Chris Pizzello/Invision/APWhen a woman becomes a mom for the first time, life completely changes. Then when baby No. 2 comes along, everything changes once again.
So now that Megan Fox is a mother of three, she's got a whole new balancing act in store as she and husband Brian Austin Green tackle having a trio of little ones at home. Their new baby, son Journey River Green, joined sons Noah Shannon, 3 1/2, and Bodhi Ransom, 2, in the family fold on Aug. 4, as E! News was first to report.
But while some changes are of course going to happen, Fox has also had time to settle into the role of her life, that of Mom, and the spiritually minded actress has been figuring out what works for her along the way. Here's what she's had to say over the years about being a mom, raising kids and her relationship with the father of her children:
Her Partner in Parenting
First of all, Fox has made it clear she believes she's had her kids with the right person. Always a very good place to start.
"You have two people, separate beings, trying to share one life together. That's always going to have difficulties," she mused to Men's Health in 2014. "Brian is my soulmate. I happen to believe that. He's definitely meant to be the father of my children. That makes it easier for me to work through things, because I always see the spiritual side of things. I look at the end game."
She called Green her "soulmate" in 2012 as well, telling the U.K.'s Mirror after Noah was born, "My husband is amazing. He does the majority of the work [including the cooking] and he's been really good because I've been so tired. He does more work than I do and he's just a champ. He's very maternal and he loves taking care of kids so I really lucked out."
She added, "He's so helpful and nurturing and amazing... he's my soulmate. But I kind of want to start cooking now."
Fox and Green briefly split up last summer, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles actress even filing for divorce, but sightings of them out together afterward seeing movies and playing at the park with their kids proved entirely not misleading. E! News confirmed in April that baby No. 3 was on the way.
Fox said on Ellen after Bodhi was born that neither of her pregnancies was planned, and Green confirmed as much this time around. "You know, nothing is planned. None of them are ever planned. You kind of just go with it," he told People in April.
But did she ever start cooking? She had once told Allure she was so bad at it, she'd rather "survive a week without eating" than eat her own food.
Part-Time Cook
"I really love cooking for the holidays, and I always try and do something challenging. But on a day-to-day basis, it's not my thing," she told People in 2014.
So Green has remained the chef of the house. But Fox sticks to a pretty strict diet anyway—and it sounds as though her husband goes with the flow.
Fox joked to Extra this year that Green maybe was going to get some cake on Father's Day. "He never gets to eat anything fun because my house is so clean and I make him eat really clean, too, so maybe I'll get him a German chocolate cake or something. He'll be so happy to see junk food."
However, Green did not have to enjoy his cake alone.
"I can be a sweets person to the point that it's scary," Fox refreshingly admitted to E! News in May. "I'm like my dad. If you bake pies for the holidays, he'll inhale pies in minutes. It's like you turn around and the whole pie is gone. I'm that way, too. I can eat a whole cake and whole pie. I don't know where it goes and how. It just evaporates. It disappears. And I'm still hungry afterwards."
Actually, now we're hoping that there was any cake left for Green...
But usually, when asked what her usual approach to eating was, Fox told Men's Health, "Eat a tremendous amount of protein and fiber, and cut out all of your carbs if you can."
Picking Names
While Noah was named after the Biblical figure, the name Bodhi Ransom wasn't entirely inspired by his mom's spiritual practices...
"Bodhi is, in Buddhism, it's the point when Buddha became enlightened and he reached nirvana, he was sitting beneath the Bodhi tree," Fox explained on Conan in 2014 where her second son's name originated. "From there, but also from the greatest movie of all time, Point Break...And then his middle name is also sort of religious and spiritual for me, and ransom can also mean being saved."
But after Green balked at the idea of being another celeb who named his kid something "weird," Fox found out that Ransom was also her great-grandfather's middle name. So that was that.
It Takes a Village—or at Least Two People and a Little Extra Help
Fox happily took matters into her own hands when Noah was born, but soon realized that you really can't be at your best if you never get any sleep.
"Having an infant is difficult," she told the Mirror. "It's a lot of work and I didn't hire any help because I overestimated my own abilities. I had no idea how difficult babies could be, so Brian and I were exhausted. You never sleep and you're awake all night and your entire life is devoted to this little thing that needs you constantly."
That being said, she added, "I love it. It's what I've wanted to do since I was a little girl. I always wanted to mother things and I constantly had a doll I was taking care of. I don't receive the same satisfaction from my career as I do from being a mother so I'm really happy. But two weeks ago I said to Brian, 'We have to get a night nurse or we're going to get a divorce because somebody's got to sleep in this house or we're going to kill each other.'"
So we're guessing the night nurse was at the ready for the next two babies.
Her Priorities Changed on Day One
Fox said back in 2012 that she gained 23 pounds while pregnant with Noah but, despite being "10 pounds heavier" than she wanted to be while giving the interview, "I don't want to kill myself trying to get back into shape because it's not a priority right now. I'm too in love with Noah and I don't want to be away from him," she told the Mirror. "I don't want to be at the gym, I just want to be home."
And she felt the same about leaving for work, saying, "I've always been hesitant to take movies out of town because I'm such a homebody but now it's not really an option."
Role Model Mom
Since first becoming a mom, the actress who was used to being referred to as a bombshell and the "Transformers hottie" and whatnot decided that she didn't want to go overboard on the provocative roles and photo shoots from then on out.
"It changes your perspective about being overly sexual in a film when you have a baby," she told the Mirror in 2012.
"I'm going to be more cautious about choosing films because I'm already thinking about when he's in school and his friends are going to be showing him my photo shoots with me in a bikini and he's going to be horrified. So that will deter me from making some of the choices I made before."
And Fox appears to be sticking to that, though she clarified recently that she wasn't giving up on sexiness anytime soon.
"People say, 'you're 30 now and a mom and you don't want to be a sex symbol,' and that's not what I said," she said on Extra in May. "I don't want [my kids] to see me, as a woman, play a character that's degrading or being abused in a graphic way. I don't think that's something they'll be able to process well. My particular kids [are] very sensitive."
Raising Sensitive, Free-Spirited Souls
"I try not to expose them to technology," she told People in March before word got out that she was pregnant again. "It's hard to make them super nerds if I don't let them watch television or movies, or get on an iPhone or an iPad. So right now, I'm making my kids into artistic nature-hippies. We'll see what happens. At some point, they'll choose what they want to be."
Moreover, Fox believes that letting technology do the babysitting is bad for little developing brains.
"I don't want them to get f--k-up brains," she said frankly. "So I just suck it up, and it's hard, and one of us is always doing something. [Green and I] don't get a lot of rest time, but I know it's better for them."
Belief in a Higher Power
"I went through a stage in my early 20s when I was very rebellious against how I was raised and I wasn't worried about faith or religion but now, maybe because of getting married and wanting to have a family, I've come back full circle," she told the Mirror.
The Miracle of Life
Talking about her third pregnancy, Fox told Extra, "I feel so productive creating a human person that I'm so excited to meet because I know that I have such a spiritual connection to them. So I can't wait to meet this new member of my family."
She also told E! News at the time, "The pregnancy is really good. I'm happy and healthy."