Mum's The Word! The Parenting Podcast - What is Gestational Surrogacy? Ashley Glazebrooks Surrogacy Journey

Episode Date: June 25, 2023

Twist and Pulse star Ashley Glazebrook shares his gestational surrogacy journey with his daughter Tilly, discussing what to do if you are thinking of surrogacy, meeting her prematurely, learning fatherhood as he goes and the fight he had with his sexuality. We want to hear your birth stories! Get in touch over at [e-mail] or on 07599927537.---A Create Podcast Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello and welcome back to Mum's the Word, the parenting podcast. I'm Kat Shube and I'm going to be covering for Ashley while she's on maternity leave after the birth of a beautiful little girl. So today we are speaking to first time dad and one half of Dance Giro Twist and Pulse. Today is Britain's Got Talent star Ashley Glazebrook. He's here with us. You doing alright? Yeah, I'm good. How are you? Yeah, good. Thank you. All good. Ah're doing all right? Yeah, I'm good. How are you? Yeah, good.

Thank you. All good. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you so much. So we've got a fresh one, guys. We've got a fresh one. You had a baby in January.

That's right. Jan, yeah. Yeah. A whole month early. Wow. She was due on the 6th of Feb. Right. She arrived on the 6th of Jan.

Wow. She was keen. Yeah, she wanted to meet her dad a whole month early. She wanted to just get straight out there and start living with you guys. How was it? I mean, her arriving a month early, obviously babies are fine and they're pretty cooked

by that point anyway. But, you know, first time experiencing all that, you would have been straight into hospital, I guess, were you? Yeah, it was just, yeah, it was just a sudden kind of phone call from our surrogate.

And yeah, it was just like, I remember i was actually doing um a dj set on my decks like in my house just like practicing and stuff and i got the call and i was like really like is this actually is this actually happening like is this is this happening today yeah yeah or or is it not or this one of these braxton hits or something like that literally that so so yeah it just kind of happened like that. And we're like, oh, okay, it is happening in like four or five hours. Like we were driving to the hospital and it all just happened.

And it was one of those things. Everyone's like, oh, how was you? Like, how was you guys in the room? And was it what you was expecting? And I don't know. I just, I didn't actually believe any of it. No. While it was happening.

Do you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it took a few days for it to even set in, I guess. keep going that's ours i know yeah no it was mental feeling on the way as well i remember it really well because my little one's only two in september so i still have that feeling of the moment it all starts you're like i'm gonna meet this person yeah this is so weird and you've like tried to picture what they look like so many times and then you get there and you're like okay you look nothing like I thought you would did you have any names like pre-planned or did you wait so initially before we found out the gender we had boys names so like

me and my partner Liam we're both well I'm one of five brothers and he's one of three boys and then we've both got a nephew each and then on Liam's side we've just got one niece so like the majority of the family is all boys so for some reason like in my head I've always just had like boys names. It's definitely going to be a boy then. Yeah exactly so we always had to try and have a few girls names but we found it really challenging to be fair to have girl names and then I think even on yeah the day we rounded it down to three names but then even even when I remember parents just saying to me oh you'll know as soon as baby arrives you just know this feeling of like oh that's Bethany yeah but for us it was um the three names we had we just kept rotating them and when we was in the hospital we had to stay in for like five days because she was

premature but absolutely fine but it's like someone is serving things like that um and we just kept randomly changing the name to see what felt right were you saying it to her see if she replied yeah yeah no but she didn't reply to any of them funny that yeah but yeah and then I think I think it was Liam or it might even be me and I said something about oh tiny Tilly because she was five pound five like diddy and literally I think it was Liam and he said oh tiny Tilly and I was like oh tiny Tilly and then like he said it again later than I tried it and I was like I think that's it yeah because we had Millie as well was really strong contender for Millie but Tilly come in last minute just stole it so yeah we went with that and how did you find those early days because I remember trying to change rubes and obviously I'd done loads of classes and stuff before it like

