Jarrod Wallace and Courtney Thorpe have welcomed a baby girl six weeks premature after a troubled pregnancy
Two days ago, Gold Coast Titans star Jarrod Wallace and his Channel 7 presenter wife Courtney Thorpe were eagerly anticipating the birth of a new baby. Then they were given some frightening news.
Confidential
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IT wasn’t until Jarrod Wallace and Courtney Thorpe heard the screams of their newborn baby girl, born six weeks premature in a Gold Coast hospital this morning, that they knew she was OK.
The Gold Coast Titans star and his Channel 7 presenter wife had suffered a torturous wait for two days after being told by doctors on Monday that their baby would have to be delivered at 34 weeks via caesarean due to concerns that CMV disease had affected the baby’s brain.
There were also signs of pre-eclampsia and low amniotic fluid, which could have serious or fatal consequences.
Thorpe, 29, gave birth to baby Kennedy Grace Wallace, weighing 2.26kg and measuring 44.5cm, at Pindara Private Hospital at 7:22am on Wednesday.
“She came out screaming … and you could see everyone in the room light up and almost cheer and Court, you could see in her face she just relaxed and she got emotional, we both did, when we heard her cry,” Wallace told The Courier-Mail.
“The last two days have been really stressful and hard to cope with. The fear of the unknown and not being able to do anything was torture.”
“We were really looking forward to getting her out into the world so whatever we had to deal with we would and lucky for us so far she was born perfect.”
Speaking ahead of the birth, Thorpe said her struggles began early with “excruciating pain” likely from endometriosis scarring and the stress of finding out she was not immune to rubella, despite being vaccinated, as well as being diagnosed with CMV disease, which can cause complications for the baby.
She also had low iron, high blood pressure and swelling, which led to her being hospitalised earlier this month to be monitored for pre-eclampsia, as well as placenta previa, which meant she had to deliver via caesarean.
It was during the birth that they discovered Thorpe did have pre-eclampsia and there was no amniotic fluid left to surround the baby.
“We were told that if we’d left it one more day both bub and Court could have been in real trouble and the placenta could have had an abruption and that’s when things go really badly,” Wallace said.
Kennedy, a name bizarrely picked out independently by Thorpe, her mother and her best friend, will remain in hospital for another three weeks as they continue to monitor her development.
Wallace’s two daughters, Lara, 6, and Peyton, 4, from a previous relationship met their new sister on Wednesday afternoon after the rugby league star himself got to hold his baby girl for the first time.
“We weren’t expecting to be able to hold her. She felt so little. She curled up in my chest like a little koala,” he said.
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