A package recently arrived for Caterina Mete that made her heart soar. Inside were two tiny baby jackets, custom-made for her long-awaited twin girls and embroidered with their names. The adorable knits had been painstakingly hand-made and decorated by a Wiggles fan who then contacted the new mum on Instagram and organised the delivery.
It’s acts of kindness like these which have overwhelmed her in the days since her IVF journey came to a successful conclusion; Gigi and Dolly making her a mum twice over.
As she cradles her month-old girls, one in each arm, it’s clear she’s over the moon, albeit still in slight disbelief at her good fortune. “I just feel so lucky,” she enthuses, her eyes bright despite the shadows beneath telling of an underlying sense of exhaustion.
For those who have missed her very public pregnancy, let’s backtrack a moment. At 37, the performer – who has been dancing with The Wiggles since 2003 (including a stint as Dorothy the Dinosaur) but officially donned a red skivvy in 2022 – decided to embark on a solo journey to motherhood.
At the urging of a friend, she began an egg-freezing process. She knew she wanted to be a mother at some point, despite being single at the time, but with her busy lifestyle touring with the children’s entertainment group the when was unknown.
Then came COVID three years later. Like many people around the world, Caterina sat back and reassessed her life as lockdown forced her to a halt. “I thought about what I wanted, and I was like, ‘I’m ready to have children’,” she reflects to The Weekly now as she introduces her girls to the world.
A road less travelled
IVF is not only an expensive procedure, it’s one that has plenty of hoops to jump through and steps to follow. Some women struggle physically as their bodies go through the process.
Fortunately, Caterina found she didn’t suffer any adverse effects. She was also blessed that her family and friends happily rallied around in support. As news of her pregnancy emerged, so too would Wiggles fans.
“I haven’t had any prying questions about it,” she says of the reaction she received after going public with her pregnancy. “A lot of people are interested in the process – how does it work and how do you find a donor. But every family looks different and it’s great to represent a different family structure.”
Having used an anonymous sperm donor found via her clinic, she was thrilled to come away with two viable embryos from the eggs she’d harvested several years earlier. But sadly, Caterina’s first attempt at pregnancy ended in miscarriage – a heartbreaking event which she shares today in the hope that other women can relate to her story, taking comfort in the fact that they are not alone.
“You never expect it to happen to you,” she reveals. “But it’s more common than you think, and a lot of people don’t like to share [their experience] as it brings up so much trauma and heartache.”
Three months later she tried again with her second – and final – embryo. This one would go to term.
“I was very nervous and anxious and careful with everything that I did,” she explains of the extra pressure she felt as a result of her previous miscarriage. “And once I found out I was having twins I was constantly worried the whole time as there were other risks involved.”
The twins news came just six weeks into her pregnancy. “I definitely cried but they were happy tears,” she recalls. “Of course I worried, ‘Can I look after two babies alone?’ But, you know, I’m not the first person to do it so I wasn’t too scared.”
But back to those risks. The girls shared a placenta, which put one twin at risk of receiving less blood flow and nutrition. Add in that Caterina was experiencing a “geriatric pregnancy”. She was 43 when she gave birth . This meant she was in prime contention for not only another miscarriage but for high blood pressure and gestational diabetes. She was very nauseous and tired in the early days but luckily, Caterina says, most of her later pregnancy was relatively smooth.
She was well monitored throughout and received plenty of counselling both before and after she learnt she was expecting. And while she developed pre-eclampsia and high blood pressure at around 32 weeks, four weeks later she delivered the girls by C-section on Tuesday June 25, with her sister Anna by her side.
Gigi arrived first. “They lifted her up and brought her around to me and I was just in awe,” Caterina says, beaming at the recollection. Three minutes later Dolly followed and had her own moment nestled on her mother’s chest. At 1.9 and 2.2 kilos respectively, the girls were tiny, but healthy. “Perfect,” their mother states.
Caterina had found out at the 12-week mark she would be having girls. Something she’d already intuited early in the pregnancy. Their names were already picked out for them and there was a plan in place as to which twin would receive which moniker.
“When you’re pregnant with twins, there’s a Twin A and a Twin B,” she explains now. “Twin A was always Dolly – I’m a huge Dolly Parton fan. And Twin B was Gigi, because I’ve always liked the name. It’s just confusing because Twin B came out first!”
Seeing double
Given they were delivered at 36 weeks, the girls needed to spend some extra time in the hospital. For Caterina, who was recovering from the C-section as well as being a first-time mum – and to twins to boot – there was a definite silver lining in the enforced stay.
“It really was a blessing in many ways,” she says. “It gave me a chance to heal, to start the breastfeeding process and to get into the routine. I’d go in every morning and spend the day with them, feed them, change them. I learnt so much from the midwives and nurses there. The trial and error happened way before I had to take them through the front door. When they finally did come home after two weeks, I felt ready and prepared.”
Her sister Anna drove the trio home and stayed a few hours. When the door shut behind her, Caterina says she felt a sense of calm and inner peace. “It was like, ‘We’re here, we made it’,” she says of her wonderment as she gazed at the two bassinets carrying her precious sleeping cargo.
“It had been a long time coming but I didn’t feel scared. If anything, I felt excited.
“These first weeks have been lovely. They’re in a routine. They are good at settling themselves. We haven’t had too many issues where they are crying hysterically and I’m like ‘What do I do?’. They’re putting on weight and doing what they should.”
Caterina and the girls live alone, but her cousin, Cathy, drops by every Monday and Friday to lend a hand. “She helps with the feeds, does chores around the house or runs errands,” Caterina says, adding she left Cathy with the girls while she went and had her nails done for our shoot.
“She’s got all this experience and so it’s nice to have that support 100 per cent. To ask questions of someone who’s been through it all before. She’s awesome.”
The girls are identical, which could have caused confusion. But Gigi has a tiny birthmark on her back which proves an easy identifier. She was also the smaller of the two – although as they are home and feeding well, is beginning to change. “Dolly was always a good feeder but now Gigi is too,” says Caterina proudly, gazing at both twins as they slumber in her arms.
Finding her people
It’s a little early to join a mother’s group, but it’s something Caterina Mete is definitely looking forward to.
Currently, she’s signed up to a twin organisation online. It’s a place she’s finding a lot of support and solace – as well as several Facebook groups.
Then there are The Wiggles – both group members and fans. Purple Wiggle Lachlan Gillespie and his wife Dana also have twins and have been a font of information for her.
“Dana checks in all the time which is lovely because she knows first-hand,” Caterina says. “She offers so much advice and support. And [fellow Purple Wiggle] John Pearce is a twin. One time his mum came in to work and I asked her loads of questions. I wanted to know everything!”
And mum and dad fans of the group have been equally supportive, offering advice and learned wisdom as she starts her motherhood journey.
“Now, being a mum, I can understand how so many of them have gone through it,” Caterina says of the support group she has found.
“They are so sweet, asking how I’ve been sleeping, how I’m going. I’ve been getting lovely messages from parents who say, ‘Our little one wants to say hello to you.’ The love and support I am getting is just beautiful.”
There’s no pressure from The Wiggles, she says, to get back to work. And for now, she’s content to enjoy the time in her motherhood bubble with no set end date in sight. But when she does go back on the road, she knows the support will continue as she has the babies with her.
“We are all passionate about raising happy and healthy kids,” she says of her workmates. “And so what a beautiful environment to be bringing up my girls.”