because you guys obviously would have had some prep time before it and did you do all the classes leading up and trying to read books and stuff like that so so the funniest thing the day tilly arrived in the morning i sent an email to the surrogacy midwife because she offered us courses of like a bathing baby when they're newborn and like even it sounds silly yeah that uh yeah that happened the other day liam clips the nail too short yeah i did it and he screamed yeah yeah and he was pointing his finger at me going like that and i was like oh no he knows yes so like all things like that even it sounds silly but like changing a nappy obviously if you're first time parents and you don't have any nieces or nephews or any

children around you it's like you're literally practicing on teddy bear or like do you know what i mean so teddy bear so wriggled exactly so so yeah the surrogacy midwife at the hospital said we do actually do like a few like courses that you can come down and just like brush up on a few things so we had that booked in for like two weeks mid-jan and she arrived on that day no go back in i haven't done my prep i still i've still got the email on my phone i sent it and then i was laughing and joking like a few days into when i was at the hospital and we bumped into the lady uh there and she said oh i suppose shall i like cancel the classes and i was like we're literally just learning like as we go now but but i think for us that was quite it was quite exciting and it just got us into it,

like straight away. Like we were just learning from actually doing it, like the real life experience. I forgot everything I tried to learn anyway, to be honest, beforehand. There was stuff that I did learn. And then I was just like, when, you know, they get there, you're just like, ah, what did you do?

Even dressing like him. The midwife came over to me and she went, first time mum. I was like, oh yeah. Oh no. Is it that obvious? I should have squidged his little hand into it rather than doing it at the top. Yeah, you take so much time, but they are actually more robust than you think.

Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Those things bounce, don't they? Yeah, they literally do bounce. No, they don't bounce. Nobody's trying to bounce babies. So you just had Father's Day, of course, which was your first Father's Day.

How was it? It was really good. Oh, celebrating together as well,, of course, which is your first Father's Day. How was it? It was really good. Oh, celebrating together as well, both of you. Yeah, no, it was insane. I literally put something up on my story. We went to like a little restaurant and stuff and it was lovely.

But it was one point when she looked like really tired and I took a photo of her and I happened to capture her like mid-like yawn and I uploaded something to my Insta story and I was like, this Father's Day thing with two dads is tiring, man. sick of it already how nice though that you both get to celebrate that

day together as well i hadn't that hadn't even like no it's passed into my mind actually how lovely that you can both go well done to both of you on a certain day you're right it is a thing that if you don't think about it until like the day yeah it is one of the things of like oh wow so like we actually it's for both of us because usually mother's day or father's day from like a heterosexual relationship it's um you're always the other half would be putting all that energy into mother's day as such for the mum which is amazing but yeah even when we're trying to buy like each other a gift and stuff and i was like wait a minute this is like should we just do something and plan it together and that's what we did anyway it was nicer because it felt it felt a little bit not random but just a bit obviously we got each other like some cards and

bits but it felt a little bit there's no surprise you're both getting father's day it's literally that so it's like let's just put our energy into doing something as a like a three a family of three because it is father's Day for both of us. So it was amazing. How lovely. And you guys getting to celebrate that together. That's so lovely. And also, it must have been so lovely for you to sit there and feel like you're celebrating this day together.

Like a lot has happened over these past few years. And surrogacy is now obviously something that people are looking into more. Yeah, for sure. And it's become such a bigger thing. And like, could you have imagined that this would be a day that you were going to be celebrating? No, that that thought literally landed in our minds on the morning of as we was getting ready and i got a phone call from my dad and he was saying happy father's day to me and honestly i got goosebumps honestly it was just so yeah it's just such a

different feeling and my little brother he's just uh become a dad as well he um and even for him because he's my younger brother and i've got an older brother as well and i just i always feel a bit more like protective over him because he's my younger brother even though he's the same height as me now and everything he doesn't appear like a younger brother but he's still my younger brother yeah always and even him like he rung me and was like happy father's day daddy and i was like like happy father's day daddy and i was like oh happy father's day dad and it's just like the whole the whole dynamic of the family has just changed so much within the last kind of six months and it just it is like you said it is

really really emotional because for so long it was just me and my brothers all going to play like golf with my dad on father's day and we're just saying to him happy father's day dad and now he's wishing us father's day and like it's just like a full circle kind of moment it's insane beautiful isn't it and there is a moment where you do have to you sort of realize how much your life has changed it's those moments actually because i always thought like oh mother's day and all this stuff and it's a whole load of rubbish but it's sort of the first one as well i was like oh i'm a mum like. Because I'd got my mum a Mother's Day card. And I'd completely forgotten that it was my day too. Because when I got one, I was almost surprised.

