Two Doting Dads with Matty J & Ash - #118 Chontel Duncan On Juggling 5, High Risk Pregnancies And A Parents Worst Nightmare

Episode Date: January 12, 2025

What’s it like having five kids under eight while running multiple businesses? Chontel Duncan knows firsthand. Matty J and Ash chat with Chontel, the powerhouse behind HIIT gyms across Queensland and the Neuform fitness app. Chontel shares how she manages her "home circus" with her husband, Sam, dives into the challenges of a high-risk twin pregnancy and opens up about a terrifying moment every parent dreads. Download Neuform https://apps.apple.com/au/app/neuform/id6474838407 2025 Raunchy Ranch Calendar IS STILL ON SALE!  https://budgysmuggler.com.au/products/two-doting-dads-raunchy-ranch  Buy our book, which is now available in-store! https://www.penguin.com.au/books/two-doting-dads-9781761346552  If you need a shoulder to cry on:  Two Doting Dads Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/639833491568735/  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheTwoDotingDads  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/twodotingdads/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@twodotingdads  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Ash. Matthew. Could you imagine having three more kids in your life? You shut your beautiful mouth. Hahaha. You're getting sweaty just thinking about it. Hahaha. Or Chantelle Duncan and her husband Sam.

They have five. Shut up. Not two, not three, not four. Five kids all under eight years old. Plus, she's running like several businesses. Well, does she have a staccato problem? Hahaha. She doesn't know what's running like several businesses. Well, does she have a cicada problem? She doesn't know what it's like, Matthew. As the owner of Hit Gyms across Queensland and founding

Newform, a fitness program app, Chantelle has generated a massive following amongst other mums who just want to keep fit. I think she's got like over a million. Wow, really? Follows on social media. Crazy. Chantelle gets into how she runs the circus at home, how she met her longtime partner, fellow hunk, Sam.

That's very arrogant of you. Well, just reading the script. Hate the game, not the play. How she got through her high-risk pregnancies with her twins, and how she experienced a moment that is every parent's worst nightmare. Thankfully, the story ends well, but it's a great reminder, considering we are in the thick of summer.

Let's get into it. Welcome back to Two Doting Dads and One Doting Mum. I am Matty J. I'm Ash. And I'm Chantelle Duncan. And this is a podcast all about parenting. It is the good, it is the bad. And the relatable. And Chantelle, we do not give any advice, myself and Ash. No, we're not allowed to. We have to always just flag that with the listeners because we are not the experts here. But if you have any advice to give, please,

we will be the sponges and absorb it all. Beautiful. We always like to start the podcast and find out what you were like as a younger person. And Ash and I were talking this morning in the car on the drive here. And the one thing that stands out to us for yourself, Chantelle, is discipline. You scream discipline. Do I? Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. You're the fittest mum we've ever seen. That's pretty much what I was going to say. Yeah. Were you always so driven and so strict with your routine and your fitness as a kid as well? As a kid, I lent more into sports just purely because, well, recently I found out I have ADHD and that makes a lot more sense now looking back at it, but I found that I thrived in sports and so I had very little focus

and interest on the mundane and I guess that's kind of where it led me to have that as a career, shall I say. If PE and sport was your best subjects at school, what would be your worst? History. Okay. I mean, it's done. Fair enough. Fair enough. I'm very logical.

Were your parents, you know, very sporty or were they very encouraging? Was there anything you picked up from them? No. I mean, my dad did play rugby league. I have vague memories of it because by the time I could retain that memory, he was kind of getting to the point without just getting out of playing. You know, the body's a bit broken.

But no, I did not come from a sporty family at all. I was almost like the odd ball in the family, you shall say. You mentioned that you had your diagnosis with ADD. When you look back when you were a youngster, were there any symptoms that you go, ah, that makes so much sense now? So much. What were they?

Focus. I remember reading books and I could read everything that was in front of me, but would it make sense and would I retain it? Not really. If I was interested in it, I would be top of the class. If I had to do an oral presentation, meaning I could explain it the way that I saw it and use my creativity to do my demonstrations,

then I would ace it. If I had to write something and read a book, I would try go around and watch the movie, which will never be exactly what the book's like. And I became very solution orientated based from having, I guess, those limitations. But yeah, I look back at it now and I can see why I thrived in things like math and science and sports. I didn't in history and English. I just was not interested. And if you're not interested, you don't hyperfix on it and you don't retain it.

What led you to get diagnosed then after all this time? My son, they kept saying in kindergarten that maturity for young boys is delayed up to two years almost. And when he was in kindergarten, he just wasn't focusing. He wasn't naughty. He is so beautiful. He is such an honest kid, but he could not focus and he'd do silly things.

He is such an honest kid, but he could not focus and he'd do silly things. And I remember saying to my husband, that's not normal. And what is normal? But I just always have this analogy that you can't build a gorgeous, beautiful, incredible mansion on a ship foundation. So if I don't create the great solid foundation for him, then he's not gonna be able to flourish in whatever he wants to do. So I know I probably could have had a better kickstart

if I had a stronger foundation, but I guess the blessing was I had to become solution-orientated and I learned the power of hard work. But I always wanna try to build that foundation for them so that whatever it is that they're interested in or that they're great at, they just have a really good starting point and I just couldn't understand why he wasn't retaining things. He couldn't remember names. I'd be like, this is Sarah who works at the gym.

You see her all the time. And he just wouldn't remember their names or remember like situations that we've done maybe last year. We went on holidays anyways. And then his younger brother, because I had the children so close in age, I did all five of them in under six years. Wow. And I just remember his younger brother started coming to the mark

and remembering things and having an excellent memory and retaining information or like their memory is part of ADHD. So I just said to the teacher, what do you want to do? Where does he stand out? And she said, we'll do a series of tests and then you can send those reports to the GP. You can go to the GP and have a look at investigating further into an OT

and they can have a look to see if he's on the spectrum for anything, if there's anything that he's challenged with. And to me, I'm like, ADHD there's anything that he's challenged with. And to me, I'm like, ADHD is a power. It is a superpower. A lot of geniuses and huge entrepreneurs tend to be on the spectrum, to be real. And my husband, his two younger brothers, he comes from a family of four kids, they had ADHD.

