S1E88 · Sam and Eliza Keck: Pre Baby Excitement

Hey legends, welcome to another episode of the Virtus Performance Podcast. So a couple of months ago we sat down with Eliza and Sam, most of you guys would know those two from our community and from their own individual episodes earlier in the podcast. So we sat down and spoke about their impending parenthood. So they just found out that they were having twins which is super exciting but obviously having twins and having children for the first time is a pretty mind-blowing experience. So back then we spoke about all their thoughts and I guess expectations and what

they thought it might be like and then the plan was then to follow it up with a second episode just before the girls were born which is today and then we'll follow up with another episode six to nine months down the track and chat about how different and how similar the experience actually was compared to what they were expecting. So the first episode was number 72 with Eliza and Sam and Tommy T sat in on that. Today you've just got me and these two soon-to-be parents, very exciting, enjoy. My personal and business goal is to be just a little bit better every day.

I believe everyone, especially normal people, have a story to tell. The Virtus podcast exists to help us all find small ways of consistent improvement by discussing the journey and experiences of each of our guests. Alrighty team, welcome back to the podcast. I'm sitting here with the beautiful Sam and Eliza Keck. Only half of that pair is beautiful. It's definitely me. It's definitely you. So most of you will know if you listen to the podcast regularly about nine months or so ago, I assume it's nine months ago, we sat down with you two and Tommy T who's absent today unfortunately.

Yeah not well. We sat down and we talked about your pregnancy, Eliza. Yeah, well I think you guys talked about it more than I did because I was so sick that day. I just literally had to stare at a spot and not vomit. So you were pretty, what, a month long at that time? Probably a little further. A little further? No, it would have been longer than that. A couple of months. Yeah, before I'd discovered on terms of drama. Yeah, we just found out our twins would be like numbers. Yeah, so with the impending arrival of the twins, we figured we'd get back into the podcast booth that we're not in and kind of have a chat about the journey.

Last time we spoke about what you guys were expecting, more so than what has happened, and all the exciting times that you've got ahead of you, and then what you were kind of hoping for when the little twins were toddlers and then kidlets and et cetera, et cetera. So I guess today we'll kind of touch base on some of those questions, but how's the last eight months been? Yeah, I think probably there have been a few ups and downs, but considering everyone's like, "Oh, twins mean you're going to have more of everything, more hormonal problems, more everything, so it's going to be a bit more intense."

I mean, I don't know any different, but also it hasn't been that bad, so that's nice. In terms of just my being able to cope, that's mainly because of drugs. I don't understand why people just take drugs. What a wonderful time to be alive. They're like, "Oh my gosh, you feel sick? Oh, I'll just take this drug and then I won't die all day. Yay." It's the best. Yeah, it knocked you around a little bit there for a while, didn't it? Early on. Early on I was pretty sick. Yeah. And I was really nervous about taking drugs just because we had that early scare and everything, and so it was a bit cautious.

But yeah, no, we've had that many potential problems with the twins, and absolutely none of them have had drugs. In fact, there was four or five reasons why they should be a bit underweight and malnourished and stuff, one of which being just twins tend to be a bit smaller, but it didn't get the best. I know. They're like 60th percentile, a bit bigger than average. For normal babies. For normal babies. Yes, well. So that's what, like 90th percentile for twins. Yeah. Yeah, that's- So- But we should get a list of all of the things we were told were wrong and didn't end up venturing and breathing.

So initially it was a subkaryotic hemorrhage, which was when we found out they were twins because we thought we'd made them miscarry, which is another thing I think people don't talk about a lot, but it's really, really common. Yeah. And then we found out, I guess, thankfully for us, that we were having two babies instead of the no babies that we were worried about. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us through that, take us through that ordeal. I'm going to use the word ordeal. Yeah, it was. Did we talk about this in the last time? I don't think we did.

No, we did. Really? I don't think so. Who cares? Let's update. It was crazy. It was crazy. So I'll tell it from my perspective because it's probably more detached than most areas. It's kind of more like a third party perspective because Eliza's a mule. So I was out for the first time since finding out we were pregnant, I decided I'll go out and have a drink with some guys. It just happened to be Phil Pylen, which the context is about an hour and a half away from where Eliza would be that evening. We were in a pretty loud bar, I had a few blinds, and I noticed that my phone was sort of flashing in my pocket.

I looked at it, it was about 10 minutes goals from Eliza, and I was like, "Oh, no." Oh, shit. So I jumped on the phone and ran outside, and I got onto her, and she was saying, "Oh, I've had quite a heavy bleed, and I'm going to head into the hospital." No, I was already in the hospital. Oh, you were in the hospital. In the waiting room. Yeah, Mum and Dad are coming. But yeah, like, "Where are you?" And I'm like, "I am getting into a car, and I'm driving--" No. No, you said, "I don't know.

I've been drinking a lot, Eliza." And I was like, "Well, don't kill yourself." I didn't kill myself. And that was the last hour. I knew that I thought, "He's not coming because he's drunk, and they're an hour away." And knowing Sam, you're not going to keep him here. No, so magically, I managed to make it to Frankston Hospital on a magic carpet, driving by someone who wasn't myself. What a wonderful Uber driver. At a very rapid speed. Yeah, it was the best Uber driver I've ever had. Definitely the best Uber driver. Kids, don't dream drunk. Anyway, I was in the hospital, and I was in the hospital.