I was like, oh God, am I grown up? Oh God, how come when did that happen? Can we talk more about the surrogacy experience as well? The journey, I mean, could you take us through it? Because this was a gestational surrogacy. That's right, isn't it? Can you tell us a bit more about that? Yeah, gestational surrogacy is where you have an egg donor and then you create the

embryo with say my sperm and the egg donor and then once that embryo is forming you do the transfer kind of like a normal IVF um treatment for like a heterosexual couple or anyone that's struggling to naturally conceive um you then transfer embryo into the lady in our case it was our surrogate so that a surrogate that is carrying our baby wasn't it's not her egg it's not her egg so she's literally just carrying for you because me and liam obviously you can't naturally carry so so that's gestational surrogacy traditional surrogacy is where the surrogate you see carrying the baby it's her egg yeah with a donated sperm that's amazing isn't it that that can even happen it's insane i mean it's mind-blowing yeah it is it is mind-blowing and i remember when

we first launched ourself into it we were like this is insane yeah and because there's so many different variations and like my older brother's struggling naturally to conceive at the minute with his fiance and they've been trying for like three, four years, which you hear of loads and loads of couples out there that struggle to naturally conceive. But the amazing thing about surrogacy and how many different ways you can do it,

there's honestly always a way for you to become a parent. If you want to become a parent so bad and you really really want it want it there's so many different ways surrogacy adoption like there's so many ways and i think that's what's amazing it does actually allow everybody with whatever problems they may have it it does actually allow them to give it their best shot for it to happen for them you know i mean and it's opening up a choice for you too you can decide you can say whether you want the person how did you pick a surrogate do you mind me asking yeah so we we actually found our surrogate abby she's fine hi abby um the most amazing lady in the world we can't we literally can't thank her enough but um so yeah the way it works in this country because i'm always different

in other countries but you can't actually ask somebody to be your surrogate the surrogate has to offer to the intended parents which were myself and liam but but we met abby on a private um surrogacy group so there's like leading agencies within the uk where they basically they kind of get you all in the same room so there'll be surrogates on the agencies and there'll be intended parents so you've got heterosexual couples same-sex couples anyone that naturally is struggling to conceive and are considering surrogacy they might be in that group as well and the one that we we met abby on was um a private kind of vetted facebook group okay and it's just you have to obviously be accepted into the group and you have to give your reasons on why you want

to start this journey things like that and it's all run by yeah it's all run by amazing administrators and things like that who have all gone through surrogacy themselves in some way shape or form and it's just a really lovely like home and hub for for learning anything even if you was just considering it and you didn't actually want to do it but you was just wanting to get a bit more information oh that's good advice yeah yeah or how how surrogacy works in the uk because if you're someone like me and le, we didn't really know of anything. We knew of the word surrogacy and maybe I think Elton John and his partner done it, but it actually felt like something that was so far away, like your normal day-to-day couldn't do it. Or something that happens in America or something, you know,

real rich and fair like Elton do. Exactly. Or, you know, it's something that's so far removed. It literally felt like that. So for us, when we found out about this group, everyone, you could ask any question and there was literally no judgment, like whatsoever. Even if it was like, hi guys, I have no idea about surrogacy.

Where do I even begin? But then somebody straight away would be back with, check this out, read these documents, or look at this and blah, blah. And every single person in the group, even people that have completed their surrogacy journeys that are now parents stay in the group because they've got so much advice and knowledge to give to people that are just starting up and and that's how we met our surrogate um we literally just hit it off straight away do you know you just click with certain friendships and you've got your friends and family it was that and we just hit it off straight away she was actually pregnant at the time with

her first surrogate baby who was she yeah so her and her husband married when they were quite young and then they had their three kids amazing kids as well i loved them the most um and then abby did say she felt like she was put on this earth to help others that struggled. Yeah. And because she carried really, really well pregnancy wise. Yeah. And she said she always wanted to try her best to complete her family unit by the time she was 30. Right.

