Kayla and George Whitelock welcomed two new babies to the family. Photo / Bernadette Peters
As the sporty pair add two new members to the team, life is full-on and fabulous.
When you live on a dairy farm and you’re breastfeeding twins, it’s only a matter of time before someone (bets are on the new dad) makes an “udderly” eye-rolling joke to milk the laughs.
Kayla Whitelock has heard them all. The mum of five, with husband and former All Black George, is frequently but lovingly told she’s “a good cow” and there’s no chance of her getting “culled”.
The former Black Sticks captain is just grateful to have enough breastmilk to exclusively tandem-feed her gorgeous four-month-old daughters Harper and Willow, as life with newborn twins has its unique challenges.
But throw into the mix 1300 Friesian cows to milk, a child with a broken leg and renovations to extend the house, and it’s safe to say things in the Whitelock household have never been more hectic.
When they chat with the Weekly, their son Maxwell, almost 7, has just had his leg put into a cast for six weeks to remedy a double spiral fracture.
“Breaking a leg was definitely not ideal timing at all,” says George. “But we’re so lucky the twins are chilled-out, so it hasn’t been as challenging as it could have.”
Kayla adds, “Yeah, the babies have been pretty good, really. They’re sleeping for up to seven hours at night, so I can’t complain.”
The Palmerston North-based couple, who are both 39, found out they were having twins at a nine-week scan. Even though Kayla’s sister Abby has twin girls and their grandmother was a twin, the champion hockey player says she was completely shocked to see two sacs appear on the monitor.
“It hadn’t crossed my mind at all,” she admits. “It was a lot to process going from three kids to five.
“When I told my sister, her reaction was, ‘Oh, no!’ But she was a first-time mum with twins straight off the bat, so it was a little bit different for me already having had kids before.”
Both Kayla and George grew up in families of four children, so had always planned on that number too. They had begun trying for a fourth baby towards the end of 2023 and became pregnant, before Kayla miscarried in January.
“Then we were going to Bali for my brother’s wedding in April and I thought, ‘Let’s give it until then and, if it happens, it happens; if it doesn’t, it doesn’t,’” she recalls.
“We returned from Bali and a month later found out I was pregnant. I had already committed to travelling to the Paris Olympics with the Oceania Athletes, so I was about 11 weeks when I flew over.
“I got off the plane there and my tummy literally popped out,” she says. “At that time, no one knew except for our immediate family. I knew it was going to be a mission to hide, so I had to tell the girls who I was travelling with because there was no way I could suck it in.”
After the 20-week scan, the three older kids – Addison, 10, Maxwell and Frankie, 2 – were keen to organise a gender reveal party.
“All the boys in the family joked, ‘If it’s two girls, then we’re stripping off and jumping in the pool.’ So when two pink colours came out, that’s what they all did. It was classic.”
Despite Kayla experiencing fatigue and nausea, her pregnancy progressed well. However, during her last scan at 37 weeks, it showed that the twins’ growth had significantly slowed. Willow, aka twin two, had dropped from the 45th percentile to the ninth.
Kayla was put on monitors at Palmerston North Hospital, where doctors decided to induce labour the next day.
“After drinking five of the doses to start labour, nothing was progressing,” she recalls. “I got to two centimetres dilated and Willow began showing signs of stress. So they took me in for a C-section.”
On January 22, Harper was born weighing 3kg and Willow followed two minutes later − still in her sac − weighing 2.7kg.
“It was weird because it was my first caesarean, so I was just lying there waiting to hear the two cries, and then I was like, ‘Phew!’” says Kayla. “Harper needed a bit of oxygen for about 10 minutes and Willow, who was initially in distress, was fine.
“The midwives asked George if he wanted to come over and have a look, and I’m lying there yelling out to him, ‘What do they look like? Take a photo!’ It felt like ages before I got to see the twins.
“He showed me a photo of Harper, and I thought, ‘Far out, she’s a Whitelock.’ Yet Willow looked quite different and more like my Sharland side of the family.”
The devoted parents can already see the differences in their daughters’ looks and personalities. Blue-eyed Harper is always hungry and a lot louder than Willow, who has dark-brown eyes.
“They’re both giving heaps of smiles back now,” shares George. “Willow is moving a lot more and will fall asleep on tummy time. Harper is continuously trying to lift her head and is more curious, and always wants to eat − that’s a Whitelock trait too!”
Kayla, who played at four Olympics, retired from hockey after the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games as the Black Sticks’ second-most-capped player, with 255 matches in the black singlet.
So what’s harder? Training for the Olympics or having newborn twins?
“Good question!” she replies. “The recovery from the C-section was pretty tough those first two weeks. The twins were also losing weight, so we had to wake them every two and a half hours because they weren’t waking or feeding properly.
“Once we got through those first weeks and we could let them sleep, it was a lot easier.
“I look back to when we just had one child, and it probably took us longer to get out of the house with her than with the twins and three other kids,” laughs Kayla, who is of Rangitāne descent.
The down-to-earth mum also admits to having a few “hairy” moments trying to wrangle both babies onto the feeding pillow with two hands.
“It’s when I’m by myself and I rock one way, but one twin starts to roll off the pillow the other way, and I quickly have to put my hand on her like a sandwich to catch her. So I’ve learnt to be more careful about how you ‘lift and lock in’!”
The couple agree that the seasonal timing of the twins’ birth was probably perfect for George running their 400-hectare dairy farm, which is flanked by the Manawatū River. He’s usually out on the farm from 5am until early evening.
“All our older kids arrived near calving season, which is the worst time of the year,” says the sportsman-turned-farmer, who retired from rugby in late 2015, after having played 85 games for the Crusaders, 70 for Canterbury and one for the All Blacks.
“While the farm’s been a bit dry, it has been a good time of the year for me to take a step back, spend more time at home and put a few things in place to help Kayla − like doing drop-offs to school and daycare, and getting the house extensions complete − to make life a bit easier.
“We lost the use of a few bedrooms for a few weeks. But we’re out the other side now and enjoying some nice, calmer time as a family. Once those twins start moving, it’ll be a different ball game again.”
Harper and Willow are likely to have their smitten older siblings always looking out for them, though.
“Frankie is two and a half, so I was worried how she might react because all the attention’s gone from her,” shares Kayla. “But as soon as she got to hold the girls, she was instantly in love. She’d say, ‘This is my twin’ and the other one is someone else’s.
“Addison’s been a really good help. She’ll help me get a twin up from sleeping, if I’ve got the other one. And Maxwell’s good at giving cuddles. Frankie is too, but she’s done within 10 seconds. It’s such an effort to get them onto her, and then she’s like, ‘Okay, I’m finished now!’”
Having been raised on his family farm, former flanker George was keen to give that freedom to his kids when the time came.
“Our kids love the farm,” he tells. “They’re very active and like being outdoors as much as they can. If they’re not on the farm, then they’re running around, biking or in the pool.”
George and Kayla first met at the Boxing Day races in Palmerston North in 2012, and married three years later. He’s full of pride and admiration for how his champion wife is handling five kids like a pro.
“Kayla is doing an amazing job,” he enthuses. “I think that’s a reflection of why the babies are so relaxed, calm and chilled-out – because of her.
“It’s not easy trying to organise a household of five kids and, realistically, I’ve been pretty busy on the farm too, so keeping that balance right has been challenging, while trying to enjoy the newborn stage.
“They’re four months old already, and it feels like a blink,” he adds. “We are all so in love with our girls.”