So I thought genetically, it's a strong chance. I did not think I had it because I was so organized. I was over organized. I was disciplined and things like that. But I was that because I had to. Anyways, yeah, he got diagnosed. And then she said, well, it's generally genetic. Like it's always going to be genetic, sorry. And as they go into it and list all the things that he's doing

and the things that he has, it just started to, I almost was ticking everything for myself. And then I thought, shit, maybe I'm the problem. And when I got tested and yeah. One of us has begun the process, Chantelle. Me, I'm very early on. But I think when it's starting the process, it's so long and tedious. I feel like it's all one big test. You know what I mean?

Like it's, I don't know. We joke about the fact that if you can complete it, you don't have it. Yeah. It's so hard. I'm not going to lie, but I doing the DIVA test skimmed so many questions just to get it finished. And then psychiatrist said, how did you go completing the test? And I'm like, to be real, I'll be honest, I didn't really read much of it. And he goes, oh, that's a huge, that's a huge indicator right there.

I was going through like the first steps and it was like, you know, getting like character from people close to me. And I was kind of like, Oh, butterfly. You know, I was just so distracted because I was like, I can't focus on this. How, how am I supposed to complete something that to figure out to tell me whether I've got ADHD or not? What is, not to sound really naive here, but Sean, so what is the test? What does that look like? It's very hard to know why he asks his certain questions as a psychiatrist when you do the

sit down appointments, because at the beginning, yes, I can give you a diagnosis, but I believe it's always tentative until they trial the medication and then they see how you respond because you'll either go one way or the other. They do school reporting, so they get all your history. They obviously ask parents or people who knew you as an adolescent, and then they get you to complete the DIVA test as well. So they're the main ones that I had to do. And then it's just trial and error with medication to see, do you feel like you're getting better

with that? Since your son's gone through the process, do you see a really big difference? Massive. I cannot vouch more for parents getting their kids tested if they have an inkling or a gut feeling that your child is struggling. It is in no way, shape or form shameful if your child has some form of challenge

when it comes to focusing because if you had diabetes you would get medication for it. If you could not see you would get glasses. If you had crooked teeth you'd go get braces. If your brain is not functioning the way it needs to function you would get medication for it. It's just another organ. It's really nice to hear because we, my wife and I, sort of our son, really similar to how you described yours. I feel like can't focus, there's things he's really, really, really good at,

and then there's things he's really like struggling with that I can see. So it's really good to hear that your perspective and that, you know, there isn't anything to be ashamed of for sure. Not to put you on the spot, Ash, do you think the test for yourself will be completed or? Yeah, look.

I want to finish it. I'm trying my absolute hardest. Too many distractions. It's like, you know, you've survived so far and done so well the way you are. Like you've built this character based on being truly special and like in so many cool ways that people admire. I mean, it's definitely a blessing, but if

it helps you build projects and get to the next level that you might be working on, then perfect. Then the medication will help. I feel like I'm in therapy. Sean, we did, we got a glimpse of your beautiful husband Sam before we started recording. I don't know if he's in the room still, but he's a gorgeous man. He's a handsome man. He's laughing. I think I heard a giggle in the background.

That's what I thought. He's blushing. I can sense it. When did you and Sam first meet? I was 14 when he asked me out to be his girlfriend. Wow. He was also a similar age, I'm hoping. He was 32. No, he was... He was 32!

We'll cut that out. He was 15. Okay. He was a baller. Where was the asking out? Where did it take place? So we met in school. He was the asking out? Where did it take place? So we met in school. He was the grade above me and we were kind of, it was so funny.

Me and my best friend liked him and his best friend. And so yeah, we just would sneak out of the house, go to parties and on the weekends or on Thursday night, go to late night shopping. Cause that was such a thing. Oh yeah. I'd like the local Westfield. Well, we weren't that bougie. We're from the Redlands.

So it was Capella bar. Um, and the skate park and skate park. Yeah. Yeah. I was quite the tomboy. And then we would always go down to the Wellington point beach, which has a jetty and you'd go jetty jumping and have hot chips and things like that and all like skateboard and ride your bikes there. But anyway, so we would always find ways to see each other outside of school as well.

And it was Christmas day. We did. We had Optus mobile phones and the reason why we had Optus is because it was free after nine. Do you remember that? Yes. I remember that. It seems wild.

I'm having flashbacks. Young kids must be like, what do you mean it was free after? Isn't it always free? If you and your person you're ringing had Optus, and you had at least a dollar credit, we'd always hang on to that last dollar because you could call for free after 9 o'clock. So we would speak for hours in our bedrooms from 9 o'clock.

And it was Christmas Eve. My girlfriend and Sam's best friend asked each other out on Christmas Eve and we didn't want the same anniversary. So then he asked me out at 12.01 on Christmas Day and then our families ended up celebrating Christmas at the same location. So we just snuck off and we're like, Hey, wow. So when you're that age though, you know, when you're 14, 15, the last thing you're thinking about, you know, you kind of, it's young love, but you're not really thinking

about getting married and starting a family. Do you remember when you guys started having those types of conversations? Yeah, I think it would have been, well, after we started our business, well, it took them 11 years to propose to me. 11 years? Well, you were 14. Whose side are you on? Well, it took him 11 years to propose to me. 11 years? Sammy! Well, you were 14! Hey!

Whose side are you on? I'm 11 years! Look, I'm going to sit on the fence here. I think if you met when you were 20, it would have only been five years. Yeah, thank you. If you put it that way. So like... Team Sam, I see.

