Tell us a bit about yourself?

My name is Tiahn McMullen, I’m a 30 year old woman, wife, proud mum of 1 (soon to be 2), daughter, sister, food lover (mainly pasta and pizza), cross-fitter and adventurer.

What were you doing before babies?

My husband and I always wanted to kids and knew it was something we wanted to do early on. So we spent a lot of time enjoying each others company, drinking wine, eating good food, travelled to Europe, explored lots of National Parks, lots of weekends away and completely renovated our family home. Oh and the usual; working, cleaning and cooking

How did you come to be a mum?

I had a very long journey becoming a mum. My husband and I tried to conceive for four years. We went through 6 months of ovulation tracking, 6 months of ovulation induction (hormone medication), four failed IVF rounds and two miscarriages. The whole process was a lot to deal with, we had lots of ups and downs, but my husband and I committed to staying positive and trusted the medical professionals would do what they could to give us our miracle baby.

We started our IVF journey at a bulk billing practice in Sydney however we decided it was worth investing the money and moved to Genea IVF specialist centre in Canberra. With various changes to medications, our first implanted Embryo was successful! Every day after that for the following 3 months we’re the toughest; expecting it to all fall apart and come crashing down was almost an hourly thought. It wasn’t until maybe 6 months and I was able to enjoy and celebrate our little miracle.

We are thankful every day for Laken and I am so proud of my husband and I for getting through the process and how strong our relationship grew as a result.

Sending love and strength to all those parents out there going through a similar journey, I truely hope you are blessed with your own little miracle.

What has your feeding journey been like?

We had a positive breastfeeding journey, which I’m very grateful for. I was initially worried about it but it came quite naturally. I decided to finish breast feeding at 8 months, as Laken was doing really well with solids and I felt it was time to ‘get my body back’.

What has sleep been like in your house?

The first 6 months were as expected; we were finding our groove, we had a quite a few long nights and lots of naps being cuddled until I finally decided to try a soft approach to sleep training. It was our saving grace. Little Laken has slept through (minus those nights during leaps, teething and sicknesses) ever since!

The hardest bits…

The constant battle of questioning myself . ‘Is this the right thing to do? …. Is he sick? ……‘This article says don’t do it but this one does, so should I? ‘…..He has a rash, his poo is green.. but now lumpy’ ….‘How long should he sleep for? when?’…. The list goes on. There is ALOT of research, articles and advice out there from a range of sources, it can be hard to seperate yourself from it all, which puts additional pressure on new mums.

The best bits…

Watching Laken become his own little human! From his first little smile, crawling, laughing, walking, exploring the outdoors, testing the boundaries (only with mum of course!) and just everyday tasks like helping with the cleaning, gardening and the best part is finishing the day off with seeing his cheeky smile!!

How do you make time for you?

Before COVID and being pregnant (2nd baby on the way) I loved catching up with friends (coffee or wine depending on how the day has gone!), lounging around watching my favourite TV shows (vampire diaries is a fav!) and when I can jumping into a class at CrossFit SFS (free crèche most days!)

What’s next for you and your family?

I’m currently baking our second miracle baby; due in December. We are extremely grateful that my body knew exactly what to do and we conceived naturally (oh and it was not planned).

A piece of advice for our readers?

The best advice I can give is something that was passed down from a lovely friend of mine…”Ignore all the advice people give you! Trust your instincts and go with what you think is best!”