So I managed to make it to Frankston, and there was Eliza getting really, really great medical attention. Kudos to the guys at Frankston emergency that night. Yeah, awesome. And Kate, the head doctor, was just really, really fantastic. But all of the scanning machines and everything were off, and so we couldn't actually find out what exactly had happened. Yeah, okay. We were told, "There's nothing you can do. Rest up and come back in on Monday. This is two days away." Yeah, it's going to be a rough Saturday. So we went home thinking we've lost the pregnancy, and starting to come to terms with, "It happens to a lot of people.

We can get through this. It'll all be okay." Needless to say, we didn't really sleep that night, thinking that we had to lay- No, we were handling the statistics and everything. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so we... Surely that wouldn't have helped. No. Yeah, maybe not. Eliza had uncovered that if there's a heartbeat, then you're in the clear. Which sounds really obvious, but- No, if there's a heartbeat, then you're in the clear. Yeah. No, if there's a heartbeat, after the full 12 weeks, it increases your chance of the survival of the fetus for the first 12 weeks to 90%, versus if, well, obviously, they can't find the heartbeat.

But the heartbeat only starts at around- At about the time we had the bleed, yeah. So- Yeah. So it was- It couldn't have been. It was fine and still had not had a heartbeat, but you wouldn't have. Yeah. So we got a phone call at 8 a.m. that morning. This is a day before we thought we were going to get a phone call, saying, "Hey, a spot's opened up. If you can come in in the next half hour, we can get you in." And we're like, "We're already there." So we just rushed in, and the lady was doing a scan, and she was taking ages, which immediately you assume something's wrong.

Yeah. Anytime you go to a doctor, and they kind of go, "Oh, I'm just going to go and get my colleague to have a look at this," or they take ages, or they kind of go quiet, you pretty much know- So scary. ... shit's going down. So in our minds, shit's going down, and then the lady's like, "Look, there you can see a little heartbeat." And the look on both our faces is like, "Oh, my goodness. Incredible." Thank God. Yeah. But of course, the reason she was taking a long time is because she moves the device over the ridge, and she goes, "And there's another little heartbeat."

Who clued onto it first? Well, Sam. No. Well, Sam just had a grin from ear to ear. He's always wanted twins. Yeah. And I think the first thing I said was, "I don't have a torso. Where are they going to fit?" Good. Yeah. Because I did not ever want twins. Yeah. Honestly. When we first started dating, and Sam's dad's an identical twin, which is weird. But I even looked it up when we were first dating to check, "Oh, no, that one's not genetic." Just in case. So that's fine. I don't want to get twins because of his dad, so that's good.

You get the last laugh, then. Yeah. That's outstanding. So good. But yeah, so we've gone from one second thinking we had no babies to then having two. So that was really, really amazing. Even if you've already told that story on the podcast, it's still just as epic. It's crazy. It is crazy. And I think it's all really set the tone then for the rest of the pregnancy. Because before that, although I'd only known for like maybe a month, and it still had just seemed kind of... I don't know. Not so much that it wasn't real, but kind of like, "Oh, yeah.

That's what happens. You get pregnant and you pop out a baby." When that happened, the whole maternal/paternal stuff started kicking in and all of a sudden- You went really weird after that. Yeah. Everything's going to harm the babies. You can go super defensive and risk averse and trying to think of all the ways that things would go wrong and all the ways you can stop it from going wrong. Yeah. It was bizarre. It definitely changed my outlook on it. And then during the pregnancy, from that point onwards, we found out that they were identical twins and that they were high-risk identical twins, monochorionic, diode...

Diode. ... amniotic, which means that they are sharing one placenta with two sats, which just puts them at really high risk of things like twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, potentially one twin having more from the placenta than the other, which is actually bad for both. So one twin can hope and nourish and the other one will not have. Then we also found out that both of them had what's called filamentous cord insertions, which means that the cords, the umbilical cords, don't attach to the center of the placenta like you would expect or hope, but actually to the membrane on the side of the placenta, which can cause a number of risks during the pregnancy, including- Malnourishment.

Malnourishment as well, but also during the birth, it can cause something known as vasoprenia, which is where the cervix is also attached to the veins going into the placenta, and if the cervix, if your waters break, it might also detach the umbilical cord and the babies can hemorrhage. Basically, they bleed out. Wow. Then we found out that- But also, you probably should have mentioned, for quite a while we only thought baby B had the filamentous cord, so that made it even worse in a way, because the chance of one of them being malnourished, even though

it's not just twin to twin transfusion, it would have had the same result, one getting a lot more than the other, and then being uneven and having- Yeah. But then a couple months later, they found out, actually both of them had it. And then later on in the pregnancy, Eliza was diagnosed with gestational diabetes, which was also- Interesting fact. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. At high risk for the babies, much more so than the mother. And that also hasn't been tried to anything, like just being using diet control, but also the babies have just kind of kept rising above the odds to right now.