Sammy, you got someone in your corner, mate. I got you, bud. I got you, mate. Yeah, so look, I reckon after we opened our first business together, I see. Sammy, you got someone in your corner, mate. I got you, bud. I got you, mate. Yeah. So look, we, I reckon after we opened our first business together is when we were actually feeling like adults. Yeah. We're like, shit, we're full blown adults here. Now, let's talk about us.

Before that, we were in the honeymoon period for so many years, which I love because we got to grow up together, we got to go travel together. Like, yeah, I just cut all the drama out that I would watch Vicariously through our friends. And yeah, we were just so content with not having to double into that and just always have each other. And his mates were always friends with all my girlfriends.

So it just kind of worked. It was like this big Jersey Shore. In terms of popping the question, do you want to give us how that went down? It was so over the top. Good on ya. He went so far. He got a helicopter ride for me and it was a friend who owned the Institute of Fitness that I got qualified through, or he got qualified through as well.

We became really good friends with the owner. I also started working for him straight after I got qualified. So we had this really good relationship with him, and we would talk to him about business and things like that. So it made sense when he said, he rung me, the owner, and said,

I wanna take you out on my helicopter and take you and Sam around the Gold Coast. That's where he was from. And yeah, I just want to say thanks because you've grown your social media so massively and you've sent hundreds of people through to my institute and encouraged them to get into the field. So it's the least I could do.

And I'm like, legit, this sounds great. I mean, my husband's going to love this. He loves helicopters. For me, I was like, a day off and I've got to go to the Gold Coast. Okay, I was so tired running this company and I'm like, no, that's fine. That's so lovely of him. So I got in a beautiful dress. It was like a summer dress. He told me to take it off. He's like, why are you wearing that? Just like Chuck some shorts on which I'm so annoyed because he had a photographer at the proposal and I was wearing just the ugliest outfit.

And yeah, so we got in the helicopter, we're flying around and he started hovering and he's like, Oh, can you see the sharks down there? And I'm like, looking down trying to find it. And he's like, over there pointing to the beach, did not see it for so long. And then he like physically turned my head. He's like, look at the sign on the beach. And there was this ginormous sign with all my friends and family holding saying, will you marry me? Wow. Then I turned around and he was like, he went, I want and just paused shaking

like a little baby back and then just said, marry me, like could not say what he wanted to say. I started bawling my eyes out and it's awkward because our friend is in between us. He's like, hey guys, let me just jump in. And he's Sam's in the back, I'm in the front, can't even kiss him, can't hug him, it was so funny. And then when we got out the helicopter, they had a photographer there, champagne popping, everyone was there, we went out to lunch and it was really beautiful in my shorts and a singlet, mind you. Weather appropriate. Yeah, that's great.

Well, that's probably one of the most boozy or like out there stories we've had. We've had some good ones. That's great. Well done Sam. Congratulations. Take note of that. We do have to say, and I mean this in the most polite way possible, you are a little bit crazy in that I don't know any family with young kids with more than three little ones. You've got five. Talk me through that. It was not planned, but it is the most incredible blessing that has happened to us, because we both have very small families on the outside. And in a quick nutshell, we don't have relationships with our parents or anything like that.

And so it's really small. And for us, we always wanted to redo life and do it the way that we wish we could have had as kids. And you'd always well, for us, we always admired watching families and our friends have that perfect, you know, they do holidays, they sit down for dinner, say, I don't have parents rock up to things. And like, there's, there's just this network, they're a unit, there's a unit there. And it's really beautiful. And that's what we didn't have. It was very messy.

So for us, we had very similar common interests when it came to our future. And we always said, let's go for kids, let's go for kids, went the first one, and it was a perfect literally textbook pregnancy. Then we had, I think I was nine months postpartum, and we fell pregnant with the second one. And I was like, amazing. I only wanted boys because I just saw how easy going all the boys were in Sam's house. They would punch on and then in 10 minutes they would be together again playing. They never had a grudge against each other. They were best mates. They got over things so quickly and I was such a tomboy.

I'm like, I just can't deal with girls. I just- We're simple creatures. We are. Yeah. We don't need that much. Absolutely. Take my hat off.

But kills me at the same time. Sorry. I was like, yeah, four boys. Great. So we had't need that. Absolutely. Take my hat off. Bart kills me at the same time. Sorry, I was like, yeah, four boys, great. So we had the first two and then I was like, actually, I kind of feel like I want a daughter. I would love a daughter, but I don't want to go through another two pregnancies. Maybe we could have twins, you know, because in my head, this is all going to happen. And I said to Sam, let's go see our OB and just ask him what's the chance of us possibly going for twins? How do you get twins? You know, what's put your best foot forward? You never know. You got to learn. So I spoke to him

and he just basically said, your field of fitness, I would not recommend you have twins. It will absolutely destroy your pelvic floor. You won't be doing your kickboxing, your box jumps, your skipping. You won't, you know, that's going to be gone. And it's going to damage your body as well. So just keep that in the back of your mind. Also, if you want to pick your gender, you're going to have to go overseas and do that. We don't do that in Australia. And also, if we try to do twins and put two eggs, like fertilized eggs in you, they can split and that's how, as an example, that's how Octo Mom came about. Is that how that happened?

I was like, we'll just go back to the normal. It's all good. Thanks so much. You've like terrified me. Yeah. I just had an eight. Oh my God. And yes, I was like, okay, cool.

We'll just do the norm. That's hard enough, Sean. Get over yourself. Just do it. Anything worth having is gonna be hard work. So we went and had our third baby and it was a high risk pregnancy and that just rattled me.

It was called a threatened miscarriage. So your body tries to miscarriage the pregnancy but your cervix doesn't open. So it's kind of like a ticking bomb. You're just a ticking bomb. You got to lay down, keep your legs up. You can't do anything. That's like even sneezing is really dangerous. And that comes from 12 weeks all the way through. He came at and they come early as well because the sack that they live in thins and eventually the waters will break and you'll have the baby. So I managed to keep him in there till he was 35 weeks.