And at the time she was about 25, 26 and she managed to kind of complete her family and was really happy. She's like, got that done. done yeah who else can i help and and she said i think because she's a hairdresser and she said she had a client once and the client was speaking about it and as soon as she mentioned surrogacy and kind of what it means and all of that abby said it just it just connected with her and she just thought that fault and that's what she said i put a post up on my instagram back in january when tilly was born i wanted to write write how me and liam felt i wanted to get how abby felt in that moment in that time when she gave birth to tilly for us because there's so many people out there that just they just don't get it at all and they don't understand why there are women out there

that do it for uh for people like myself and liam it's a lot which is fine head around isn't it exactly because it yeah like if you i don't know if you've not been exposed to anything like that whatsoever in your whole life and then you're a full-grown adult and then you see that for the first time it is a bit especially as a woman i think as well because i've asked my sister-in-laws before like oh do you reckon you would do surrogacy or is it something you could do if like your sister was struggling and some of them have just been like i'm sorry i just i just i couldn't yeah and like and that's fine it's a big ask it's such a big ask and it's absolutely fine but that's what i mean by you definitely have to be a certain person yeah to want to carry a baby for somebody else do you

know i mean yeah and she'd had good? Yeah. And she'd had good experiences. Like you said, she'd had good pregnancies. Really good pregnancies. And she loved being pregnant. Yeah. Because there's women out there, I'm sure you know with your friends and family and other people that you've spoke to in the past

that some women actually love being pregnant. Yeah. They love everything about it and they wasn't too sick and things like that and they carried quite well and there's other women that it's been really really tough yeah i had friends i was lucky i did have a really a nice pregnancy i was very sick for the first three months of it and then it's i woke up and i was like oh it's gone and it was kind of it was textbook in that sense there was you know towards the end it was the usual of the swollen ankles and

all the rest of it but i had a nice time and it was tough because friends of mine at the time i had a friend who's having a baby at the time and um she was the complete opposite it was incredibly sick the whole way through and you can see why it would be something that you were like you'd have to really consider yeah to want to do that again but what an incredible woman abby is and you would so you just started chatting on the forum or did you meet in person no no so we literally just started chatting on on the Facebook group and we just kept in touch and because I already knew she was currently pregnant with her first surrogate um baby that I was just chatting to her literally getting as much knowledge as I can and she and she reached out to us straight

away and said look guys like it's completely another world sometimes and you feel like you've got so many questions but feel free to ask me as much as you want especially from a surrogate's point of view because most most intended parents chat to each other because they're on the same journey yeah but it's very very rare that you get that surrogate or that person that's been a surrogate before to kind of pick away at their brain of like how how does it feel from your point of view because a lot of intended parents they have the same questions and they're worrying about the same things but you're always forever guessing oh i wonder what our surrogate's feeling like i wonder what she thinks about that so it's really

nice and does she like us like it must be that moment where you're like is this gonna happen and like and it's like dating as well yeah I know this is what I'm you know it takes you back to like early days of like do they like me no it was literally exactly when you just said that oh do they even like me and I remember I was like that with Liam and I was like but why does he like me like thinking it's all going well but why does he like me like what's yeah yeah what's that about but it was exactly the same thing welcome to the train happy podcast with me tally rye this is the podcast that helps you have a feel-good relationship with, food and body image. Each week we'll be digging into an intuitive and inclusive approach to our

health and wellbeing as we're joined by leading experts, friends of mine and you to hear more about the journey of letting go of diet culture and feeling good in the skin you're in. It's a podcast for everyone, no matter what body you're in. You can find us wherever you found this podcast just search train happy wherever you get your podcasts and hit follow we hit it off straight away and we didn't actually meet in person until yeah march 2021 oh so just like lockdown was just opening up a bit was that the time yeah yeah