So it's due tomorrow. Tomorrow is due today. Which is crazy. And when- We're hoping for a podcast for the breakage. Yeah. Yeah, it hasn't happened yet, but we'll keep you posted. But when this podcast drops, you'll have two little kidlets rolling around. Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Like, it's obviously in a way, or in different ways, affected Eliza a lot more, because carrying, et cetera. How have you, like Sammy, how have you changed, I guess, how you act or how you behave? Have you noticed changes that aren't necessarily conscious? Yeah. I think I've all been unconscious. I'm a pretty stubborn, independent person, and I think that I attempt to do what I want.

I don't think I'm selfish, per se, but I'm fairly headstrong. So if I believe there's a right way to do something, I'll do it. In this process, I've found myself really letting go of that side of me, and almost becoming a product of my emotions and my longings and desires to see these babies and Eliza just be okay. That's awesome. Really weird. And it's been, it's nothing I've controlled. Eliza's probably been a better place to talk about what it has been, because for me, I feel it happening. But then Eliza's like, she's like, "What are you doing?

I'm late. Waking up in the morning and taking the rubbish out. Look at me asking." It's all part of me thinking like, "How can I help?" It's subconsciously like, "I don't actually want to do that." Yeah, yeah, you don't want to help her. Don't talk about it too much, because KP will want to get pregnant now. Yeah, you might not do it, do you? Maybe. So Sam, I think immediately after the bleed, for probably a good two, three weeks, every time I was really sick, I would be rolling around bed vomiting all the time and just being really sick.

Because Sam, you could blast a horn in his ear and he would not wake up normally. Blow one. And then instead of that, though, he would wake up every little time I moved or whatever, and he's like, "Well, you can." So he's obviously freaking out. But then that kind of went away, but then he had another phase after the elementus cord, the first one. After that, he started getting up super early and mowing the horn, and he sleeps until midday if he can. And then this last stage, what he started doing is dieting. So he's never dieted in his life, and I think there's probably a whole combination of reasons for it.

But I think controlling his own body is a kind of reaction to not being able to control my body and what's going on with me. Definitely. So I think that's a part of why you've done that. And also probably, you know, you want to be a fit dad and all that jazz, but I think there's a bit of- My dad blew up. Yeah. Your dad blew up. Yeah. Beard's looking good. Yeah. Rigs looking good. Last good. He's wearing his beard for the babies. He wants to scare them by shaving them up when they're older. Wait until they're a couple of years older.

Yeah. Yeah, seriously, they just come home one day and they'll be like, "What?" Yeah, good. Yeah. So I think he's certainly had a lot of ... You've reacted more or less differently, I think, than I have. It's affected your moods and stuff more than I think. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I don't know. I'm just really excited. I'm the kind of guy- And you've been working a lot, actually. Sorry. Well, I love a surprise. I don't like to sort of know things in advance, knowing that I don't have to wait and get them. I just want to have it now.

So it's like, "Okay, so this is what we want to get. This is what we're getting." I'm ready to go. Whereas with this, it's like, we've been ready for a couple of months now, in terms of everything. It's like, "So, all right, I guess I just wait," and that makes up ... Really unsettles me. Because Eliza hates surprises, and she wants to know what's coming, which is all really funny. Yeah. So it's kind of a bit of an opposite thing there. So for me, I'm just like, "Come on, bring them on, bring them on, bring them on."

And I think it's just meant that I'm just super excited, and I'm not an anxious person in terms of anxiety that inhibits me from doing things. Mine's a nervous anxiety where I'm super eager, but I can't have it yet, kind of like a dog waiting to give you dinner. I'm kind of like bouncing around and getting distracted. For nine months. Yeah, for nine months. Yeah. And yeah, I'm definitely surprised at how eager and how ... "ready" is the wrong word, because "ready" implies that I somehow know what I'm in for. Yeah. But like- No, yeah. Anticipatory, maybe.

Maybe I'm just like, I'm like- Well, you're ready for whatever happens. Yeah. Ready for the challenge. Sam went full nesting. You know how nesting's meant to be a thing? I didn't- Yeah. I'm just like, "Chill." You know, we've renovated the kitchen and all the downstairs, completely rearranged upstairs, rearranged the garage, and he's like- Was that all the kitchen stuff planned beforehand? Yeah? Yeah. Kind of. Kind of. It was in the works. It was in the works, but we made it happen. Yeah. We found out. We made it happen. You needed to make it happen. Yeah. But yeah, no, Sam, I feel like you've had all the reactions to a pregnancy.

I mean, in your events, you haven't exactly been in a position to do a lot. I have. I've been fine. Yeah, you've- Recently. It's only the last month and a half. It's basically since, yeah, last month and a half like that. You've done a lot. You've been training the entire way through. I'm literally joking just before that you should come in and train tomorrow on due day. Yeah. Well, I can do the bikes. I like to do things like whatever I can do. It's good for me. Yeah. And that's the thing. Partly, initially, I trained

a lot because I was hiding it from work so I needed to keep it straight as much as I could and then later on, I was like, "Oh, well, it's good for the kids if I'm being healthy and stuff." Yeah. 100%. It's been your work, eh? Yeah. Work. I have a job. Yeah. It's been your last podcast. Oh. We talked about it and you needed a job. No. I got a job and then I also got a promotion. Oh, yeah. I got two jobs. That's the dream. Yeah. God bless. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Because we did hold on to the last podcast because of that.