Did they pick that up on the 12 week scan? No, it basically I just started hemorrhaging like I was miscarrying and they checked and they're like, look, the baby's still alive, but this is a miscarriage. So you're just going to have to go home, hope for the best, come back in 24, 48 hours and we'll check to see if the baby survived. And I'm like, that's ruthless. That's so ruthless. Like that's all you get told. And so yeah, that was a really dark period.

Just laying there and ignoring basically anything outside. It's like an outer body experience. And you're just basically living in this shell for, it was a Friday, it happened so I had to wait till Monday. Oh wow. And when I came back Monday, I'm like, the bleeding's kind of slowed down. It's like getting better. Is everything good?

And you're just waiting to hear the heartbeat. And they're like, yeah, everything's good. But you have a huge hematoma. So that's the big hemorrhage, like the big bruising in there. And we can't guarantee anything. So yes, baby survived. You're just going to have to lay down and just stay down. And for me, I'm one ADHD unknown at the time,

running multiple businesses, have two young kids under, I don't know how old they were then. Anyways, they were so young. And then being so active, I trained at least once a day, minimum, and all my staff and then online presence on social media. And I was on an app called Sweat at the time and I had to be actively promoting online.

And so it was just so annoying and heavy and massively character building but we survived. He got to the 35 week period and came out six pounds which is small but fine for a 35 week absolutely perfect and he is our go-getter. He is our wild child and he's like our little nugget, a little runt of the family. He's just wild and he came out perfectly fine and I said to Sam done, done. Do not ever want to do that again yeah kids might be healthy done mm-hmm he was eight months old and my girlfriend put me on this flow app I don't know if you boys would even know what that is do I yes I don't it's a cycle app right it's a cycle app, right? It's a cycle app. So it basically tells you when you're ovulating, which my husband didn't know what that meant.

I didn't say it only like a couple of weeks ago. Anyways, she put me on this app and she's like, Shonnie, I know you're done having kids. So hop on the Flow app. I can't believe you never track. So here you go. You can track because you and Sam seem to fall pregnant on the toilet seat these days. I'm like... Just good at it. All right.

Now you're really like pepping him up. So anyways, I was like, perfect. Looked at it and I was like, oh, cool. We're not, I'm not ovulating. I'm like so far out of it. So one time, one time we were just like drinking or whatever. And you know how babies are made and bomb twins. Twins.

Talk about tempting fate with that conversation with the OB. Yeah. I feel like anything I think of happens. I keep manifesting. I just need to stop. What's the feeling like going, okay, well, we're pregnant. All right, we're going to have to deal with this. We're going to have a fourth.

And then it's like, no, you're going to have a fifth as well. What's that feeling? I had my, my friends were renovating the house and they have four kids. And I was like, don't go rent a house. Just come live at mine. I have one spare room and a big lounge room. It's typical Islander vibes, right? This is me. I'm like, everyone lives at my house. All good. Come here. Put your fridge in my dining room. Like, we'll be fine. We'll like have this beautiful Brady Bunch. And so I had them living with me. And I remember coming down going, guys, I'm pregnant.

And I threw the test at Sam when I found out. You did this. I was a yobo. Typical, typical. And then I went down, I told them. And I eventually had, I had so many shoots I had to do and I had to go to Melbourne and like film all this content and I couldn't understand why I was so unwell. I felt dizzy, like I needed to faint all the time.

I had nausea and I just was like, I'll get to the scan appointment. I'll book it in, I'll figure it out. But you know, fourth pregnancy, I'm just not eager to run and go figure it out. It's not so new, I'll book it in, I'll figure it out. But you know, fourth pregnancy, I'm just not eager to run and go figure it out. It's not so new, I guess. Yeah. And I was really busy. So I was just third with the issues you had done this before. Yeah, they just need you know, I know what it's like. And eventually I made it to the Q scan appointment, which you guys would have been at and they show you the little blob on the

with the little ticker. Yep. And I remember the lady sat me down and she goes, first baby. I'm like, no, fourth baby. Yeah. And I've been in this exact room, exact seat. This is the fourth time doing this. And she's like, okay. And I was like having a little joke, right. And I said to her, please just tell me there's only one baby,

otherwise I'm going to get up and throat punch my husband. And she's like, OK. Did not turn the screen on in front of us. She was doing her scan. I can't see her screen. And I said, oh, could you turn that on, please? She's like, oh, I can't reach. Like, I can. Oh, no. And I'm like, can, I can't reach. Like, I can.

Oh, no. And I'm like, can you turn the screen on? She goes, oh, no, no, no. I'll figure it out in a second. Sorry, this is just how I need to do it this way. And I'm like, I'm calling you. That's not right. Anyways, then I'm thinking, all right, something's wrong.

That's why she's not showing us. And she turns around and she goes, I need to go get my manager. Oh, fuck. And I need to go get my manager. Oh, fuck. Oh, OK. So she leaves the room and I looked at Sam and we it was like real heavy into Covid at that point, so we had a mask on and I'm just like, yeah. And then he's just looking at me with these big, like,

islander eyes, like I'm either going to be hit in a second or I'm going to have to consolidate my wife in a second. Like the poor man's just not sure what's going on. And the manager comes back in and she goes, all right, I want you to hold your husband's hand. And I was like, oh, bitch, come on. I'm freaking out. I hold his hand. I look at him and his eyes have gotten whiter and bigger. And she turns the TV on and I'm like, is that split screen? And because I left it so long, they weren't blobs with a ticker. They were full shapes, arms, legs, everything. And I was like, is that split? Because there was two sacks, two separate little babies. And she's like, no that split? So it's two sacks, two separate little babies. And she's like, no, oh, you're having twins.

