Things don’t tend to go according to plan when it comes to newborns, and that’s certainly the case for new parents Simon Pryce and Lauren Hannaford.
WATCH BELOW: Red Wiggle Simon Pryce and wife Lauren Hannaford’s gender reveal
“He was sleeping peacefully and now he’s just been crying his eyes out, wanting a feed,” Pryce, otherwise known as the Red Wiggle, laughs when WHO catches up with the pair.
It’s been two weeks since the birth of their son, Asher William, and the new parents are naturally a “little bit tired”. But from the sounds of Asher’s contented sighs in the background, it seems Pryce, 48, and his fitness professional wife, 34, have already got this parenting thing down pat.
“So far he’s been pretty consistent with his sleeps and feeds, so we’ve had a little bit of a routine,” explains Pryce. “But we understand that’s going to change at any second.”
With Pryce normally touring with The Wiggles for much of the year and Hannaford busy with her own online fitness program, the couple admit it’s been “amazing to have some time at home together”.
“It’s been a really beautiful experience,” Hannaford says.
Here, the pair open up to WHO about their journey to parenthood, their first weeks with Asher and their plans for a Wiggles family tour …
Congratulations on little Asher’s arrival. How are you both feeling?
HANNAFORD: A little bit tired, of course. But everything’s really exciting and really fun and new. So we’re loving every moment of it.
Did everything go according to plan with Asher’s arrival?
HANNAFORD: I was meant to go for surgery [to remove ovarian cysts] prior to falling pregnant and then we found out we were pregnant two days before I was due to have the operation. So [the doctors] said, “Look, let’s just do a caesarean section and the surgery at the same time, so that you don’t have to try and come back in once you’ve got a newborn and have another operation.” Everything went really well and the results have come back all fine, which is really great.
PRYCE: [The birth] was quite amazing though, within 15 minutes there was a little baby popping out. I think because [the caesarean] was planned and we had a date and a time; you kind of then get worried that it won’t go to plan.
HANNAFORD: He stayed in there, he behaved himself!
You had been trying for a while before falling pregnant with Asher. What was that experience like for you as a couple?
PRYCE: We were trying for a couple of years. Prior to that, I mean, we always wanted to start a family. But with my workload and travelling as much as I normally do, which is about nine months a year, it’s quite tricky when you’re away from each other that much. But we kind of just took it in our stride really, we didn’t know what to expect. And as everybody says, once you relax about it and don’t stress anymore, well, then all of a sudden you fall pregnant – which was exactly what happened!
HANNAFORD: The one month we sort of didn’t think about it so much because we had the surgery planned, we then fell pregnant – it was a long process to fall pregnant. Like Simon said, we just took it in our stride and each month that passed would just sort of be another month. We didn’t get too disheartened by it and just sort of trusted that it would work out the way it was supposed to. And now he’s here!
Does it seem surreal now he’s in your arms?
HANNAFORD: Absolutely. We keep having moments like, “Oh my goodness, a week and a half ago he was in my belly and now he’s here!”
PRYCE: And then we’re in the kitchen making a coffee and we’ll be like, “Hang on a minute, there’s a baby in the other room!” It’s funny though, now you actually can’t imagine your life any differently.
Tell us about his name. Did you have it picked out for a while?
HANNAFORD: We kept on pretending that we weren’t fully committed to the name Asher for ages, but we did sort of practise walking into his room and going, “Hey, Asher!” And writing his name out and all that fun stuff. But we did get sold from the meaning of Asher – the name means blessed and happy.
PRYCE: Names are hard, I found it really quite tricky to be confident to commit to a name that someone’s going to have for the rest of their life. But we had a few in the mix and Asher just sort of stood out. And as Loz said, the meaning of it just sealed the deal.
Lauren, you’ve also just introduced your other baby, too – FHIT-natal. Did your own pregnancy inspire the program?
Yeah, definitely. I had thought about it for some time, obviously because we’d been trying to fall pregnant for a while. But I thought, “Once I’m pregnant and going through that journey, I feel like I could create workouts for other pregnant mums, or mums who are post-natal because I’ve experienced it myself.” I didn’t feel totally comfortable to be able to give that sort of advice or guidance without having gone through that experience myself.
How important was it for you to stay fit and active during your pregnancy?
I think it’s just really good for your mental health to keep that movement going, obviously as safely as possible during pregnancy because it’s a different experience for everyone. I stayed very active but if I was tired and I didn’t feel like it, then I just didn’t do it. The last few weeks of pregnancy I only felt like walking, so that was all I did and it was great!
And Simon, The Wiggles are celebrating their 30-year anniversary so it will no doubt be a big year for you as well?
We’re celebrating our 30 years with our new song ‘We’re All Fruit Salad’, and we’re quarantining then touring New Zealand in March. We’re going to attempt to get Lauren and Asher to come over as well and we’ll have our first little family tour. We thought we may as well jump in and make it work with Asher as best we can from the very beginning.
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