I literally signed the contract today. So it's all sort of- That's awesome. Only took, yeah, nine months but it's sorted. No rush? Any rush to these things? Yeah. There's no reason to rush. Yeah, no. That's awesome. Yeah. I'm really excited. Yeah. I did. I was just- Gotta love that when that happens. It's pretty exciting. Yeah. And it's gonna be, I'm looking forward to going back to- What will you be doing and what's the plan for getting back to work? Okay. So have you ever seen the IT crowd? Yeah. Have you tried turning it off and on again?

Yeah. So I'm basically gonna be Jen. Yes. Well, that's awesome. No, I'm gonna do major project stuff for IT, the areas of IT and stuff. So yeah, that'll be really fun. So it's a term contract and they've changed it to be part time for me as well. So it'll be three days a week a year starting a year from now. Yeah, awesome. But it's a management role, so I'll be managing a little team of- Well, you can be practicing with managing a little team for the next little while. Yeah, exactly. And hopefully she will not lose me.

Yeah. So are you, I don't know, what's the feeling now with it being, like you've obviously, Sammy's been like bouncing up and down. You've just been like, "Yeah, I'm chill. I'll wait for it to come." And now it's less than a week away. Yeah. Somewhere between probably- Now. Now and next week. Yeah. What's the feeling? Like how do you feel? Because I'm excited. Yeah. I'm kind of, I'm pretty crazy about it. I mean, when they kick me in the stomach or bladders or whatever, like bladders, plural, I want them out. Stop it. I do yell at them to stop.

But generally speaking, I'm just happy. I'm not, I don't know, I'm excited to meet them, but I'm also just happy that they're healthy and I don't want to rush it because they're doing well and so I want them to just keep doing well. So I'm more just grateful how things are and how they're going than any, yeah. I'm absolutely excited to meet them. Absolutely terrified of getting them out, but that's- I'm not actually scared of the whole birth process. I'm not terrified. I just, I don't like it when things don't go to plan, which is not how birth happens, right?

So- Yeah. I've just had to make sure that I've covered all scenarios in my head so that when whatever scenario happens, I'll be like- You're kind of somewhat prepared for it. Yeah. Yeah. Is there, does a lot of preparation go into, I guess, those scenarios and like conversations with doctors and- Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, and because they're so high risk, there's actually like, you'll only end up with like the top level doctor or like- Awesome. Yeah, in coming along and it's going to be a very busy birthing suite because we've got someone collecting their cord blood, which is what those two giant boxes are over there.

So someone's collecting their umbilical cord bloods. Turn one, turn two. Yeah. For stem cells so that they can- Yeah, awesome. Have stem cells for if they ever need them and then- There'll be two pediatricians, that person, a doctor, a midwife, you, me, I'm missing someone. Locky. Locky, yeah. Shit. Lies. I'm actually launching a video podcast next week. Nah. Imagine that. I couldn't do it. Are you scared of that part? Yeah, yeah. Nah? Nah, birthing part's the thing I'm least scared of. Yeah, wow. It's saying we're up on a farm. Yeah. I've birthed animals. I've birthed a cow.

Surely it's got to be different when it's your wife though, babe. I think you're a friend. No, I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think you're a freak. You're freaking out when they're here. I'm sure they're annoying. I don't know. I'm sure they're annoying that if it's a cesarean, if we have to do an emergency seizure, then they won't let me watch it. Yeah. Because, I mean, I saw, honestly, it's major surgery, so they need to be able to do their thing. Give me in the way. But I'm seriously intrigued by it. I don't know if I can watch it.

I guess I won't. I'll just be there with Eliza, being like, "It's okay." I'm sure you can find one on YouTube that you can watch at the same time and just be like, "Yeah, it's close enough." That's what they're doing. It's similar. Yeah. We'll see. So I'm really not. I think I'm just hoping that I get ultra-emotional and super attached to them when I hold them, which I know I will. Yeah. And sorry, I'll clarify that. You're going to get involved. Especially from my mother's point of view, all the hormones rushing around, it's a really tumultuous time, I guess.

You don't know how you're going to respond. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas I think for dads, if there's a guy that he's claiming, he gets all the hormone and he's like, "Well, you don't really. Not the same as your mum anyway." I just know that I'm going to see these two beautiful little babies. They might be super ugly. Oh, but I'm super ugly. Yeah. Let's hope the dominant genes are Eliza's. Oh, that's crazy. Well, that will mean they'll definitely be ugly babies. I was a really ugly baby. I don't care. It's like mum, when I was born, the nurses were like, "Oh, isn't she beautiful?"

I was like, "Yeah, she's beautiful." And I was like, "Yeah, she's beautiful." And I was like, "Yeah, she's beautiful." And I was like, "Yeah, you don't have to look at her." I know she's not that pretty, but that's all right. It's a baby. Not yet. Yeah. I'm pretty sure I'll be overwhelmed with emotion and attitude. Yeah. Yeah, it happens. You're probably in a way- I won't cry. You'll be completely different. You'll make you cry. Because- I think I will. If we'd had a normal pregnancy, it would've been so different to this because you've got to see them basically every two weeks on a scan.

