LIV BROWN

Tell us about where you're from, and how you ended up on the Mornington Peninsula.

I was actually born in New Zealand. My whole family's Kiwi. We moved to Melbourne when I was four, so all I really remember is growing up here. I honestly thought I'd be a Melbourne girl forever. Never moved. Kind of boring.

We were in Ivanhoe, which is a really cute community, but it just didn't have the same feel as growing up in Surrey Hills. I used to get home from school, ride bikes up and down the street, know everyone on the block. We were just outside all the time. I wanted that for my kids and I kind of assumed we'd get it.

Then I'd come down to visit my sister-in-law in Mount Martha and there would be neighbours walking in and out of the house. I was like, no, this is the community I need. It just wasn't the right time, for a long time.

Then Charlie got to a point in his job where he wanted to change, and all our ducks fell into a row and we just took the plunge. It's been the best thing we've done. It's technically still Melbourne, an hour from the city, but it feels like a big move.

Everyone here has a bit more time. People stop for chats. No one feels that rush. It's like holiday mode. In town you're just head down, go, go, go. I feel slower here.

Rattle Style is such a specific world you've created. Where did the idea come from?

I started Rattle Style after Gus was born, desperate to do something and get back into work. I had all these business plans. I love a business plan. Never followed through on any of them. This one I actually did.

For a couple of years it grew really well. Then the social media side popped off, and I got busy with all this other stuff — opportunities stacking on opportunities. People coming to me saying you should do this, you should do this. I got really excited by it. And then I stopped taking on clients, because I was too busy with everything except the reason I'd started.

I've stripped it back now. The whole reason for this business was to help mums get dressed. I'm taking clients on again, and I feel like I'm back in the zone I was in when I started. I've taken the pressure off myself and it's working.

Learning to say no is just as important as taking the opportunities.

Where does the biggest transformation happen for your postpartum clients?

My favourite client, and the only one I really take on now, is a mum around seven or eight months postpartum. She's had a bit of a rebirth. She opens her wardrobe and hates everything. Nothing feels like her.

My sister just had a baby and she was like, I need to go shopping, and I said don't, not yet. Wait four more months. Your body calibrates a little, and you also come out of the I feel disgusting, I hate myself phase. You start feeling more like yourself.

You can make some weird outfit choices in those early months. Even I look back at what I was wearing after Otis and I'm like, what. And that's after doing this for years. The hormones just take over. Seven or eight months is when it clicks back.

Do Gussy and Otis have a sense of their own style yet?

Gus is obsessed. He's watched me get dressed since he was tiny — my boots, jewellery, shoes, everything. Now he's five he picks all his own outfits.

I took him op shopping recently and he stopped at this vintage Batman jacket in the kids section. He doesn't even watch Batman. But the jacket was actually really cool. He was like, “Mum, I have to get this.” It was $120, which for a second-hand jacket is a lot. I was like, okay, we'll try it on. If it fits and you feel good in it, we can get it. He stood in the mirror. I asked him, “Do you feel good in it?” He said, “Yeah, I feel really good in it.” So we bought it.

Yesterday we were going to the beach and he went into his room, grabbed his long board shorts, put on a beachy t-shirt. He's really into it. He loves colour.

Otis is two, and he's not there yet. He doesn't play with my jewellery the way Gus did. Right now we're going through a we hate pants situation. It's more about what feels comfy to him than what looks right.

What's your extra ordinary object?

I have two, and I couldn't choose. Both are from my mum.

The first is a bracelet. Solid gold. She gave it to me years ago and just said "I don't like this, you have it." My mum's got early onset dementia, she's in the final stages, and she's not really verbal anymore. It was only recently that my dad told me this bracelet was actually his push present to her when she had me.

She never told me that. She was more of a silver girl. I probably would have lost it all those years ago if I hadn't known. Now I wear it all the time.

