Tired and Tested: The Sunday Times Number One bestselling guide to parenthood

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The book begins at the start of my journey when I was trying to work out what life had in store for me and how kids would fit into that equation. So it goes from thinking about children, to finding the perfect partner to make that jump with and beyond. Cara Carmichael’s bestie is getting hitched; but before the wedding comes the all-important hen do. For Cara, this means a long weekend of escapism. A chance to forget about her messy divorce, explosive family feud and monotonous 9-5, but even on holiday, your past has a way of catching up with you…’ It’s hilarious and outlandish (in all the best ways)! I lost count of the times where I had to put the book down because I was crying with laughter and had to implement emergency kegel manoeuvres to ensure I didn’t have an accident! *sighs* #thestruggleisreal Aside from writing content for a UK tour, Sophie says her main goals for the year ahead are to survive teething, get some sleep and spend quality time with her children, particularly Nate. But it's not the career that Sophie, a former pupil at Springwood Primary School and St Hilda's High School, ever thought she would have.

On Lorraine Kelly's eponymous show today, Sophie appeared via video link to talk about using humour to get through the pandemic - particularly as she home schools her two children. Cara Carmichael’s bestie is finally getting hitched, and she’s over the moon because it means one thing… Whoah, they’re going to Ibiza! Mums on Tour: ditching kids, partners and better judgement for a long-weekend of sun, sea, and sex…y support pants. What could possibly go ‘Pete Tong’? I didn't really know what to fill in on the UCAS form. All my friends were going to be doctors or lawyers and I wasn't clever enough for that, so I thought I'd do PR. I really did enjoy reading Mother Hens and felt that I could not put it down, I needed to know what happens! When reading, you will notice a few dramas that you can see coming and will rightly assume what will happen. However the total spanner in the works comes at Chapter 32! The 36-year-old said: "I went to Leeds Met, it was further up the M62 so it was far enough away from my parents but close enough if I needed to come home and get my washing done.Sophie’s first fiction title has a lot going on- cheating husbands, running from a cult, drug dealers, a murder… but somehow Sophie brings it all together with her characteristic witty and zany sense of humour. Prepare for puns galore! This is a story about friendship and doing whatever it takes to get a friend out of a dark time in their lives. I immediately detested Dom (the weasel) and Cara’s mother is a piece of work too (don’t get me started about Cara’s younger stepsister CA chaotic story that pulls at all the emotions, Sophie’s Mother Hens is the Mums on Tour version of the Inbetweeners. She says: "There is an assumption that I have done something for three minutes on my phone. But I have worked hard writing a script. I appreciate I am not saving lives - but it is hard work." I’ve been really anxious about this pregnancy right from the get go. I've been hyper aware of everything. I also had some prenatal testing, I opted to pay for harmony tests, because I was just so anxious.

A lot of people find miscarriage uncomfortable to talk about, it’s not a mainstream topic and I totally understand why people choose not to discuss it. If you haven’t had a miscarriage it can be really hard to know what you should say to someone who’s going through it. I believe the more people discuss it, the easier it is to talk about. Winner of the 2020 Funny Women Award for Best Comedy Series, her online videos reach a global audience. Tired and Tested: The Wild Ride Into Parenthood is Sophie’s first book and is published by Harper Collins. I also wanted to share the light and the shade of my personal journey. I laugh a lot and there is a lot of comedy in the book, but life isn’t always funny and parenting certainly isn’t always funny. Sometimes it’s hard and it wouldn’t be a fair representation of my life if it wasn’t included.”There are many references to being in your thirties and moving away from being carefree to a stage in life where it’s maybe a bit more complicated than it used to be. I talk about trying to strike that work-life balance and there is lots of content about my naughty dog. We've moved around over the years as Steve is a sports physio, he works for Liverpool FC now, I made him a Northerner and brought him into the Scouse fold." But it wasn't until a year later when Sophie posted the parody Smell Of You - swapping Ed Sheeran's lyrics about meeting a girl for the mundane life of Tom Hardy-loving, nit-phobic, Dairylea-covered mums - that she started to get attention online.

I’m not expecting anyone to come away feeling like they’ve learnt anything from my book, that’s not what it’s about. I would like people to come away feeling maybe 10% better about their own parenting abilities and choices. Hopefully they can read it and think ‘yeah, that happened to me too’ or ‘yeah, I felt really alone and isolated after I had a baby’.

How did your previous experiences with your miscarriages affect this pregnancy for you?

I make myself laugh because I've always said to myself, if I ever have another baby, I'm going to be so sensible. I'm going to eat all of my leafy greens. I'm going to be super healthy and on top of my game because I know that's going to help me after the baby's born. No, I've lived a life of beige food. Cara Stringer, née Carmichael, aged 37, is married to Dom, a professional football manager (although elsewhere he is referred to as the assistant head coach, and yes, it is Man United) and consequently they live in a huge house in Cheshire. She still fancies him but he has a secret that blows up her world. Move on two years and she is hell bent on accompanying her friend Jac and more friends on her hen do to Ibiza. Now motherhood is lovely and very rewarding but I was in a creative job in PR and I did a lot of writing. I liked being able to flex my mind, so I started a written blog. I posted it on Facebook and I had quite good responses.