Yeah. Because normally I think you have three scans in an entire pregnancy. Yeah. So you kind of get to know them and see them all the time, and that's probably almost made it a bit more of a connection for you than most people do. Yeah, it might be. I don't know. Also, the fact is there's absolutely no room for them in here. You can literally see them. If you sit here watching- See their faces pressed up against- You see how they're going to look. You see how they're going to look. You see how they're going to look.

Like seriously? It's so creepy. This is basically like Alien. This is all the time. Yeah, wow. It's like Alien now. So cool. You really need the video podcast. Seriously. Just for that. Yeah, that's awesome. Break that down. Can you- something I've always wondered with twins, do you know which one's which all the time? Not all the time. I wouldn't say. Yeah. But just like as in they're on their sides, but sometimes baby B's hands might stretch over to where baby A's- Yeah. Would be. So you're kind of like, "Oh, that's actually their hand. That's their foot that's a hand."

Yeah. But most of the time they've got their sides, so you know where they are usually. That's crazy. You mentioned family. How has the family and community support been over the last nine months? That's probably something that I've been really amazed by. How many people- we're so lucky, and I never really thought about it. You don't think about it until you kind of need people around. Yeah. And I'm not one to ask for help very much. I don't think you are either too much, Sam. But you're probably a bit better than I am. And yeah, there's just always- I've got all these wonderful friends who've had kids who are like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby."

I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby." I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby." I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby." I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to have a baby." And yeah, there's just always- I've got all these wonderful friends who've had kids who I have a messenger group with. I just ask them all the questions because they're very head kids. Yeah, that's awesome. And I've got a wonderful friend who's a pediatrician, and other friends who are like- Shout out to Jim. Yeah. Jim, babe. And my legend. Like physios and

stuff, so like early on, for example, I was just- just happened to mention to my friend who's a physio with kids, and I was like, "Oh, I've slept poorly on my back or something. Like, so sore my lower back. It's really annoying. I need to like do something about it." Yeah. And she was like, "Eliza, you're pregnant." Yeah. "That's your hips and this, that, the other." And I was like, "What?" Yeah. And this is before I was showing or anything. I was like, "No, but that happens when your back gets sore and you're all big and pregnant, right?"

Like, and she was like, "Oh, bless." Yeah. And she sorted me out, so then I went and had her sore back the whole way through. That's perfect. Because we've had physios to help, and yeah, no, we're really- and even not just medical friends, just friends. Well, you know, Brooke's pregnant at the moment as well, and you know, like- and there have recently gone through all the most- Definitely. You were saying Brooke Holmes for a second, and I was really- Holmes is pregnant. We're off Holmes. Yeah. Who? She's significantly moving up to Christmas. Yeah. No, she'll listen to this and she'll love it, so we're gonna miss you a significant amount.

But yeah, Brookey and Reece have got their own stuff. Yeah, that's crazy. And a lot of our sisters just have twins as well. Yeah, true. Yeah. It's so funny, Paul. Jen has got a workout that not everyone has twins. It's like- Yeah. Jen's like, "Baby sister?" She's got twins everywhere. Yeah. So it's pretty cool to see how many people just want to help and just want to be there, even if the help can just be a conversation or just support or- Yeah, absolutely. Just checking in. I have a friend who I barely- she's more my

brother's- so I grew up- my brother's friend growing up, his wife, they've had twins maybe six months ago, and she just messaged me on Messenger today. She's been like, "How are you going?" And it's like, I haven't talked to her properly for years, but she's just checking in. It's intriguing. But I think also twins as well. I think we're really lucky because- The novelty. Well, yeah, it's a novelty because people are like, "This is going to be hard work." Sure, it's all the twins out there. It's going to be hard work. Yeah. Yeah. And sisters. And twin sisters.

Yeah. There's a lot of twins. My dad, Hellman Keck. Yeah. Yeah. Or is it just like when you think of a yellow car, you're going to see yellow cars? Every single person you say, when you're at the shops or whatever, and they're like, "Is it your first?" I say, "Yeah, it's my first and second. There's two in there." Oh, and no matter who it is, "Oh, I've got a friend, my sister, my so-and-so has had twins." And it's like, "Well, yeah, of course someone's had twins." You guys surely would know the stat of how many births are twins, what percentage?

Well, our type of twins, it's about 200,000, so like one in 500 for example. Yeah. And then for the type we're having, like one in 1500? Yeah. But twins generally, especially with aging population- Is that white house? Yeah, aging population and also IVF, it's actually quite common now. Okay. Yeah. A lot of fraternal twins. Fraternal twins. Yeah. Women just hurtling eggs out. Just like, "Pew, pew, pew, pew." Just getting it out. I guess once they're out and that's all happened, what are you most excited/scared about? Mm, excited and scared about. Well, I'm excited to meet them and just get to know them.

There's things where I'm like, already I'm like, "Baby B responds to music. Baby A responds to sweet food." So I'm like, "I'm curious to know." Don't you pigeonhole your kids. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Baby A is just like, "Why doesn't mom ever play me music?" Yeah, exactly. That's all. You just get to eat chocolate. That's all. No, but so I'm curious to know if all those things I've kind of noticed, if it was psychosomatic, if I made it up or if it was legit, like their personalities. Yeah, definitely. And then yeah, and even how often one of them will move a bit more than the other and stuff like that.

