really gently in doing pilates and bar
because I couldn't. I couldn't get to my normal gym,
I couldn't do my normal lifting. It's just impossible to
get out of the house for that length of time.
So I'm doing pilarates and I'm loving it. I'm a

(40:34):
bar girlly now who would have thought? Who would have thought?
I'm there doing my Plea's Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
But I think the thing is there's no right or
wrong answer for that, Like there's no time frame for
people to be able to get back into like quote
unquote normal exercise.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Yeah, and some people can get back really quickly and
their body allows them to do that, and that's great
for them, like they need to get back in quite quickly,
and other people it takes longer. And so just you know,
anyone out there worrying about it, please don't do it
at your pace. If you want to get out exercising quickly,
go for it. If it's taking you a long time
like it took me, that's also so fine.

Speaker 1 (41:06):
And a big question that came in is around nutrition
post birth. What are the best things to be eating
to fuel yourself or any recommendations you can make for
someone post birth.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
Post birth is so hard because there's there's no perfect
food you need to eat. You obviously need a lot
of calories, a lot of extra calories, especially if you
are breastfeeding, like uput of three hundred extra calories per day.
For breastfeeding mums, standard healthy diet. You need lots of
good fats, you need lots of fire by, lots of protein.
You basically need to if you're not prepping ahead of time,
you need someone to be organizing your food for you

(41:38):
so that you're not just surviving off toast. Yeah, so
you're actually consuming, actually consuming good healthy calories and enough food. Like,
the pressure to get back to your body is insane,
and I know that a lot of people, can you know,
straight off the bat start trying to diet. People message me, hey,
should I start dieting? I'm you know, three weeks postpartum.
It is absolutely not recommended to start dieting that quickly.
Please do not even think about doing it. But it's like,

(41:59):
it's interesting that so many people talk about and eye experience,
like I have never felt sexier than when I was pregnant,
and everyone, you know, your pregnant body is stunning and beautiful,
and your stretch marks beautiful and all of this, and
then as soon as the baby's out, that same body
is perceived as not so beautiful and you've got to
get back to your body, and your stretch marks are gross.
You know, your saggy bellies, gross, Like, it's so weird

(42:19):
that that pregnant body was so celebrated, and then as
soon as your baby's out, it's like, oh, you you're
a mumboard. You know you've got to get back to yourself.
Why haven't you bounced back yet? There's zero bouncing over here.
You know, I gained and I haven't spoken about this
because I don't want people to compare. I mean, now
I'm speaking on a podcast, but I don't want people
to compare how much I gained versus someone else. And

(42:40):
you know, your body needs to gain what it needs
to gain. I gained almost twenty kilos when I was pregnant,
and you know I eat really well. She's only way
one point eight kilo.

Speaker 1 (42:49):
Yeah, she's in the way one point eight kilos and
ten of.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
That came out straight away in fluid and blood and
things like that. But I'm still sitting at ten kilos
heavier post birth and it's nearly four months later. And
I you know, I thought natural. Everyone says, oh, the breastfeeding,
it'll fall right off you. That was a lie. It
has not fallen off me. I think that's so anecdotal.
That doesn't happen for everyone. Your body needs fat stores
to breastfeed, you know, and you are so hungry and

(43:14):
you're consuming a lot of calories, you're probably not moving
as much. And yeah, I am the same weight as
when I gave birth to my ear nearly four months later.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
Yeah, it's normal, It's completely normal. I think this is
the problem to not just around pregnancy, around literally everything
in life. Comparison is a thief of joy.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
We love that.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Quote, but Instagram, social media.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Like the pregnant women on Instagram, it's stunning. I know
so many of these people and they are, you know,
this beautiful round beach ball belly with these long, lean
arms and legs. But those people are genetically that's their body.
They're genetically petite, and so I can't look at those
people and say like, well, I don't look like that.
I've gained twenty kilos all over. That's what my body
needed to do to have a baby.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
And it's also I think the way that people bounce
and I say that with yeah, balancing back, and how
they look like they've got their shit together online, and
chances are ninety nine point nine percent chance that they
don't have their shoes together one knows what they're doing.

Speaker 2 (44:11):
They've got a.

Speaker 1 (44:11):
Corner of their house that's clean that they're shooting their
Instagram content.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
It's a highlight reel.

Speaker 1 (44:16):
And I think a lot of people get stuck going
down a rabbit hole, which snowballs your mental health.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
One that comparison of seeing a new mum at at
a cafe. She might be having a great time, but
she might also be really struggling. You also don't know.
You don't know that.

Speaker 1 (44:31):
Do you think your relationship has changed much with Jay
since having myle You.

