The road to concieving a baby can be a rocky one, and not quite as sexy as you might think according to Zoe Marshall, co-host of Mamamia‘s parenting podcast, The Baby Bubble.

Marshall, 32, who co-hosts the podcast with Sean Szeps, shares 10-month-old son Fox with her NRL player husband Benji Marshall.

“I think I want to get impregnated,” she announced in this week’s episode to Szeps, who has 16-month-old twins named  Stella and Cooper with his husband, Josh.

“This is shocking because I never thought I wanted children, ever,” she said. “Especially [because] for the first six months, you’re like ‘my vagina is closed for business”.”

LISTEN: Zoe Marshall and Sean Szeps talk about trying for a baby on The Baby Bubble podcast. Post continues.

Marshall admitted she was surprised to be feeling the desire to conceive again, because she hadn’t forgotten how intense a newborn baby can be to care for.

“There was no sleep, and my boobies were sore, and you lose your partner,” she said on the podcast. “I don’t know if I can not do the newborn stage again. I don’t know if I can not be pregnant again.”

After saying that it “was a true miracle I had my son” Marshall went on to say “I feel like something has shifted in me so deeply, that I’m willing to give it a go.”

But there’s one part of having a baby that the mum-of-one said she wasn’t looking forward to: the baby-making part.

“The ‘trying to have a baby sex’ – ughhh,” she said to Szeps with a mock groan, explaining that the structure and repetitiveness of timing conception could be tedious.

“Like, you’ll do sex every single day. That’s not as fun as when you first met,” she said, which Szeps responded to with laughter.

But Marshall wasn’t done making her point.

“Having the sex every day, it’s like – ok – again, again, again, again.”

“It’s like groundhog day,” she joked.

 

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This time last year we were in hospital getting induced to bring little Fox into the world. I secretly think you were stoked so we didn’t have to celebrate your birthday, you’ve always hated birthdays.. which is why today I pretended to forget your birthday. My gift to you. I know you loved it. You are my greatest joy and love and I can’t wait to smooch you! You are an incredible man in every way. I love you @benji6marshall a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU

A post shared by Zoe Marshall (@zoebmarshall) on Feb 24, 2019 at 1:51pm PST

Not that she and Benji didn’t make an effort in that department.

“You try and mix it up, and you put on different lights and music, but there’s only so many ways you can butter a piece of toast,” Marshall laughed.

“And then you decide, you’re gonna just flow with it, but you’ve had so much sex, that you could leave it for six months.”

All of which is why Marshall said “even getting into the trying” was daunting – even though the desire for another child is strong.

Earlier in the podcast series, the mum revealed that she had initially been reluctant to start a family, and husband Benji had to encourage her to make a decision.

“I pushed off having kids for such a long time, that actually, we did have a very strong conversation where he was like, ‘If you don’t want this, I don’t know that we can be together’.”

Marshall also revealed that she was proud of Benji for being clear with what he wanted.

“He said that I tricked him because he said at the beginning I did want [kids], but then I was really scared to have a kid.”

Of course, it’s an entirely different situation for Marshall, now.

Speaking about Fox, she said, “Who would I have been if I didn’t do this? I cannot imagine my life without him.”

Listen to the rest of episode 6 of The Baby Bubble where Sean Szeps and Zoe Marshall talk about thinking of the next baby, kids on social media and postnatal depression.

How soon after your first child did you start thinking about the next one? Tell us in the comments below.