But then I guess, so that's probably the exciting part and the scary part is probably just, I think, I know we'll be like, we're both pretty eyes wide open around what it's going to be like, like asleep and all that jazz, but I do know with my eyes wide open that I'm going to be really bad at not having all of the sleep. I need my sleep before I get grumpy, so that'll take some adjusting. Sam's nodding profusely. Yeah. Alright, you Sammy? Sam will just sort it out. Yeah, I feel I'm excited just because I

really, like I've already said, I'm past the pregnant stage and now all the babies, but I can't have him quite yet, so I think I've just- He's probably been working so much because he doesn't want to be around me because he's like- He's just too excited. Yeah. Oh, still pregnant. Yeah, so I think I'm most excited to enter that next stage of my life and to be a dad and to grow and be challenged and fail and succeed in that arena because it's something that you can't do unless you do it, which is similar to

most things in life, but it's another one of those things that it's a first and then you have to get it once and I'm kind of really excited for another first because the older you get the less things you do for the first time. I mean, this is- That's a really cool way to look at it. All our firsts are going to be vicariously driven after that. Yeah, probably. Yeah. I think our umbrella parents are going to helicopter parents, whatever they call it. Umbrella parents. Umbrella parents would be weird. No, no, that's a thing as well.

It's really to protect your kid from everything. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh. And shelter them or whatever. I don't know. What else? I mean, what I'm scared about, maybe it's not so much the sleep deprivation or whatever. Yeah. Well, yeah, it's probably Eliza without sleep. I've already apologized to you in advance when I've cracked about him unreasonably because I do. It's good from you, covering your bases. I actually think more like I just would have such high expectations for them and not for me because I have to have them be this type of person,

but I think that you just want the best for your kids and already I'm visualizing scenarios where maybe things don't happen the way you would hope for them. I'm just trying to figure out how I deal with that. So it's a bit existential and it's super unrealistic, but I'm just looking forward in like 15 years time and just being like, "Oh, what if they have shitty friends who are getting them to kill this bullshit?" Yeah, that's really interesting. That was a question I was going to ask. How far forward are you actually looking? Because it's

like, I guess, early on pregnancy, you're just thinking pregnancy and then when they're here, have you started slowly shifting to like, what happens when they're 21 and they won't talk to you? Well, yeah, because early in the pregnancy, we were literally almost told by the doctors take it one day at a time because there's so many risk factors. If you get too far ahead of yourself and you overshoot a big event, it can be really tough if you can deal with that emotionally. And so it probably wasn't until about 28 weeks when the doctor's like,

"You guys are probably going to be able to do this naturally," and things have done really well where we started entertaining that we were going to have a family, really, and it was a mad rush to get everything organized. We did it all and now I think my mind is being solely on the future in terms of thinking about pretty much everything. Yeah, under the roof. So like you've got to book them in for schools now if you want them to go to a private school. Really? What? Well, we still talk about education, but we're not really sure where we sit because we think it's so dependent on the kids themselves.

Well, that was one of our main topics in the last one and it was a lot about like you had your kind of ideas around it and the lives out of hers, but then both of you were just like, "Well, it depends on the kids." So, yeah. Yeah. Is that seriously a thing? You have to hedge your bets. So we were thinking like I've always thought I would have loved to have gone to Woodley, you know, I know Woodley cost about a billion dollars to go there. So I'm thinking, you know, it's probably worth putting

down a hundred or whatever dollars to put your name on the list, but then we might not even live on the peninsula in x many years time and they're going to go there, but then at the same time the lives of myself are both really passionate about, I'd say passionate is probably a bit of a strong word. We're all for public education when it's done well and so. I turned out alright. Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, I don't know. It's tough. Yeah, it's an interesting one. I just, that blows my mind that you have to think about schools now.

I think it was Josh Brown who was saying how like they had to put their kid in when he was born because Josh's sister, they went to do it when their child was two and they were told no sorry worry for that year. I'd book him in for an MCC membership and that's about it. That's all I could think of. No, no, no, that was the issue. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that.

I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. I'm not going to say that. You're not going to be one of those dads that buys you kids memberships, are you? Well, can you take babies to the footy? No, I don't know, potentially, I think you'd buy the kids memberships. I'll buy them like a six-game one or whatever, so when I go they can come with me and Eliza can stay home because she's not home. No interest? It's really annoying. I would prefer playing the sport than watching it, I think, because it's just been more fun.

I don't understand people who look like Sam, who get like, it's like his team and he's like, "Oh, sorry. Yeah, the boys did good tonight." You'd be like, "The boys? What boys? You're not your boys?" It's not your boys. You did nothing. You watched it on a television. You're yelling at the television. It's a part of my brain that's different to yours and I understand people are like that. Yeah, I get it. I definitely get very passionate. It's more so towards the point at the end of the season when finals and stuff come around, but I find it really difficult to be a non-contributing supporter.

When you're sitting there watching, I can't control everything, so it's almost like a lack of control. If I'm injured and my boys are playing like a local footy, I'm just like, "I can't watch." I'm just walking around in circles. I'm like, "I'll just go play on the swings." It's pretty much full season this year, coming up this year. That's the plan. Full season. I know that's what you were telling me. He said, "I lost to Captain." Probably haven't said that at all. It's a leadership group. Deputy Vice-Captain. Don't need pressure into the captain. We've got a couple of great leaders at the club.

