by Jamie Kenney

TikTok/@rachsullivan__

If you’ve given birth, you understand the power of that first postpartum meal. Not only have you just expended colossal energy bringing another person into the world, but throughout the process of growing them there’s a good chance you didn’t get to eat your favorite foods, whether because they weren’t safe for you to eat or they just didn’t agree with you while you were pregnant. So that first opportunity to hoover some salmon sashimi or, in my case, all the sugary carbs gestational diabetes had denied me. But one husband really went the extra mile for his postpartum wife: a catered feast of delicious oysters.

Rach and Tom Sullivan have made a thing of foods they eat. Tom created the Instagram account @mealssheeats to highlight foods he was making for his wife to help balance her hormones (off kilter due to PCOS) during their infertility journey. They have since published a book based on the account and made Meals She Eats their collective brand. Not only did the pair welcomed a daughter, Sutton, in 2022, but a second baby girl, Rosie, in recent weeks. And after all that, Rach wanted just one food to eat: oysters.

Technically, oysters are safe to eat during pregnancy… if they’re cooked. But, like, what are we supposed to do with that? Unless it tastes like a booger that just got back from a swim in the ocean (complimentary) I fail to even see the point in bothering to shuck them. When you’re in the mood for raw oysters, nothing else is going to scratch that itch.

But oysters aren’t exactly a quick meal on the go. You’ve got to keep them cold until it’s time to open them up, which in and of itself requires special tools and know-how. And then there’s all the dressings that you can add to them. It’s a bit of an ordeal and Tom just wasn’t up for it… so he hired “Boss Man Jason” to come to Rach’s bedside to present an assortment of delicious shellfish complete with cucumber salsa verde, a grapefruit ginger mignonette, and, of course, hot sauce for dressing.

It went over well.

“I’m so happy,” Rach says, seemingly on the verge of tears. “I’m so emotional. It’s so good.”

“She’s probably crying because she feels seen,” one commenter replied. “Y’all made her feel known.”

“Yah I cried watching this,” agreed another. “The language of love is so loud here. It inspires me to add more.”

Honestly, we could not love this any more than we do, and we hope everyone who’s partner is going to give birth is watching this and taking some notes.