Tell us a little about you and Zac

We first met at an event at Sky City, at the time we had respective partners. A few months later we were both single and I was interviewing celebs on the Red Carpet, when Zac rocked up looking extremely inviting. I turned a into hot, melting, embarrassed mess and as a result the interview was terrible and it never made the air waves – that was 2017!

When did you first start talking about having children?

Zac has always wanted children and voiced it from the very start.

I had a few more things on my ‘selfish’ list that I needed to tick off before I could relax into the idea and when we had such a whirl wind of a romance I generally wanted more time to get to know each other before starting a family.

Originally we decided after our honey moon we would start trying. Then Covid came along and squished that travel plan, so we then decided to start the summer after the first lot of Covid 

Tell us about your journey to conceive and the challenges you had along the way.

It was quite a process, I had to have a medical expert retrieve my marina but unfortunately they couldn’t locate it.  After booking in an ultrasound to assist, instead they found some nasty cysts. One happened to look cancerous.  So again, we paused to sort that and even though it all turned out fine it added a few months to the process.  After the all clear and the marina successfully out, we starting trying again and that process took another 6 months to successfully conceive so all in all over a year.

How did you find out you were pregnant?

We were in lockdown for the tenth thousand time, I was testing at home with home pregnancy kits and when one finally came back positive, I lied to Zac and told him I had managed to get a dentist appointment during lockdown, but really I snuck to the doctors to get my bloods done and confirm the results.

How long did you wait to tell Zac and how did he react?

It was about a week later that I told him. It felt like a long time as we were in lockdown so it was just the two of us, but personally I always need time to absorb and process big moments alone before offering out positivity and putting others first and this was one of those moments.

Who was the first person you told apart from Zac when you found out you were expecting?

No one!! We wanted to wait until the borders opened so we could both tell our parents in person – at the time we didn’t think that would be long but it ended up being months before the borders opened to surrounding Auckland areas, in fact so long I nearly turned up at home with a bump!! 

You’ve decided not to find out the gender of your baby – was that an easy decision, did you both agree?

It was Zac’s original call not to know and I respected that.  If we had needed to know for any serious medical reason along the way of course we would have found out, but nothing came up so we just kept going.  

I found it very interesting along the way how many people wanted to know and couldn’t stand that we hadn’t found out and even more interesting there is a thing called gender disappointment!? I met a lady who was disappointed she was not having a girl and I really couldn’t be round her for long! I was grateful to simply be pregnant and hoping I could do it well!

Did you experience morning sickness? What other pregnancy symptoms and side-effects have you had, and how have you coped?

The first trimester I basically spent on the floor or as low to the ground as I could, it was horrible the amount of morning sickness that over came me.

Then the 3rd trimester I pulled the sciatic nerve in my butt and vomited a lot. It was very very painful most days, but there was nothing medically wrong so at the end of the day we were very fortunate compared to others. 

You mentioned that people have said you look small – what advice would you give to other pregnant women who receive comments on their size/bump?

You know, I don’t like to give advice, I don’t feel I’m a teacher or an expert in such a field or any field other than presenting so how can I? And especially now after going through a pregnancy where advice comes in so thick and from every direction.

There were days when I just didn’t want to talk to anyone about babies but they seemed to just start anyway without even asking.  

I have promised myself I will never give advice on pregnancy.

Did you do any hypnobirthing, read books, use apps, or anything else?

I’m a pretty simple person and don’t tend to read or use a lot of resources.  I did try an app which helped track my ovulation and periods in the beginning which I found helpful and I have the beautiful pregnancy journal from Forget Me Not Journals as a treasured keepsake.

Do you have a birthing plan, and/or plan for the weeks after birth around visitors?

My plan is to get to the hospital and follow the advice of my midwife. It will all depend on what happens that day so I haven’t made any plans other than to listen, respond, stay calm and be positive.

We have decided a few weeks home without visitors will be best (apart from immediate family). However, deciding how best to tell visitors… that we haven’t quite figured out how yet. Crossing my fingers people naturally know to stay away for the first few weeks?

Approaching your due date, have you had any anxiety or nerves around birth?

Luckily I haven’t had any, we have been so focused on trying to sign up a new home, sell my car, finish work and for Zac to get a promotion all in time for bub’s arrival that it has always been pushed to the back of my mind, is that weird?

Now that you are almost 41 weeks pregnant, how do you feel?

Again, I feel grateful that bubs has given us more time to try and get things sorted for their arrival. I secretly new they would, so we are a great team already! At the end of 41 weeks I was booked in for an urgent ultrasound to find that there wasn’t any or enough fluid surrounding the little one so I was called to hospital where my midwife made the call to induce me.  She was also conscious that in 3 more days I would be turning 40 and things would change once again and they would be more worried about the placenta (yes an over night change in stress levels due to a birthday did seem very weird to me), so being induced was for the best.

Is there anything else you’d like to talk about around pregnancy/birth?

Back to giving the advice part, I really found it is quite full on how everyone thinks it’s ok to give their two cents on what I should be doing or proceed to tell me about their horrible and negative birthing experiences when I didn’t ask or ever bring up the topic. I also found that the topics are very repetitive like nappy chat, breastfeeding chat, boy or girl? Some days I wanted to yell ‘yes, I’m having a baby that doesn’t mean we have to spend all day talking about your baby” – gosh I sound over it don’t I haha!

What sort of Dad do you think Zac will be?

Zac is an incredible man, very paternal and very excited.  I would not be here if it wasn’t for his love, support and encouragement that I could be more than a fun aunty in life and I feel most of this is for him so I can watch and admire him be the dad he was born to be. He does however hate loud noises so that’s going to be the fun part!

Do you have any thoughts around becoming a Mum, or any worries? Do you have a good support network?

I have amazing friends and family who I will prefer to lean on rather than new mums I have met along the way as I feel I already have a full cup of inspirational mums (Megan you are one of these!).

What has been some of the best advice you have received along your journey

I really appreciated being told things about logistics which was hard to come by, for some reason so many say “you will know” or “just you wait” but in my head I was screaming “know what”?? “wait for what”?? So I preferred ladies who were very descriptive story tellers. Explaining what happens when your water breaks, explaining how the pain compares to other experiences and explaining what all the zeros mean on baby clothes.

If this has helped you, would you consider sharing your story to help others too? Please submit your details through this form. Whether your story is about trying to conceive, pregnancy, surrogacy, loss or parenthood, we would love to hear from you.