Born on March 5, Theodore – or Teddy as his parents have affectionately nicknamed him – is already a bundle of energy and Jason and Annie are relishing getting to know their little fella.
“He’s a beautiful, healthy baby boy and there are no words to describe my feelings for him,” gushes Jason.
Teddy was born with a cleft palate, but to Jason and Annie – who found fame as “Mr and Mrs Cheese” on My Kitchen Rules last year – he’s just perfect.
The award-winning cheesemakers, who put their baby plans on hold to compete on the reality cooking show, found out about the cleft palate at their 20-week scan.
The couples’ fears were confirmed when doctors revealed that the anomaly Annie had seen was indeed a suspected unilateral complete cleft, which occurs once in every 600 births in Australia.
It’s Baby Cheese! It doesn’t get much cuter than the adorable baby Teddy.
“The cleft palate we could deal with, but learning about the other potential complications got us really upset,” says Jason, who was warned that Teddy was at increased risk of Down and Edwards syndromes.
After a tense 24-hour wait for the results of the amniotic fluid test – “it was the worst day of our lives” – they got the good news they’d been hoping for, with doctors confirming their baby was otherwise healthy.
“We looked at each other and went, ‘Pfft, it’s only a cleft, we can deal with that,’” beams Annie, who was induced at 37 weeks and gave birth to Teddy via caesarian section.
The My Kitchen Rules cheesemakers are just besotted with their adorable seven-week old bub!
“This was our child, our first baby, and I was so amazed that I didn’t even see the cleft,” gushes Jason, 27, who crept away to deliver some cheese just moments after the birth.
Specially designed baby bottles now litter the couple’s cosy country cottage in the NSW Hunter Valley.
Teddy has a long journey ahead of him – he’ll have an operation to close his lip in about six months and another to pull his palate together at 24 months – but you can be sure he’ll be showered with love and support through it all.
Read all about the adorable new bub Teddy only in Woman’s Day, on sale 20th April.