the second one I was the second lockdown yeah and then we um and then we met for the first time in January 2022 so it was like a long time without meeting but we had it's funny because we was only just like speaking via like text like words like on the on screen um and then i remember we started getting even more comfortable when we started doing like our first voice note and it was like i wonder if she's gonna like our voice did you put on like a posher voice at the start yeah yeah just trying to think oh is she gonna sound like think i sound too common or oh my god he's rough or so yeah it was all of that but yeah we met we eventually met in the jan January. And we had a gut feeling because we'd been speaking for so long. And at this point, Abby wasn't sure that she was going to go again for another surrogate journey.

Right. So we was fully just chatting as friends now. Yeah. As like we forgot about because we didn't think that she was going to do surrogacy again as well. Oh, really? So you hadn't had your hopes set on Abby? You hadn't said... We did in terms of if we had to pick...

If she was to say yes, you'd be fully in. We would have been under the moon. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A hundred percent, like 100%. But yeah, she didn't have an amazing first surrogacy journey with her other intended parents, which was a shame. And it really did put her off. And I'm aware it's like that for quite

a few surrogates because as you said before like it's such a big thing to go through together as a three or even a two because sometimes single people that want to be a like a single mom or a single dad they they choose to go down surrogacy because they haven't met the love of their life yet but they really want to be a parent so but but having that it's just so intense going through all of that as you know because you've been pregnant but imagine doing that for somebody else with their feelings and emotions and like it's just a lot to take on so i'm aware that a lot of surrogates do sometimes feel a certain way after the journey because they feel they haven't been treated right or it was a bit of a tough time

for them and it's managing other people's emotions like you said it's managing other people's expectations and also there's lots of questions i'm sure back and forth and also you're really hormonal and you're pregnant too thrown into it there's a lot going on i think something that we didn't experience because we're two guys i don't know how that feels for a woman watching another woman carrying your baby yeah and she's experiencing or even if it is the sickness but just just even seeing your surrogate carry for you and get a bigger belly over the months and things like that so i can't imagine what's that what what that is like like for another woman to see that. But however, on the same time, sorry, at the same time,

there are lots of surrogacy journeys like ours that are amazing because that lady is doing something so amazing for you that the whole vibe and the energy around it is just so loving and amazing. Do you know what I mean? Because you're all working to that end goal. And it isn't, this is what, like you said earlier earlier about people that are not aware of surrogacy at all you naturally think oh my god the surrogate's going to keep the baby and it's all of that as well so i think i think it's good um it's good to hear positive stories

and it's good to get the word out there. What advice would you give to anyone that's considering surrogacy? Do it. Do it. Literally do it. Like if you know you can't naturally conceive and surrogacy is the lane you want to go through, then you have to do it. But it's a lot.

Yeah. then you have to do it. But it's a lot. Like you have to 110% energy in, otherwise it's more than likely it's not going to happen. Because even like myself and Liam, because it wasn't a natural in terms of we couldn't just naturally conceive. Or go, let's give it a go. Let's see what happens. It's not that. You've got to put more headspace into it.

You've got more planning. There's a lot more. Yeah, you actually had to proactively plan you couldn't just mention it one day while you're watching tv on the sofa you just finished dinner and you're like oh yeah we're like we should do surrogacy shit when you're like yeah yeah we should we'll try it later and then yeah and then two weeks go by and you're like oh do you think we should do the surrogacy thing and in like a few months go by in our case that's what happened we like spoke about it really intensely and it was like a good chat

but because neither of us made an effort of like because you actually have to get up you've got to get on the groups you've got to start researching yeah yeah yeah like you just say just oh you go to bed you naturally try and just see what happens yeah and then oh we're pregnant it's obviously not like that at all so yeah you have to just like if you're committing then you have to commit because it takes a long time as well yeah i was gonna say that what was that that was a good couple of years wasn't it from first chatting to her yeah well i think even before that we joined because it was the first lockdown when we had everyone had that free time yeah and you're cleaning out your knife and fork drawer because you've done everything else in the house baking banana bread literally and there's no

flour in the shop and all that but um yeah so so we joined another agency and the surrogacy group on facebook in april 2020 oh wow so from 2020 really to 2021 when we first started talking to abby that year was kind of asked exactly what i was just saying just kind of like um and an r and like yeah i think we should do it and but then like three months went by because we're busy with our social life yeah and i'm like oh we haven't made any progress on surrogacy and so it was a little bit like that so it takes a long time so progress on surrogacy. So it was a little bit like that. So it takes a long time. So I think, and at the same time, it takes a while for you to get into the right headspace of like, okay, we're going to do this.

