The Block NZ: Villa Wars star Jeremy Hill has been keeping busy on a very special renovation project in his 1930s New Plymouth bungalow – a nappy-changing bench in the laundry that he hopes will be ready by the time he and wife Cat welcome their first child, a son, later this month.
“I’m really looking forward to being a dad,” the 36-year-old designer tells Woman’s Day, while kindy teacher Cat, 34, adds, “We’re just so grateful and excited that we get to be parents.”
Indeed, the reality TV favourites – who won hearts and the People’s Choice Award on The Block in 2015 – have had a long and often-heartbreaking journey to starting their family.
“I was born with a genetic condition called balanced translocation,” explains Cat of the chromosomal disorder where reproductive cells end up with extra or missing material. “It hasn’t affected me my whole life, but I knew that when it came to babies, it would make things a bit tricky.”
Jeremy continues, “We were told there was a 50% chance we would have a miscarriage or that something would be severely wrong with the baby and a 50% chance the baby would be OK, so for us to have kids, it was like rolling the dice. We have a mate who’s a doctor and he put us on the in-vitro fertilisation path.”
By having eggs taken from Cat and fertilised by Jeremy’s sperm in a lab to form an embryo, before implanting them back in Cat’s uterus, “we could improve our odds of having a healthy baby”, the Taranaki local tells.
This story is from the December 13 2021 edition of Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
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This story is from the December 13 2021 edition of Woman’s Day Magazine NZ.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
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