And I just cried, so embarrassingly cried. And I'm like, I can't do this. And she's like, no, you'll be fine. Manager has no idea who I am and what my situation is. And I'm like, I've got a 10 month old or like a no, seven month old or something. And then I just started listing off the other ages and a three year old and a four year old. And she's like, do you have help?

I don't have a relationship with either parents. She's like, okay, well, I'll leave you for now and just left the room. See ya. Yeah. I'm not qualified for this. Sam, what did we do? And then he's like, just so you know, they are the healthiest type of twins. You can have separate sex, placentas are not even near each other.

They will not take each other's nutrients. They will be so big and healthy. And I'm just like. I don't want to hear that. I don't want to hear that. Yeah. I was sorry. I was just like dying inside.

I get in the car and then I just let it out for a few see crying like Kim K. Hiddeus, my best friend on FaceTime. She just thinks the worst has happened. Then she gives me this big like bitch wipe your face if there's anyone who can do this and gives me this full pep talk. And then I'm like, OK, sounds, should I not go to work today? Sitting next to me on the car like he doesn't exist. I'm just on the phone with my best friend.

I was like, oh, yeah, you're fine. I'm like, Sam, Sam's sort of like the cares so much, but will pat me. We always have this ongoing joke. We're like, we hugged as a child. Yeah, just like his love language is gift giving and doing things for people, not so much like physical touch. Okay. And I'm like, that's okay. I'm like, I've got airs, it's all good, babes, go to work.

I'm like, I'm just having a moment. And then yeah, it came to terms that we were having it, but then it turned out to be a threatened miscarriage again. So only weeks later that I started hemorrhaging, went back into the doctors and they're like, unheard of, but you're having the exact same thing again, legs up, do not move. And twin pregnancy is going to be worse. So then I went through it all again, knowing exactly what I was going to expect, knowing what to expect.

And then also having three little kids now to, to Menfor, and my husband just was phenomenal. Just took it, took everything over for me, helped run the business more. I was pumping content online for my app that I was working under. I had so much backed up content. So I was just trying to avoid the truth online

and just survive. And yeah, then they came early. They came so early. They came at 31 weeks on the dot. Can I be really stupid for a second? How many weeks is full term? 37, is it? 37 is healthy.

Bam. Very good from you. Thank you. Yeah, with twins, they're smaller than a singleton. So technically not the same size as a normal 31-weeker. So they came out and I remember getting rushed to hospital and saying to my doctor, I'm like, I'm not in labour. I'm fine. I'm fine. And he's like, you're in labour. Did that hurt? And like, you could just see the markers going up and down.

And he's like, look, they're going to come out, but I just need to prepare you that they could come out on separate days because it was 11 p.m. at the time, or around 11. And he's like, are you prepared to have twins on the separate days? I was like, don't take them out. Like, I don't even care about their birth. That's the least of my worries. I've never heard about that.

I've never heard about that ever happening where they're twins, but the birthdays are different. I didn't think about that. But like, Mike, he was born at like 1130 at night. If he was a twin, he could possibly be the kid. Could possibly. So did your waters break, Chantelle? Yeah, my waters broke.

Then I started like hemorrhaging and it was just a massive ordeal. We had to quickly get rid of the children and just dropped them at my friend's house and was like, please just feed them, bath them. There's nothing there. We just got to go in the ambulance, straight to the hospital.

And then, yeah, it was just kind of fast. It just kind of all happened. And when they came out, it was and I'll be honest, it was disgusting. They were translucent. They were so little. And and then they wrapped them in these bags to keep them warm. And I'm just like, this is so foreign for me, because I don't know with your children's births, but they come out, they do checks,

maybe a bit of oxygen, maybe a bit of sucking, and then they give them to you, and you go into the first little stage of recovery with a baby on your bed. Skin to skin, yep. Yep, and then you get moved into your suite, and it's like your whole new world for you. Like this is a whole new you.

Sam's kind of like, where do I go? Do I stay with my wife who is literally going through it? Or do I go with baby one or do I go with baby two? There's 30 plus people in the room because they need a whole unit for one child. Oh, it's really chaotic. Then they start wheeling them away. And I'm just like I am fine I've done this like you choose a child guy and so he's disappeared

I'm just laying there. I have no idea and I think that's that was F that was really really hard you go to recovery and the other nurses are like, how's your baby? And I'm like, I don't know. I had two actually. Like you feel so empty. You feel like you were doing so well surviving for these little ones. And then all of a sudden you don't have anything and you don't even have your husband next to you.

It's just you. And no control of information either. You're not sure. You're in recovery. And like as dads experience watching our wives in recovery and how tough it is for them. So I can imagine you lying there thinking, okay, I'm in recovery. I don't know where my kids are. I don't know how they're feeling.

I also don't know how I'm feeling and then how my husband's feeling either. I can't imagine how that would have been for you. And in an ADHD brain, that was the first time I had to surrender. I had to put my trust in strangers. I had to completely surrender and just trust that the universe, just what had to happen, like for whatever reason, this is my path and you just need to lean into it and trust it and pay attention. I'm assuming you're waiting for some kind of information about what state the kids

are in. Do you remember who that came from? No, it was such a blur. I don't even remember much about that first 24 hour period. Other than nine hours after I had the caesarean, I attempted to stand up and get up and take the catheter and everything out and I've just had a caesarean. But I remember the only way I could really see the children is if I could show them that I could get up and hop into a wheelchair.

And I would milk it for 24 hours after the first three births. I was terrified of standing up. And my guts falling out and things like that. And yeah, I was just so determined and got up, proved them that I could sit up straight. I wasn't going to pass out. I could go. You have to prove that you go to the toilet and everything like that. So I healed remarkably fast with that pregnancy purely because I got my body moving.

And this is what they always encourage is don't lay down, get up and move. Power of the mind is remarkable. And when you're faced with the temptation of like you can do the hard and you'll get to see your kids. Don't do the hard, you just have to miss out right now. And I got up, went to go see them and then I realised for sure how tiny they were and I remember I could put my wedding ring over their hand. And yeah, it was, they were covered in everything. You couldn't really see their face. I didn't know what they really looked like.

