dad to five adult children<\/a>, still can\u2019t quite believe their luck. <\/p>\n\u201cShe has slept through the night from the age of 3 months and she eats anything you put in front of her,\u201d she marvels. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s great because we can use her to encourage Iggy to eat things he won\u2019t eat. We\u2019ll say, \u2018Look, baby loves cheese, try the cheese\u2019 and off he goes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Iggy has taken big brotherhood in his stride. Heather says Iggy is a kind boy \u201cwith a lot of energy!\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds, \u201cHe\u2019s a bolter, he\u2019ll take off and we have to chase him. He\u2019s very full-on. But he\u2019s also extremely sweet and he\u2019s been nothing but kind to his baby sister. He\u2019s loved her, cuddled her and looked after her.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Heather is happy to report that life right now feels settled and happy \u2013 a welcome change after some rocky years. In 2023, Barry underwent emergency open heart surgery, with post-operative complications leaving him hospitalised for three months. The couple has endured periods living in different cities and has moved house several times, including relocating from Wellington to Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, comparatively speaking, I have to say that even though life is super busy and challenging, and all that with fulltime jobs and little kids, compared to moving cities and houses, and husbands nearly dying, it\u2019s pretty damn okay!\u201d she tells.<\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The household functions well with support from a nanny and Heather\u2019s devoted mum. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
In a typical week when the couple is back at work, they have their routine down to a fine art. With support from a nanny and Heather\u2019s devoted mum \u2013 or Oumie as the kids call their South African grandma \u2013 Heather says the household functions well. On a good day, Heather will even fit in a session at the gym, something she\u2019s doing her best to prioritise. She jokes that she\u2019d dreamed of \u201cgetting shredded\u201d for this summer, but didn\u2019t quite get there.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s still my goal, though. I want abs. I want muscles!\u201d<\/p>\n
And as Heather journeys through her early forties, she says this decade is shaping up to be the best yet. Friends had told her that turning 40 was something to celebrate and now she can see why.<\/p>\n
\u201cA friend of mine said your forties are a real awakening for women, particularly for women who have children, because all of a sudden you start to know yourself in a way that you haven\u2019t before. And lots of people told me that it is around this age that you stop apologising for who you are \u2013 and that has 100% happened. I\u2019m very honest about who I am \u2013 all of my flaws, but also the good stuff as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heather knows it sounds a bit New Age, but she\u2019s learned to be kinder to herself.<\/p>\n
She explains, \u201cI\u2019m not perfect, no one is, but I\u2019m trying to celebrate the good stuff a bit more. This stage of life is about really not giving quite as many shits as before. You can\u2019t actually change who you are anyway, so you might as well embrace it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year, Heather was both amazed and thrilled to take home the top radio honour at the NZ Radio & Podcast Awards in Auckland, where she was awarded the Sir Paul Holmes Broadcaster of the Year trophy. The accolade meant a great deal, she says, particularly because it bears the name of one of broadcasting\u2019s greats.<\/p>\n
![\"Heather]()
Heather says she\u2019s found a calm, mindful balance between home and career. Photo \/ Babiche Martens<\/p>\n
\u201cI count myself very lucky to have met him and to have had him impart some of his wisdom on me,\u201d Heather says. \u201cFor that reason alone, receiving an award that carries his name feels incredibly special. But it\u2019s also special when you think about the depth of talent we have in radio in this country. Radio in New Zealand is incredibly healthy and stacked with people who could hold their own anywhere in the world. To be recognised among that group\u2026 Sometimes I still sit there and think, \u2018Did that really happen?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Receiving the award fresh from maternity leave made the moment even sweeter. Heather admits that, like many mothers, taking three months off with baby Mackay knocked her confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was definitely that fear of, \u2018Can I still do this job?\u2019\u201d she tells. \u201cI think I really overhyped in my head how hard it was going to be with two kids.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"]()
<\/p>\n
As she prepares to head back to work, Heather says she\u2019s found a calm, mindful balance between her two worlds \u2013 home and career. When she\u2019s on holiday with her children<\/a>, she neither longs to return to work nor dreads it. Instead, she\u2019s learned to fully embrace each phase as it comes. Knowing Mackay is likely her last baby, Heather has been especially intentional about savouring the small moments.<\/p>\n\u201cI was reading a book to Iggy last night and in the front, the author\u2019s inscription said, \u2018Enjoy it, parents. Enjoy it while it lasts.\u2019 I know there\u2019ll come a time when my boy won\u2019t want to sleep in bed with me anymore. So if he wants to sleep in bed with me now, I don\u2019t hate it, I don\u2019t resent it. I cuddle the hell out of him because it\u2019s not going to be forever.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne day, both of these kids will be off living their own lives. And I don\u2019t want to look back and think, \u2018I didn\u2019t enjoy that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gone is the anxiety about sleeping and feeding. Instead she\u2019s felt far more at ease right from the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250509,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,12415,12413,2511,6630,4526,35964,1445,71,6098,10900,28559,221,113171,23902,5511,1899,424,9062,111,43,139,69,5270,2847,10901,2247,4965,8466,2737,131,53355,1237,8222,145636,1316,102,27904,6730],"class_list":["post-250508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-braced","tag-chaos","tag-child","tag-du","tag-easier","tag-feels","tag-friends","tag-from","tag-hard","tag-heather","tag-herself","tag-how","tag-juggle","tag-jump","tag-just","tag-kids","tag-life","tag-moments","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one","tag-only","tag-plessisallan","tag-pregnant","tag-radio","tag-second","tag-star","tag-than","tag-tougher","tag-two","tag-warned","tag-wellmeaning","tag-when","tag-with","tag-worry","tag-would"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}