Gwen Stefani thought it felt "real and right" to take her babies on tour with her.
Gwen Stefani went back on tour just months after giving birth
The 54-year-old pop superstar has Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and nine-year-old Apollo with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale and admitted that because she "always wanted" to be a mother, it was not really a question for her to return to work just weeks after giving birth.
Speaking on 'The Skinny and Confidential Him and Her Show' podcast, she said: "I got pregnant, had the baby and when he was nine weeks old, Jimmy Iovine, who's the guy at my label, he's like, 'You gotta go in the studio. There's this African rapper you need to work with. It just felt so real and right. I got so ripped off on that tour because I was so sick. I ended up taking the baby when he was nine months and going and doing a world tour, like 120 shows ... We're in a hotel one day and I thought that I had to stop nursing because I was like, 'How am I going to nurse and be on stage?'
"Because it was just such an incredible ... I waited my whole life to be a mom. That's all I wanted, my entire life and so I didn't end up stop nursing."
The 'Hollaback Girl' hitmaker - who shot to fame as a member of No Doubt in the 1990s before breaking out as a solo artist - recalled doing a mammoth run of shows with her band but sensed a feeling of "disappointment" when she fell pregnant again, even though they worked through it and ended up writing a new album.
She said: "With Zuma, when he turned nine months, that's when I went back in with No Doubt and we did another 60 shows together. We went back on tour with the babies and, that took it to another level. That was like, 'I think I'm going to be dead after this tour.
"I just didn't have anything left in me. And I was going back in to work with them. And I got pregnant with Zuma. And I think everybody was really like disappointed, you know? But it was fine, I had Zuma and we just kept going in the studio and we ended up writing this record called 'Push and Shove'."
Gwen - who is now married to country singer Blake Shelton - thought she was finished having kids after welcoming her second until Kingston started begging her for a little brother or sister and she ended up pregnant at the age of 43, much to the surprise of her bandmates.
She said: "I was like, 'I'm too old. I'm not having any more babies. I'm sorry, love, He just wanted a baby, so he would start praying every night for this baby. Four weeks later, praying every night like, 'Please, let my mom have a baby,' and I'm pregnant with Apollo.
"I'm like 43 years old, and it's this true miracle, and every time I would go the doctor, I was like, 'He's gonna say this is not gonna work out,' and every time he'd be like, 'Looking great.' I think the band was like, 'What the hell?' I had Apollo and it was a true miracle."
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