And then when they're like, you're ready for your first skin to skin experience. And I'm trying to hop into this bed and recline back. And I'm just like, my God is killing me. But I don't want to show that I'm in that much pain because they're going to tell me, go to your room. Yeah. No, just pull through it.

You'll be fine. Like do it for the kids. When they put them on me, I was like, what is actually physically touching me? I can't even feel them touching me. There's so much on them. Yeah. I remember seeing a photo, Chantelle,

and they have the oxygen masks over their face. And they're so small as well. It's almost like equal parts medical equipment to the baby. Yes. Premier babies, you don't lightly touch. You don't just brush them. You just got to put baby. Yes. Premier babies, you don't lightly touch, you don't just brush them. You just got to put pressure on them. There's nothing like it.

They don't like being tickled or. Yeah, it's different. Like you don't feel like you can be soft and gentle with them. You kind of just feel like you just got to put a warm blanket on and just like firm cuddle. Yeah, it was so weird. It was really hard. How long until you were able to go home? I milked as long as I could and I got to stay, I think it was five days or four days.

That's not that long. It was such a blur. It's not that long though, is it? So you could leave, but you had to leave them behind, is that correct? That's when it hit you because at that time you're still technically under the same roof. Like logically, I'm still in the same house. Even though I sleep in a separate room, I had a TV screen that I could watch them on the TV screen and see them like there. As soon as I'd wake up, I'd quickly have my brekkie and go straight downstairs and just

tag team cuddling each one. And then Sam obviously left, he had to stay home here with the three kids. So I'm doing this on my own, he'd come up as much as he could, plus obviously take over the workload that I would normally do. When it came to leaving, that's when it really hit home, because where we had them was in the city where we live was about 50 minutes away. So where you have them at the Marta, you can't walk to the car park, It's like huge hills and you're just not really in that fit form at the moment to do that. So a lot of the moms, they sit at this bench seat, undercover bench seat, and there's a drive-out point, almost like a ballet park. And then the fathers come and they take the baby, take the mom, and off they go and scoot off.

So I'm sitting there waiting for Sam to get the car and it like walking at the hospital, take the mom, and off they go and scoot off. So I'm sitting there waiting for Sam to get the car, and like, walking out the hospital, horrible, and then sitting there and just being reminded by watching other parents leave with their babies that you don't have that. Yeah. That was like, just breathe, get through it for whatever reason, lean into it, surrender.

They need, like, to be honest, I wouldn't want them home. I didn't know what the hell to do with these babies. I didn't know how to look after them. They were so tiny. So at the same time, you're like, I need you to stay here. I need to attend to three other kids. But it really sucks. It's that feeling I can't imagine of leaving after all of that

and then thinking, shit, well, I'm not even getting to leave with them at the moment. You feel a bit like empty. Oh, for sure. And how long were they there before you could bring them home? Almost six weeks. That's a long time. It's a long juggle because I can't drive for seven days or a little bit longer.

Then that's a 50 minute commute, 50 minute commute back. We've got to sort out the other kids, but we also have to go on to work and things like that. So talk about a tough situation being made even tougher. Now I can understand when children are sick and parents have to relocate, why they would relocate because the cost of parking, the commute, the time it takes away from the other kids and it's huge. And we only had to do it for five and a half weeks.

Yeah. When you did have all five kids at home, how was that logistically? Cause I'm one of five, but we're really spaced out the youngest and oldest. It's I'm going to get this way wrong. If my family listened to this, I'd be like, what are you talking about? But it could be, I think it's about 12 or 13 years between youngest and oldest. So really spread out. So we were fortunate that the eldest was able to step in

and help out, whereas your situation was different because your kids are so young. How the hell do you guys manage with five little kids? It was terrifying to say the least. And my five year old, who was the eldest at the time. Get to work. He could barely remember where he put his shoes. I mean, he's got ADHD.

Like his working memory is shocking. And he still needs help to do certain things as well. And like still gets out of his bed when we're trying to put him to bed. Like there was so much to navigate around. But the blessing in this is I was given two babies that were fully routine. Hospitals, NICU, they routine them, they are on a schedule,

they get fed at a certain time, and then they're not carried all the time. They're made to sleep in bright light, heaps of noise, of course, there's always monitors going off. Yeah. They are bathed the same way all the time. They have bandages getting ripped off them. Their heels are horrendous from getting blood test pricks.

They're just poked and prodded and resilient as they're the most resilient kids. I bet. So when they came home, yes, they would kick on and scream like they had a little situation with reflux and I don't know if you had reflux babies, but it's pretty bad. But other than that, they were routine and I didn't breastfeed these two. I chose not to just for sanity and for logistically working as a family. That was probably my saving grace because I had my husband to help and I didn't get sleep deprivation because I was able to know when I could sleep and when I couldn't.

Whereas with breastfeeding, it was feed on demand. Yeah. And I'm the only one that can do it. And at that point, both of us being tied. But yeah, so when we got home and we had all five, it was just survive. Yeah, I can imagine. Honestly. I'm just going to say that you guys have done such an amazing job. It's so hard with two

kids. I'm imagining adding three more in the mix. Those are two of which are twins. And you're trying to run your own business, which is, you know, it's a lot harder than a normal nine to five. Well done. Thank you. Thanks so much. Huge effort. Like, oh. It definitely builds you up as a parent. And I mean, as you said, you have two and it's hard.

Two was hard for us. Don't get me wrong. Three was hard for us. They were all hard. And my husband always says that to people that approach him, he's like, they were all hard. All stages were hard. It's just you have no choice but to make this your new hard.