The other is a piece of furniture. It's the drawers she kept all her jewellery and accessories in — she was covered in jewellery, always. I used to play in her walk-in robe as a kid, in all the perfumes and jewellery. The drawers are ornate, and honestly not my aesthetic at all, but I love them. I feel like I'm playing dress-up. I'll keep them forever.

I'm sentimental. I love things that remind me of people.

The baby I'm having is due around my mum's birthday. Same star sign. It's a boy, and I'd hoped for a girl for that reason, but even so — it feels like something.

Is there a ritual, however small, that you and the boys share that you'd never want to forget?

The one that comes to mind straight away — if Gus is having a moment, a tantrum with no real meaning behind it, I put on his favourite song and we dance in the kitchen. Always the kitchen. His song is Elton John's "I'm Still Standing." He's obsessed with it.

I remember the first time he did it with me. I'm a theatre kid — I always had music on. And I'd assumed he wouldn't be into it, that dancing to theatre music was such a girl thing. But he loves it. We play musicals and we dance.

The other one I'm only starting to notice as a ritual is our sleep. We co-sleep. Gus still comes into my bed most nights, and Otis falls asleep against my chest the way Gus used to. I had a moment recently, hugging Otis to sleep, when I remembered doing the same with Gus. And I realised Gus starts school next year. He's not going to be doing this in two years' time.

I need to drop all the ideas of me having to stop it. I need to just let it be what it is, while it still is.

What's the heart of your home?

Not the kitchen — I'm not a good cook, I just spend a lot of time in there because I can't keep up with how much the boys eat.

It's outside. Both of the houses we've lived in have had gardens the kids can be in, and everyone's happiest outside. I'm not a good gardener either. But the outside is where we all end up.

What's on your third-baby purchase list that's actually essential? And what's something you want just for you?

Honestly, I don't need much. I realised over the last two babies I use so little of the baby stuff. I had every gadget for Gus and used almost none. Even less for Otis. So this time I'll wait and see.

What I actually use: the bassinet is set up (though I've never used the ones I set up for the first two — hoping this time). The bouncer, the carrier, the pram. That's about it.

One thing this baby will actually need — clothes. Both my boys were winter babies, so I don't have anything for a summer newborn. Whole new little wardrobe.

And then what I want, which I don't need: the leopard print Baby Bjorn bouncer. I've got the grey one, and it's fine, but the leopard print is so cute. I couldn't buy it when I wanted it for Otis and I keep thinking about it.

Also another Artipoppe carrier. I've got maybe seven carriers already. I've worn the zebra print with both boys and it's amazing, but honestly I live in these things and I wouldn't mind another one. My sister-in-law just had her third and I don't think I've ever seen her without Nora strapped to her chest.

For me — the Lanolin nipple balm. It sold out for a while because it trended on TikTok as a lip balm, and honestly it's the best. It's like a lip mask. I use it every day.

How are you feeling about the birth this time around?

Trying to be in a good headspace. My first birth was fine — it was just naivety, this'll be fine, and it was. My second was also technically fine — everyone was okay in the end — but it went for three days and I hemorrhaged. In hindsight it was all fine. He birthed how he wanted to birth. But it scarred me a little.

I'm not scared of the actual birth. I'm scared of hemorrhaging again. And I'm more scared for the postpartum this time around, which I didn't feel with the others. I know more now. And I didn't have a great postpartum with Otis.

Everything with mum is going on too. The timing feels weird, but that's out of my control.

I want to work on some things before I give birth. See a therapist, talk about the anxiety around the hemorrhage, deal with some health anxiety. I know I'm strong and it'll all be fine, but I'm going into it a bit more nervous.

My mother-in-law is a midwife. My sister-in-law is a nurse with four kids. I've got the right support around me. I'm open to a home birth this time, actually. It's really just about my mental — what I'm telling myself.

I had a girlfriend who hemorrhaged with two babies have her third, and she said it was the most healing experience of her life. Didn't even hemorrhage. So who knows, fingers crossed.