And it's handing it over to another person. They're going to grow this child. I mean, it's a huge thing that you've done and it's an incredible journey that you've been on as well. What about going back to work-wise and stuff like that? How is it working with you and your partner? How are you you feeling are you taking a bit of time off to be with little tilly what's been happening yeah so initially we had we both had a month off which was lovely liam's a black cub driver in london so he's his job is super flexible like he's his own boss so

he can literally do whatever he wants which is great and then obviously myself as a performer dancer my work is like i don't ever have a week where it's exactly the same it's kind of wherever i go wherever the show takes me so i would say i'm stay at home dad at the minute yeah um which i'm loving yeah yes honestly it's amazing and um liam's gone back to work kind of full time but um like i said it's super flexible if i've got a gig coming or i'll go and perform on a cruise or something for a few nights then he'll take those few nights off of work and they can come with you not yet not yet oh that'll be exciting when they can though but yeah we're hoping to because that's like a nice little holiday has she seen you perform yet

so she actually seen me perform two weeks ago i performed at canterbury pride it was one of the pride events so it's like her first twist and pulse gig and it was her first pride and i was like this is amazing she obviously had no idea what was going on and she probably didn't even see me but i've got the photos and i was like remember when you saw daddy form um so she has yeah but only literally like two weeks ago yeah it was amazing and it's funny because in our show that i do with glenn whose pulse we we we chat in between a few of our like our dance sections and i've done a speech about and it's the first time i ever spoke out like publicly at a live gig of like guys i'm a dad now and like everyone was cheering but it was such a lovely moment honestly it was insane i was

oh yeah my partner's here and blah blah blah and everyone was just so amazing because prides are those events where you are raising awareness i don't think you hear a lot of same-sex couples having um babies no via surrogacy especially in like the public eye and the ones that are brought to our attention yeah of course yeah yeah and having a platform to be able to talk about it and that's it because i wasn't going to mention anything honestly i had my socials. It's mainly over like the 13 years I've been doing Twist and Pulse. It's always been team and brands, Twist and Pulse.

And it's been myself and Glenn pushing out our dance content and when we've done Britain's Got Talent and all those things. But the last few years I've started kind of creeping into my own, like my own little lane and social media and trying to raise awareness since I've been more comfortable in my skin as a gay man. But I was going to keep all of the surrogacy and becoming a dad thing quite private. But I just felt,

I just, yeah, like when I got engaged to Liam and I proposed to him and even that, I managed to capture that moment on video and I wasn't going to share that because I still wasn't fully comfortable in my skin and then I had that moment of like wait a minute this potentially could help my younger self and other people out there like me. Can you imagine being being young and seeing someone like going through even just coming out yeah being in the public eye and coming out just that as a start but then going

on and having a baby and being in the position that you're in now it's insane like when when i hear all of that out loud i literally filmed a video the other week for my socials and i was talking about all of those things like if if i looked back at my 15 even 18 year old self and somebody come up to me and said oh you're gonna be married today with the man of your dreams and you're gonna have a baby i'd have been like i feel like crying no like like there's no chance because at one point i was fully fighting my sexuality and there was no way out i was just like maybe if i just i don't, if I just carry on dating girls and I'll just get married and we'll have a baby.

Oh, actually, are you going to make me cry? No, sorry. I think I've got rid of my hormones. Oh, no, sorry. I'm joking. I'm joking because it's so, it's so like. Yeah, I thought that was going to be like my life. Do you know what I mean?