Brut your teeth and get it done. But now that you're at five, have a sixth. Really keep an eye on that flow app, all right? We don't need to worry about flow because flow is in the bin. Five weeks postpartum, I and Sam booked in for him to get the snip. Okay, good. I could not get my cheves tied in Armada Hospital without a medical reason for it because it is-

Surely having five kids is a medical reason. That's a medical reason. Why? Because I've got a fucking army. But yeah, religious, for the religious reasons, that hospital won't let you do it. And that's fine. So Sam went and took one for the team at five weeks postpartum. You're the real hero, Sam. The real hero.

I've been I've been snipped as well and I walk around my house like a hero. So the appointment. So you're going to understand this. What I'm going to say, OK, you went to the appointment and Sam rings me up in the car park and he goes, he's called Dr. Dick. His name's Richard. Of course.

You come to the right place. Perfect. Went to the same college as our OB, like random. But anyways, he goes, Sean, he's saying you can come in, you can actually watch the surgery. I'm like, on it, here I come. It's like watching an execution. I'm like holding his shoulders and like going you've got this I'm at that end of the bed and then he goes no come down here and take some videos and

photos this guy's hilarious I'm like okay so I stand there he's chest and he's like do you want to do the honors and stuff it and I'm like no because of that thing reattaches I'm dead I'm like remove a chainsaw. I'm like, remove it. Don't just sniff it. Remove it. Anyways, so I'm filming it and it's just so funny. He's playing with it. It's just really, I'm like, wow, we really flipped the tables. Anyways, he gets it all done. I video it so Sam can show all the bros. And we get to the recovery bit where the nurse is like, okay, so here's the aftercare. He can't do any heavy lifting. And I'm just like, I've still got it. I just had two kids taken out of me five weeks ago. They're still in the NICU at the moment. I'm like, but poor

Sam over here with the one stitch. Poor guy. It was heavy and it was really confronting. My heart bleeds. They also mentioned that how, I mean, you've got what, three months and X amount of ejaculates before you've got to get tested. Did he go back and get tested? So she's looking at me and she goes, okay, so, hon, he needs to ejaculate 27 times. I'm like, I'll cut you here. He.

Why are you looking at me? I know, yeah. And I was like, and she goes, oh, and Sam's like, Shonnie, shut up. Shon, stop. If you leave it to him, it'll be done in three days. Excuse me, I just gave birth to two babies, babies four and five. They're all under six.

And that was five weeks ago. He will be getting himself off 27 times and she's just like, okay, so Sam and Sam's just like, challenge accepted. He's like, Shonnie is so embarrassing. But yeah, no, I haven't been retested. Me either. So kid you not, probably one person I know that's had it done has actually had the retest done. But him and his brother need to go get retested. I thought that could be a cute thing they could do together. Family activity. Family activity.

Hey, Chantelle, there's a story that we found out about your situation. I know this is a bit of a traumatic one. It's probably every parent's worst fear, but it involved the swimming pool. Two years ago, pretty much in a couple of weeks, it'll be two years to the date. That, yeah, that was, you just, you know, it's a possibility. You know how to protect everything you do, everything by the book. But there's things that you cannot control. And one for us is the fact that we have older,

there's more than one child. We could be as safe and shut front doors, shut garage doors, shut pool gates, fix things, put things away, but you can't see what the older ones are doing and what they're forgetting to put away or what they're forgetting to check all the time. And yeah, that was the 22nd or 23rd of December. We were prepping

the house. Sam and I were running around like headless chooks while the twins were sleeping or not crying and trying to clean the house and get it ready for all our family to come And I just remember seeing Paris, our third child. He is the bravest kid. He literally has no fear. And this is how it happened. This is the issue is our boys are so boisterous and they have no fear. And I remember watching him jump on the trampoline.

They do it after they go for a swim to dry off and they call it like being a lizard. They lay down on the mat on the tramp and they're all jumping. swim to dry off and they call it like being a lizard. They lay down on the mat on the tramp and they're all jumping. And then I remember looking back and he wasn't in the trampoline and he's so loud. So, you know where he is. And I turned and I noticed that the pool gate was lightly opened. There was a toy in the way, like a seat thing.

And I just remember dropping my phone and then walking close. I couldn't see anything in the pool because he was so tucked up against the wall. And I remember walking and I saw the head and I just screamed like bloody murder Sam's name. It was like the worst like exorcism voice that came out. Neighbors, everyone heard it. I jumped in, grabbed him, and he was just dead flop, like complete flop. Oh my gosh. My husband came running out, and I almost just like dropped him into his arms, and then he's screaming,

call the ambulance, call the ambulance. And I couldn't find my phone. I didn't know what I did with it. And so I'm running inside trying to check everything, and could not find a phone, and he's yelling, call the ambulance, as he's applying performing CPR. And then I find it I call them and by the time they answer I turn around and Paris is up and Sam's holding him and he's

just like crying but he's like fine yeah so I'm calling I'm telling them what's happened they're coming straight over we were able to check the camera footage so that we could tell them exactly how long he had gone under for And also for the council that they come and they check for negligence So yeah, we had everything to make sure that out we were to the strict Queensland safety guidelines like our pool and everything like, you know, it wasn't our negligence and how that happened to the child. And he was under for two minutes, ten. Fuck. Far out.

So long. Like goosebumps. And he was only two. Two years old. He was tiny. He blacked out at one minute, twenty. You can see him just give up. I couldn't watch the video.

Sam sent it to me when I was in hospital, but I didn't watch it. But he watched it. And I don't think I'll ever watch it, to be honest. But we went into hospital. They did all the checks. They did all the scans. And they come in, and this is the end of our journey there.

We stayed overnight. They're like, OK, the report is there is not one single thing wrong with your son. They can't find a single thing. He has blocked his, like, completely blocked. So no fluid went down. Nothing went in his lungs. He's not at risk of pneumonia, anything.

There's no temperature on your child. There is nothing. He's passing all the neurological tests and things like that. I'm assuming they're kind of saying this. They're like, that's a miracle. Yeah. Oh my god. And he didn't take any water in to his lungs?