She's happy to take it one week at a time. As long as the boys keep improving, who knows where we'll be at the end of the year. Back to you, sir. I understand that way more. If it's your team, then you're moving the club and stuff. But I'm the same. If Colin were playing on TV and it's closed, I'll likely walk around. What I hope for you, the YC boys, is that you run up to the finals and just get the glory and leave full season. You're not far off it. I've definitely won a couple of flags that way.

Now back to you, too. I have a question about all the setup. Because you've effectively upended your whole house to make this happen. I assume that's the same for most parents. What's that process been like? With all the new gear, has it cost a million dollars? First of all, I just want to shout out. This is a communal thank you. We will be sending out notes at some point. Eliza came and was like, "Oh, what are we going to do for a baby shower?" She's like, "I kind of don't want to do a traditional one." I'm just like, "You don't get to be involved."

I'm like, "Oh, can we just have a matriarch for a drink?" We did that. It was epic. Unbeknownst to us, that would involve then everybody who came, which was about a hundred old people, bringing gifts of some sort, which was absolutely no way of intention. But given we're having two kids, it probably proved to be a lifesaver. Thank you so much to everybody who gave us stuff. It was pretty much cupboards full of baby wipes and nappies now, but we're definitely going to use them. You're going to roll and go straight through them. Otherwise, it would have been incredibly expensive.

We did a lot of everything pretty much is secondhand. That's the big things. Like the pram and rockers and all that kind of stuff. Clothes, baby clothes, a lot of secondhand stuff. Yeah, a lot of hand-me-downs from Sams. They better be boys because Sam's only got nephews. They better be boys. Or they're going to be girls that are dressed like boys. To be honest with you. 2019, there's nothing wrong with that. Exactly. I'm dressing him in whatever. As long as you get that permission, you can dress him however you want. It's not going to be fair.

No, but it's just been a lot of... People spend so much money on this pram, though. I hate it. Either at the store, it's like a $60 swaddle for a baby. That they're going to not lose him in six months time. We did get one thing brand new, which is kind of the opposite. I was giving Sam a present. Normally, you're meant to give them a present. A push present. Oh, that's the worst term ever. A push present. Is that what it is? Apparently, but I hate that term. Fill in. What is it? It's just a tradition of congratulations.

Thanks for having my child. Thanks for impregnating me. No, he gives me a present once you've had the baby. Thanks for letting me. She doesn't just do it. She has to actually do it. If she has to seize it, you don't get it. It just makes sense. I don't think that's the case. I'll check on that one. Yeah. I was like, Sam keeps going on about how he wants to carry both of them around. And I'm just like, well, you can't get twin carriers. You can't buy them normally in Australia, just like in stores. They don't exist.

And so I found one online and did all the research. And he's got a twin carrier now. Unfortunately, they're so measuring so well. Because everyone's like, oh, twins, because they're smaller, they'll probably be in it for longer than they'll say. No, not these two. I think these two are going to grow pretty quick. But I'll show you a photo of his in his little twin carrier. He'll be the best. It's like two little sacks on his chest. Dude, we could fit so many beers into that. I know. No, you actually can though, because underneath it, there's a mini one in the inside for newborns.

Yes. And then you do the actual big one up. So you actually could put beers in it. Not while the children are in it. Yeah, we'll call their bums. That's fantastic. We're aware that this is an audio production, but Sammy's wearing a-- I can send you the-- --what looks like a backpack with two different bits, but he's wearing on his front. That should just be the podcast phone. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'll potentially use that. I'm probably going to use a picture of the twins a bit. Oh, yeah, of course, because you'll have them by now. Oh, yeah.

Fair effort. Yeah, that's crazy. Have you-- and yeah, don't divulge anything that you don't want to divulge. But have you thought of names yet? Yes. Yeah. Have you got a couple locked in? Yeah. I think we've settled for both men and women. Boys and girls? Yeah. Yeah, we've probably got the two for each other now. Yeah, we-- [INTERPOSING VOICES] Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's funny. That was the thing. When baby B had development discord, I suddenly did not want to talk about names for ages, because I was just like, no, I don't want to make them more human.

I don't want to think about it in case something goes wrong. And then it was funny, because then eventually Sam really did want to talk about names. And so eventually I caved, and we talked about names. And suddenly I felt way better. So anyway, yeah. So we've had names almost since then. Awesome. So you've got four that you're kind of like, OK, these will be-- Yeah, yeah. So I reckon-- and for both boys and girls-- Not that I'm there. I'm not going to give away the names. But I'd say that we probably both share fairly similar tastes, a lot of crossover.

There's some dispute. So I love Australiana, and that's been totally ruled out. So there won't be a banjo kek or-- Damn it. Or a waltzing Matilda kek or anything. I wasn't going to call my kids. Matilda kek. That would've been great. But I'd say there's a bit of a combo between old school and new school. Yeah, cool. But you won't be seeing any kind of bullshit, weird spelling. Yeah, no, no weird spelling. I'm not good enough for that. Three I's. Three I's. Yeah, just an example of saying you can't grammar out to your own kids' names.

Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, that's exciting. I just can't stand it. And I feel sorry for every teacher. What if you look at them and you're like, oh, we need new names? We do it. I think we both do it. Totally. I've been thinking about that because we don't have backups. Well, we do. We've got the other-- we've got before. But then I-- yeah. So it's only like-- Yeah, weird. But I'd be comfortable saying, you know what? We made a mistake. We need to wait a week and find out. Yeah, yeah. But also, I was talking to another twin mom recently.

And she said, when they came out, she swapped the names. She thought this one was definitely-- I can't remember the names she had. And the other one was definitely the other name. And then they came out and said, no. No, you're that name. You're that name. Well, I'm going to swap the twins. So they're identical. So I'm just going to-- any time that one of them is complaining about the other one, I'm like, well, I swapped you. So actually, you're probably going to shut up. Just sitting in front of a mirror. You don't have a twin.

Yeah. [LAUGHTER] It's just you. It's just me. All right. Is no one there? What are you doing? You're going to fuck with them way too much. Oh, no. Seriously. That's going to be a joke. We actually were thinking about ways to-- because there's no real way for us to interact with them now. We've poked them. [LAUGHTER] And they kick back. Send us. Yeah, we wanted to-- so besides from this podcast, we wanted to do something a bit special. So they actually have done a time capsule that we're going to pick out the month before they start prep.

That's cool. So we've written a little card to them and different stuff. And we'll put some photos of us and everything in there. That's awesome. Yeah, so that's kind of getting me funny. And we've answered questions about whether we think they'll be boys or girls or what we think their favorite color will be, what we think their favorite food will be, all that kind of stuff. That's awesome. We've read a little bit about what we're doing right now and how it feels. Yeah. Yeah, wow. And my favorite part about everything, although hopefully that opens to

this podcast, but I may or may not have got something particularly special made up that I'm going to give to them at their either 18th or 21st birthdays, which I won't specifically mention because if they do have a listen to this podcast, I'm-- Sure, yes, we're not going to say anything, but that's exciting. And you know exactly what I'm talking about. How nice-- yeah. Just a nice fresh t-shirt for them both for their birthdays. Good. Awesome. Definitely not something that ages well. No, no, definitely ages poor. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely not gin. No, not gin.

Because gin, we just drink straight away. We don't have to wait 20 years. Yay! So yeah, their names are basically like Michael and Wallace with their voice or Juniper and Junior figures. Oh my god. Imagine that. Imagine just calling-- They're all actually not bad names. I know. They're good names. Now you're just pandering. Little Wallace just running around. All right. The way I wanted to finish today's podcast was I want you both to spend like 20, 30 seconds, no longer if you want, talking to the twins. And like maybe give them a little bit of insight into-- obviously they've got a bit-- I still love this.

Yeah. They've got a bit of insight into the last eight months and how it's like changed your lives. But more so like, yeah, just load up. Whatever you want to say to them. You're in charge. I can't do that because I'll cry. That's good. Yeah. All right. Hey team. It's been a real process to get to this point, but I have to say I've been blown away with the changes that have kind of happened in my own heart. And so amazed and impressed with your mom. She's an incredible person. And I'm kind of in awe of the fact that she decided that she wanted to breathe with me.

I'm kind of stoked that I got to do it twice in one go just in case this is a big mistake. And in five years' time, whatever, when you listen to this, you're thinking, geez, what was mom thinking? Anyway, at least 50% of your genetics are really, really high quality. I know that I'm going to love you, but I honestly can't wait to meet you so that I can actually experience what that love feels like and see it transform you as a person and as a man. Right now, your daddy really, really loves you, but I know I'm going to love you even more when I get to hold you in my arms in about a week's time.

And Pavlov too. He's going to be really excited. Yeah. I know that. And I just really, really wish the very best for your lives. They're yours. They're no one else's. They're not mine. They're not your mom's. They're not your siblings'. You're both going to be unique people with your own destinies and your own paths laid out before you with a chance to influence and interact with the world. And that's the most exciting thing. I just hope that every day you're more and more grateful for what you have and the loving people that surround you and

the journey that you get to go on because there's so many paths you can choose and every single one of them is perfect for you. So yeah, dad loves you. That's epic. And now I'm going to cry. He's too good at this. It's not fair. I have to write things. I'm not a speech, like I can't do speeches. Well, just say same. Yeah, times two. That's epic. That's epic. No, I wrote, we wrote, I wrote my thing. Yeah, that's epic. I cried. It's too much. I can't think of it. It's too emotional somehow because it's like real.

You've got an excuse. You've still got a job to do, so. Yeah. I am tired. They do keep me up a lot already. Yeah. That would be nice if you stopped doing that. Seriously though, it cannot be understated how much all our lives have inspired in me, but I think everyone who's seen her like she's gorgeous. Regardless of what happens in the delivery, she's an incredibly impressive human. In fact, all women are. Part of me is envious. Good save. Part of me is envious. No, seriously, because you never get to experience that as a man and then another part of me is like thank goodness for that.

Yeah, definitely. Shout out to all the moms out there. Yeah, it gave me a huge appreciation for all the moms. Yeah. And it's pretty cool. Good on you. Awesome. Guys, love your work. I'm excited. See you soon, Twinnies.