“The whole Block knew before my Mum!”

The countdown is on for The Block couple Emma and Ben – and not just for auction day!

“We’re due three days before the auction,” Emma tells Woman’s Day.

“I’m stressed!” jokes husband Ben.

“We’ve actually got a meeting with our midwife tomorrow so we’re going to come up with a few contingency plans, but whatever happens, happens,” adds Emma. “The Block said, ‘Maybe we’ll send some cameras to the delivery room.’”

“That or a helicopter to the auction,” says Ben. “It’s just insane,” laughs Emma.
(Credit: Chloe Smith Photography)

GOING WITH THE FLOW

The mum-to-be was six weeks pregnant when she arrived on the set of The Block in Daylesford, Victoria, in March.

“It was funny, we actually got the phone call from the casting director to say we were on The Block the same day that we did the pregnancy test,” says Emma. “And we were like, ‘We’ll just go with the flow. If it works out, it works out. If it doesn’t, no stress, it’s not meant to be.’ So we just went with the flow and here we are!”

The couple were keen to keep their special news under wraps on site, though.

“We kept it to ourselves until we hit the 13-week mark and got the all-clear with everything from the genetic testing. We didn’t want to get too ahead of ourselves,” says Emma, who admits the couple had wanted to start a family for a while.

“We’ve had other things that we wanted to happen first – like buying houses, flipping houses, building houses…”

“Getting on The Block!” chimes in Ben. “But it was always on our bingo card for this year,” says Emma. “We just didn’t think it would all be happening at once.”
(Credit: Chloe Smith Photography)
The pole-dancing instructor says being pregnant on The Block didn’t make the experience any more challenging.

“The Block was hard in itself but I don’t think being pregnant hindered us at all,” she says.

“It was tricky the first few weeks when Em had to hide it from everyone,” Ben admits. “There were a few occasions where champagne would get passed around and she’d have to palm them off to me and I’d have to skull them quickly.”

“You really took one for the team, Ben, didn’t you?!” his wife jokes.

Once they got the all-clear, the show’s host Scott Cam, 62, was the first to know.

“We told Scotty and then he delivered the news to everyone else,” says Emma, 33. “They were all so excited for us and congratulated us and just asked, ‘How are you doing this in your first trimester?’”
(Credit: Chloe Smith Photography) (Credit: chloe-smith-photography)

A BLOCK FIRST

When Woman’s Day chat to the couple in early August, Emma is 29 weeks and “feeling great!”

“It’s been such a cruisy, lovely pregnancy but apparently people say if you have a cruisy pregnancy you’re going to have a crazy kid,” she laughs. “I was a little bit queasy – felt like I had a two-day hangover, but it wasn’t anything to ruin my day.

“So many of my girlfriends, gosh, they’ve had some rough times. I was very fortunate.”

The Melbourne-based couple are excited to be the first ever pregnant couple on The Block – and even more so to tell the story to their son one day.

“It will be pretty amazing to be able to share the whole experience with our child down the track and be able to say, ‘You were in my tummy there!’” says Emma.

“The coolest part was when we got to tell all of our families when they came and visited us for family week,” adds Ben, 32. “So that will be a nice thing to share with the baby when he gets a bit older.”
(Credit: Chloe Smith Photography)

A BIG SURPRISE

The couple say they had to delay giving their relatives the good news.

“Because we didn’t tell anyone before we went on The Block and we didn’t want to tell our families over the phone, we thought we’ll share the news with them in person, so I was about 17 weeks when we ended up telling them. My mum’s still a little bit hurt about it. The whole Block knew before her!”

The couple’s bub will be the first grandchild on Emma’s side of the family.

“My parents are so excited – they’re planning they’re going to be Nan and Pa. And it’s the second one for Ben’s family but they’re just as excited,” says Emma.

Meanwhile, Ben and Emma are yet to settle on a name for their little boy.

“We’ve got a shortlist,” says Ben.

“I think once we meet him we’ll know,” says Emma. “We’ve definitely got some that we both agree on. We had about 40 girls’ names all lined up and then we found out it was going to be a boy,” adds Ben.

“Boy’s names are so tricky,” says Emma, who shares that the couple are open to having more kids. We’ll do one and then see how we go,” she says with a laugh.

“Ben comes from a family of three and I’m one of two and we did love growing up with siblings so it would be lovely to have another one along the way somewhere.”
(Credit: Chloe Smith Photography)
Bub will already have built-in playmates.

“Our whole friendship group is at the stage now where they’ve got kids, so we’re one of the last. It will be nice to share experiences with all of our kids running around together. At times we feel a little bit out of the loop when it’s nothing but baby talk,” says Ben.

“And all the hand-me-downs!” adds Emma.

If they win big on The Block, though, the couple say their son will be treated to some new things, too. “Oh goodness, we’ll be buying him bloody everything!” laughs Emma.

They are clear fan favourites on the reality show, and Emma and Ben say they’re happy with how they’re being portrayed on screen.

“We’re loving our edit. We were pretty conscious of trying to keep a low profile for the first few weeks just until we sussed everything out, and I’m glad we played it that way,” says Ben.

“We were just ourselves,” says Emma. “Ben says low profile, but I feel like that’s just us normally”.