Nothing. His body just locked it. Muscle? Like a muscle contracted or something? Yeah. He's just suffocated like... It doesn't normally happen and definitely not at that age. We walked out of that hospital, literally both just walked out of that hospital and they're like, count your blessings and Merry Christmas. And I was like, holy shit. Did you like, go straight away after that? I would have like, conquered the bull up. Oh my gosh. We were like, and we didn't

have to tell our boys because they were shocked. They were, they saw the whole thing. Yeah, scary. We went straight online and I was like, if there is one thing that I can do to try redeem the situation is everyone's going to be around a pool for Christmas with their friends and family and they're all going to drop the ball. They're all going to turn a blind eye. They're all going to be more relaxed. They're going to they're not going to think about what the older kids might be doing.

And so we went online and we just spread, we fully spread the awareness of you need to watch pool gates. You need to be on the ball. You need to allocate someone to consistently watch the kids in the pool and check the gates. And just like, yeah. You know, if it makes you feel any better, but when Marley was really young, we only had, um, I think Lola might've been a newborn at our old house, we had a little paddle pool and stupidly, we know not to fill it up any like any higher than like ankle deep water, but we filled it up really high and we had friends over. And it was one of those situations where you're kind of entertaining.

You got friends over. Laura and I kind of got lost on who's looking after Marley. We had a front and a backyard. The paddle pool was in the front. And it got to a point where we said, where's Marley? And we were looking around, couldn't find her. And luckily she was just too small. She was trying.

She'd been trying to climb into the paddle pool, which was filled up. Like she, and she was only, you know, she was crawling at this stage. And, you know, we all, we think, gosh, it's so easy to just lose them for a split second. And you think, you mentioned before, you're like two minutes, 10, that's a long time, but you think, gosh, it could have been, could have been so much worse. Oh yeah.

It's just like things can change in an instance and you just never ever want to take away the joy in each day and the opportunity to have each day. I think that's what really brought us closer as a unit is like, it might be really hard to have five kids, but we would never change it for the world. And to have that dangled in front of us with the twins and then also with that situation was like we are so lucky and so blessed like we would never ever complain about having five kids ever. I don't think anyone would but I just I know that those moments have really shone forward for us to be so appreciative of the blessing and the opportunity to have five healthy babies and to have these situations that we've managed to

take lessons away with without having the full hardship of what could have been. Yeah. Hey, I got to ask Chantelle, my good friend Ash over here has just joined the gym. And not to put him on the spot, but if ever there was a time to ask an expert on the topic of fitness, we're talking to one of the fittest moms in the country. Do you have any advice for Ash right now who was getting back into the gym? Well, first of all, I have my own app, New Forms. There's my famous plug. Jump on, get it going.

No, but honestly, following a program, going there and thinking, I'm going to go in there and do chest on Monday, chest on Tuesday, chest on Wednesday. That's my exact plan. Because the bigger the chest, the smaller the shirt won't touch the tummy. That's actually really smart. I'm going to run with that. No. So first of all, follow a program, making sure that you've got structure.

You're training with a purpose. There's intention behind your training. Not pushing you from, but in New Form there is a low impact strength program, which is all scientifically backed that program. So it's very, it's got the repetitiveness to it so that you can consistently work on edging out improvement. So lifting heavier and getting that progressive overload, which is just going to build you up, which is obviously an easier way to burn fat than having to do hours of cardio.

But the other thing, nutrition is key and hitting your protein. So making sure that you eat the right amount of protein each day to complement the both. So, yeah. How much protein in beer? And if I hit my protein goals through beer, does that count? Absolutely not. But you will does that count? Absolutely not. But you will find that's a good balance. There's good.

You got to, you got to have low stress. So, I mean, if that lowers your stress, perfect. Um, but no, hit your protein and train in a structured way that is intentionally making sure that every time you hit the gym, you're actually training with progression, you're not just going there because it's, um, fluffy and it makes you feel good and you get away from the kids. Remind us the name of the app. It's called Newform, N-E-U, form, and it's available on Apple, Android. It's got a seven-day free trial and, yeah, it's my baby.

It's the way that we have transformed hundreds and hundreds of lives throughout our gym history. And now we're making it available for people around the world. And we'll leave it in the show notes of this as well. And thank you for the advice. Actually, I needed that. I can't wait to see the new Ash. I'm going to be jacked. Take before photos because marketing.

We just released a calendar that's got plenty of before photos. Trust me. I did see that. I would like to get one for my husband because now you guys seem to be best friends. We will send one to Queensland. Don't worry about that. Hey, last question before we go. We always ask our guests, what would be the one thing you want your kids to remember about

the house they grew up in? I want them to remember they had just so much spontaneous fun. Like growing up, there was so much spontaneous fun, whether it's like, we're about to go to bed, screw it, let's go in the pool. Let's have a night swim or, you know, let's have a dance party because someone had a bad day. Or let's just go for two nights camping.

Like let's just take a couple of swags and we'll do the crude sleeping pile technique. Just random, spontaneous fun because my husband is an absolute clown and he keeps me like living life to its fullest. So I just hope my children can see that in our family. I love that. I know I've said it before, but I've got to say it again. You guys are doing such an amazing job, not just with raising a family, but also with your business as well. So keep it up. It's bloody impressive. Thank you so much. I appreciate it guys.

And I appreciate coming on and having a chat. Five kids, I don't know how you do it. It's crazy. It's crazy. But Chantelle, thank you so much. Appreciate it guys. Thank you. That is one of the more intense conversations I think I've had. I didn't plan on it being that hectic, but hearing about a child almost drowning,

you're like, holy shit. I do recall looking at myself in the camera and my facials were pretty... Drawing the floor. I was like... Holy shit. Such an awesome chat. Huge thanks to Chantel for jumping on the pod.

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