Pregnant Libby Trickett on how she really feels about going from three to four kids

Olympian Libby Trickett – who is expecting her fourth child in May, 2023 – has opened up about how she feels about soon transitioning from three to four kids.

Speaking to Bounty Parents, the 38-year-old says whether you’re welcoming your first or fourth child, there is always a feeling of the great unknown.

“I’d be lying if I didn’t have moments where I’m like, I have no idea how I’m going to work this out but I think that happens for every single child,” says Libby.

“For your first, you have no idea what to expect. The second one is, ‘I have no idea how I’m going to love another human as much as I love the first one’. By number three, I think you start to realise that it is complete chaos. By number four, I’m really excited.”

Libby says being pregnant and growing a human is a “miracle”.

“It’s such a beautiful miracle of a thing to be able to bring a human into the world. I’m really appreciating that part of it this time around. It’s a miracle what has to happen and what actually goes on in your body to make a human from scratch,” she says.

“I acknowledge that it is complete chaos, but there’s such joy in the chaos and in learning about the different personalities that my kids have and the different ways that they challenge me. I’m mostly excited about getting to share it with the girls now being a little bit older as well.”

Libby, who shares daughters Poppy, seven, Edwina, five, and three-year-old, Bronte, with her husband Luke Trickett, also opened up about how physically difficult she has been finding this pregnancy.

“I don’t want to scare people if they haven’t been pregnant or may have fertility issues. I try to speak to my own experience, but I find pregnancy really hard. In the last seven days I haven’t exercised at all, it has all been about sleeping because my body has needed rest,” she says.

“Which is a big shift as usually I can push through things which I had to do when I was swimming but I had to force myself to stop.”

Libby admits she’s just one of those women who doesn’t find pregnancy easy.

“Some women just sashay through pregnancy,” she laughs. “I am not a sashayer. I am a clod-hopper. And I’ve come to understand and accept that about myself. Obviously, I am incredibly grateful that I am able to have my fourth baby, it’s such a privilege. I always make a joke that we’re completely crazy and love chaos. I hope saying this helps people feel a little bit less alone.”

The swim champion credits yoga to helping maintain her physical and mental health.

“I started doing some yoga when I was swimming and then I continued to do it because I guess intellectually or logically I understood the benefits of the mental aspects but certainly that physicality of it as well,” she says.

“I’ve been doing it on and off for the better part of a decade or more. Early last year I decided to challenge myself to 30 days of yoga. It wasn’t 31 hour-long sessions, it was literally showing up on my mat for five minutes, if that’s all I had capacity for at that time. I loved it and I decided to do my yoga teacher training course.”

Libby’s love for yoga then lead her to launching a new business.

“I then started an online women’s health business with my business partner Paula called Unlocking Her Potential. It’s all about yoga, journaling and meditation. I don’t do it every day at the moment because my body asks for it some days and doesn’t ask for it other days,” she says.

“It’s a beautiful way for me to decompress at the end of the day. To use my body but to connect with my breath, slow my mind and the thoughts that can come racing at me from time to time and get out of my brain and into my body.”