The Block‘s Emma and Ben have welcomed their first child into the world, a baby boy named Bailey Colter Cox.
“We’re so overjoyed,” Emma exclusively tells Woman’s Day. “I was going to say he’s going to be very spoiled, but he has already been very spoiled.”
Bailey arrived on the morning of Thursday, September 25, following a chaotic six-hour labour, with Emma saying it was “all systems go from around 11pm to 5am”.
“When my waters broke, I went in for monitoring and they were like, ‘Oh, it might be, it might not be. But we’ll try and push you out though because you’re pretty early,” she says.
Bailey was originally due to arrive on October 28th, just three days after The Block‘s big auction day.
“He really just didn’t want to miss the auction,” laughs Emma, 33. “He was so determined to come into this world.”
Emma makes a note to shout out to her midwife Maree.
“Oh my gosh, she was like a real-life angel,” she laughs. “I love her so much.”
“I love her more than my own mum,” Ben, 32, adds.
While it was certainly earlier than they had planned, Ben notes Bailey’s arrival came “pretty conveniently, as far as the weeks go”.
“We’ve got a quiet couple of weeks before it all ramps up prior to auction, and because it was a Thursday morning, it meant The Block wasn’t on for a couple of days so we were kind of in this little Bailey bubble and we had nothing more to think about,” he says. “And then when we came out of the hospital [on Sunday], we were driving and we were like, ‘Oh, The Block‘s on. We’re on telly!'”
He adds it’s “put things into perspective about what’s important in the world” for the pair.
Given Bailey’s premature birth and size — he was born at 2.78 kilos — he’s set to stay in hospital for monitoring until he’s been cleared by doctors, which Emma says hopefully won’t be too long.
“Everything’s healthy. He’s close to feeding and he’s got most of his monitors off now so he’s pretty good.”
When he is eventually taken home, the parents reveal he’s got a nursery fit for a king waiting for him.
“We’ve gone very green with lots of timber, it’s a bit coastal, lots of palm trees. We’ve also got a beautiful Daylesford painting on the wall,” says Emma.
She also adds that they have “so many teddies” which were gifted by their Block family after Shelley Craft threw them a baby shower on The Block, which will air this week.
Emma says life has been “insane” ever since they were given the news by Scott Cam that they were one of just five couples chosen to go on The Block 2025, which coincidentally, was also the same day that she learned she was pregnant.
“It’s been wild, that’s for sure,” she says somewhat breathlessly. “It has just been insane. But to be honest, I had such a cruisy pregnancy that at times I forgot I was pregnant. Which I know some of my girlfriends are absolutely shaking their fists at me because they have had shocking pregnancies.
“But no, I was blessed and I guess I even got to shortcut my pregnancy by five whole weeks,” she giggles.
While it was their fellow Blockheads who were told before their family that they were expecting a child, Emma and Ben said they had messaged their “neighbours” on the show after their families came to visit them in the hospital. They say that they “were all so excited” for them.
“They can’t wait to meet him over the next couple of weeks. I think Alicia has first dibs on a cuddle,” says Ben.
The Block fans will also get a chance to see Bailey as the couple plan to bring their bundle of joy along to the auction.
“He’ll definitely be there in his little Hard Yakka gear,” notes Emma.
With their lives already dramatically altered by Bailey’s arrival, Emma and Ben admit they’re still grappling with the idea that everything could change again if they manage to sell their Block home at auction day later this month.
But Ben is willing to up the ante even further if they win.
“I’ll tell you something, if we win The Block, we’ll have two more babies,” Ben announces.
“Oh god, he’s trying to up Britt and Taz,” laughs Emma.
Two of their closest friends on the show, Britt and Taz, already have two kids together.
“Regardless, we’re so lucky with everything we’ve got and the experience of The Block was just something to add to the life stories,” continues Ben.
“But just having a healthy family is top of the list at the moment.”
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