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Know, they say, you know you go through the room
mate phase, and you do, right, because your attention is
on this baby. You're trying to keep it alive. You're
not having zexon being romantic and all those sorts of things.
But we have made a really concerted effort to do
our best to stay team. And it's funny like we
do this thing where if we get snippy with each
other because you're so tap like you're tired, you sleep deprived,
you're hungry, you've got this baby hanging off your boob.

(44:58):
And I was in agony with every fee if for
getting snip at each other, we look at each other
and he will say with a dead pan face, don't
let her come between us, and we're just like to
make a joke of like she cannot divide us like,
and then we just laugh and move on. But it's
hard because you're so fatigued that you snip at everything,
and then it becomes a little bit of a competition,
like a tip for tat of you resentful that you

(45:19):
feel like, well, I've done more like I've fed the
baby all day and cleaned up you know what have
you done? Sort of thing? But you can't do that.
You have to realize that you are a team and
you are contributing to this household and raising the baby
up to one hundred percent. And sometimes I give eighty
percent and he's giving twenty, and then sometimes he's giving
ninety percent and I've only got ten to give, And
you have to remember that you're a team.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
What about intimacy, because you hear a lot of new
mums say, hey, I'm touched out, don't fucking touch me.
I'm not horny, I have no sex drive. Have you
guys been having sex? Has the intimacy come back? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (45:50):
A sex drive thing is so real, Like, I naturally
have a really high sex drive pre pregnancy, and during
pregnancy was really high, and then post pregnancy it is nonexistent.
Like the bull breastfeeding hormones, right, it is completely suppressed,
and it just doesn't like, it doesn't feel good yet.
We have had sex, not a lot. I mean, I

(46:10):
mean I'm only three months. I'm only three and a
half months postpart and I think everyone's like, oh, the
six week check up, off you go back to poundtown.
You don't want to You're not physically I wasn't physically recovered.
I didn't want to at that like that early, and
it's just yeah, there's no pressure, and Jay's amazing, there's
zero pressure whatsoever. Like it's really important to remember that
your body is going through so many hormonal changes that

(46:34):
literally tank your sex drive. Like you will feel normal again,
you will want to have sex again, it will feel
good again. You've just got to You've just got to
ride it out. Like especially, I'm still breastfeeding, so you know,
hormones are still breastfeeding. Hormones are still you know, high
sex drives still tanked. And then you lose your natural
lubrication and everyone says to you, like tips for first

(46:54):
sex so much loube all of the loop because you are.
It's the drive as of Sahara down there, and every
other mom here is nodding their head for sure because
you know, post baby, there is zero lubrication and no
one wants to have dry sex. It's yeah, it's non existent.
Never it's praying for you. It'll come back. Thanks, thoughts
and press.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Last question, do you plan on moving back to Australia
and when yes.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Oh my gosh, I cannot wait. I shouldn't. I mean,
I love the UK, I love my life, but we
are both so excited to come home. We are coming
home right before your wedding. Perfect. We are heading via
South Africa for another really good friend's wedding into Sydney
and then we're heading to Bali for your wedding. Have Yeah,
I can't wait. We sound like exactly.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Part of me wanted you to stay over here purely
to get ahead in life.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Like not because I didn't want.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
You near me or in Australia, I really did, but
I was like, you get such limited time where people
can help you out, and obviously you can get ahead
a bit more financially over here. So there's a part
of me that was like, oh, well, maybe stay over
there for another year.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
But I'm glad that you got to the decision to
come home. And you know what, it's Jay Jay said
he cannot do another UK winter. Yeah, so it's not
me dragging him home, everybody, he's dragging me back to Australia.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Well, Sherry, I can say that I am utterly obsessed
with my new niece Maya. She is trickery because she
makes She's the kind of baby that is so good
and so perfect, and she's sleeping for like eleven hours
a night. She makes me be like, ah, piece of cake,
I could do this, I want this.

Speaker 2 (48:27):
She lulls you into a false sense of security. She does.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
She's a unicorn baby. She's a unicorn baby. She's absolutely divine.
Thank you for joining the podcast today and sharing your
story with everybody. If anyone wants to know more, you
can go to Sherry's instagram. Sherry Health will link everything
in our show notes and if you want to look
at what Sherry does on Strive that's her nutrition business page.
We can put those links in as well. But you
are constantly helping women every single day, pre birth, post birth,

(48:54):
nothing to do with birth, get their fitness journeys on track.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
Thank you for having me, and Maya loves you more
than me. Now I think he needs to remember where
her milk's coming from. It's all I've got to say.

Speaker 1 (49:03):
Where here's your alliance and everyone, don't forget to your mum,
two dad teo, dog tea, friends and share the love
because we love love