Hot Tomato’s Emily Jade gives birth to healthy baby

After years of heartbreak, months of praying and weeks of ‘sitting tight’, one of the Gold Coast’s most anticipated babies has safely arrived.

1029 Hot Tomato breakfast host Emily Jade O’Keeffe has given birth to a baby boy, a younger brother to doting sister Millie, seven, and completing her family of four with husband Gerard Murtagh.

‘EJ’ has been very open about her struggle to have a family, detailing how she and Gerard went through 32 rounds of IVF since having Millie, including one miscarriage in 2016.

The 41-year-old announced on air at the end of January, that the couple was finally expecting their second ‘miracle baby’.

Our miracle Millie is about to be joined by another hard earned miracle in June 2018. 5 years, 260 weeks, 1,825 days, 2.3 million minutes. That’s how long and desperately we have tried for this little life. Would I go through it all again? Yes, just to hear that tiny but heavenly heartbeat with my husband next to me holding my hand. Although I wish it had been easier (and cheaper!) it was worth the wait…. and wait…and WAIT! Having been through so much with each other to create another much wanted child, we didn’t want the pain and effort to be forgotten in our joy. The stars behind us represent the 32 embryos, and miscarriage it took to make our dream a reality. There was so much hope in every one, and we mourned them all (and kept BWS in business drinking away our sorrow) We have met and shared tears, hugs and heartbreak with many others on the same horrendous journey and I don’t want this announcement to hurt, as pregnancy announcements often can, did and still probably will. We know we are just plain lucky in the end. And that this is a miracle. We want to acknowledge and respect that. But also we are so relieved, so very very relieved and anxious still, and praying hard but so so thankful and then a whole lot excited. A big thank you to my dear friend Jessie for not only being an IVF friend to hold my hand through it all, but also for her magic talent in creating our embryo star’s and announcement sign, and Renee for her gentle way of crafting photographic beauty. And of course Dr Gary Swift and QFG for not giving up on us. Also to you for your love and support always. It’s finally out there. Now please grow and stay safe in there little one, Mummy wants to get fappy! @louieluxe @reneebisleyphotographer @gerardmurtagh #pregnant #queenslandfertilitygroup #pregnancyannouncement #pregnancy #reneebisleyphotographer photography Matching outfits from @white_label_noba #whitelabelnoba

A post shared by Emily Jade O’Keeffe (@emilyjadeokeeffe) on Jan 16, 2018 at 1:53pm PST

She was already 19 weeks along and thought she was in the ‘safe zone’, only to find out a week later that she had a ‘shrinking cervix’ and would need a stitch to ensure the baby stayed in place.

“Having an operation 21 weeks pregnant was the most challenging thing I’ve ever done,” EJ wrote on Instagram in February.

“I pretty much ugly cried on every nurse that came near me. I was petrified I would wake up without my baby.”

It meant absolute bed rest for a number of weeks, forcing the usually busy mum to put her feet up and broadcast her radio show with Flan and Christo from the spare room of her house.

Getting it done bedrest style #Repost @1029hottomato with @get_repost ・・・ FaceTiming Emily Jade this morning! ?

A post shared by Emily Jade O’Keeffe (@emilyjadeokeeffe) on Feb 12, 2018 at 5:09pm PST

With almost 150,000 Hot Tomato listeners crossing their fingers, toes and everything else for the safe arrival of EJ’s baby, the rest of her pregnancy remained mostly drama-free and at 12.01am on Monday little Teddy James arrived.

The excited, but tired mumma chatted with her co-hosts Flan and Christo, who are joined by former Olympic swimmer Brooke Hanson in EJ’s absence, just hours after the birth.

And here she is. I’m thrilled @brookehanson_oam has agreed to fly the flag for me during my maternity leave. We have so much in common ie we are both Gold Coast Mums in the public eye who have had real struggles to create our families. We are also both blonde and bubbly and between us have 2 Olympic Medals. We also both know that breast is best… as in breast stroke- she is a champion. It’s lucky we are doing breakfast radio like a relay team because if you got us together on air we would never stop talking as we both love a good chin wag together. I would wish her all the best, but she doesn’t need it. She is going to rock being on air and I can’t thank her enough for re setting the 4am alarms for me, but this time thankfully she won’t have to get into a cold pool, it will be a warm studio with 2 of the best people I know, Flan and Christo. In fact she is the perfect choice, she was mistaken for me at the Currumbin Surf Club only last week by a nice man who told her he loved listening to me/her on @1029hottomato she didn’t correct him at the time but I’m pretty impressed he thought I looked that amazing 9 months pregnant. ? @flan_skf @christoradio thanks @gcbulletin for covering this for us x

A post shared by Emily Jade O’Keeffe (@emilyjadeokeeffe) on Jun 6, 2018 at 4:23pm PDT

She described her newborn as a “big bopper”, explaining he weighed “eight pounds 11” (3678g) and is 53cm long.

EJ confirmed she had no time to take any drugs as little Teddy arrived quickly, with just one hour of labour.

Take a listen to the chat