Of course. So for someone, so sorry for myself to upload things like this to the internet and social media it's not for me to cry sorry it just really touched me because it's such a it's such a huge thing from where you've you thought that your life was going to go i guess and then you're sat here with your partner about to get married you've got your baby no it blows my mind honestly every time someone speaks out about it and like to me and we're having the conversation, it does. Yeah, I just feel so grateful as well. And I can't believe this is my life.

Do you know what I mean? Like, and I'm just so happy. So that's why I chose to upload the engagement video, the proposal and to reveal Tilly to the world and speak about my surrogacy journey and things like that because I've had so many messages now of people saying, like one message, it really stuck with me. And he said something about he was a gay man, but still kind of not out to anybody. And he said something along the lines of, I love seeing your life as a gay man,

just like casually getting married, your family all love it. And now you've got a baby, but it just feels so normal. And he said for him, like all of those things, as it were for me, when I was like,

even like late teens, I didn't think any of that was possible. And I didn't see, like we were speaking about earlier, I've never seen anybody live that lifestyle as a gay man and really connect and relate to it as if it's as if it's just like normal yeah unattainable for you to happen to happen in your life so yeah when i receive messages like that i'm just like okay this is why i'm doing it as well and you're doing it for tilly too because you're doing it for a world where she can grow up in where it's going

to be completely normal. By the time that they get to, you know, our age, hopefully it's just going to be completely. And it will be by you doing this and, you know, speaking about it and stuff. I'd like to think so. And what about Uncle Glenn? Has he been on babysitting duties yet? He hasn't officially been on babysitting duties yet. But as soon as he enters the household household he literally doesn't even care about twist and pass i'm like you're here to rehearse and he's yeah he's just straight to tilly like he's the best uncle he loves her like it's insane and i just i can't wait until not not wishing her

life away as i'm sure you know with your little one but when when she's of an age where she's talking and walking and she can just come on the road with us yes she's a part of the whole thing like and she gets to see what you do as well it's incredible i'm praying she's into dancing i was gonna say you're gonna get her into dancing i hope so i honestly hope so there's music on in our house or in my car every single day is she showing any like signs of like you know she got good rhythm is she good the rhythm thing is stressing me out right because i'm like i i like to think i've naturally got rhythm but i'm aware that people haven't yeah but it seems so strange to someone who has got rhythm i guess that people can't hear the beats it's weird i don't know if it's one of these things you're born with i think maybe or do you learn it from a really young age even when i'm winding her

i'm winding her in time five six seven eight literally i'm winding her in time whatever song's playing i'm like because i'm like i need to knock this rhythm into you if if you naturally haven't got it do you know what i mean honestly it sounds so crazy but i'm very aware of this because one of my mates he sent me a video of his son going to a dance class the other day and his son's like seven and he sent me the video bless him and he was like ash my boy needs help oh no and and and my friend he's like he loves music and he's got rhythm like natural rhythm um he used to dance back in the day and that's his son and he said yeah he needs serious help, it's not happening he just hasn't got that so like now I'm just like

I don't want to put too much pressure on it even though there is but Tilly you can't let me down what would the tiny little twist and pulse new act be called it would be Riggle and Riggle's a good one, Riggle and burp i don't know that was good it's coming up it's the new show it's gonna be on the road coming up very soon

uh it's been so lovely to have you in today thank you so much for having me it's been so good thank you for speaking so openly about it as well it's it's a beautiful journey and you know we want to see everything that goes on with little tilly so do keep posting because it is helping so many other people as well and where can people find you where are twist and pulse going to be in the future yeah so so anything twist and pulse just check us out on instagram at twist and pulse official and anything dj dad life stuff check me out on at ashley twist gladesbrook amazing thank you ashley it's been a pleasure thank you thank you very much for listening to mum's the word the parenting podcast

make sure you hit the subscribe or follow button so you never miss an episode we love to hear from you get in touch on whatsapp where you can send us a voice message for free even anonymously if you want to at 075 999 275 37 or you can email us at askmumsthewordpod at gmail.com askmumsthewordpod at gmail.com or leave us a review on apple podcasts it all helps we're going to be back with another episode same time same place next week