In exciting news, Married at First Sight’s Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli are officially parents!
WATCH: Martha K’s exciting baby prep
The first-time parents announced the safe arrival of their baby boy via Instagram on Monday night, with a sweet photo that showed their newborn sleeping soundly in a hospital cot, a congratulatory bunch of white roses in the background.
Martha revealed the name in the caption: “Lucius Brunelli.He’s here, he’s perfect.”
Celebrities, friends and fans were quick to congratulate the couple in the comments, with the likes of Abbie Chatfield, Jessica Origliasso from The Veronicas and MAFS star Domenica Calarco celebrating the occasion.
Martha may have made a name for herself by throwing red wine on TV, but it’s her relationship with on screen groom (and now fiancé) Michael that has really made history.
Since first meeting on their televised wedding day in 2018 for season six of Married at First Sight, sparks flew.
”She’s beautiful. She looked absolutely amazing. She’s got this huge smile and it just drew me in. I think I’ve struck gold,” the then-27-year-old primary school teacher Michael said as his bride approached him down the aisle.
Fast forward to a European vacay in mid 2022, the couple were soon facing their biggest challenge yet… pregnancy.
After Martha and Michael announced their surprise pregnancy in September 2022, the pair had an anything but easy road to parenthood.
Martha was diagnosed with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) – a rare pregnancy condition that affects about two per cent of pregnant women and causes extreme morning sickness – and spent the first trimester in bed.
”At five weeks I was diagnosed with HG, which is basically severe chronic nausea and vomiting with no relief. It is like 24/7,” Martha said when she returned to social media in September.
WATCH: Martha Kalifatidis and Michael Brunelli announce they’re expecting
She added: ”I literally did not get out of bed for two months; I was so sick. I could not eat or drink anything. There were days that I did not even get up to pee.”
Fortunately, at the four month mark of her pregnancy, Martha said she was lucky enough to find a doctor that was able to make her ”feel human again”.
According to Michael, in the second trimester, Martha enjoyed many more ”good days”.
”She’s having a lot more good days now where’s she’s actually able to get up and go outside, but then on the flip side, there are still those bad days where she is stuck in bed feeling really nauseous,” he told Yahoo Lifestyle at the time.
”We’re trying to focus on the positives and keep that positive reinforcement coming, and there’s not so much suffering now.”
WATCH: Martha K’s gender reveal video
As the months progressed, Martha was finally able to return to a semi-normal type of life, attending a number of events and debuting her growing baby bump for the first time publicly.
In November 2022, Michael also told Now to Love exclusively that they were turning to their parents and families for advice as they prepared for the new arrival to their family.
”Martha has a niece and I have two baby nephews, so we are just picking the brains of our family.
”There has been a lot of advice online that we are trying to take on board as well. But at the end of the day, and what we have been told by everyone out there, is that we will learn so much when the baby comes. You can read all you want but the moment the baby is born everything will be thrown out the window.
”It’ll be a crazy new world for us in 2023.”
This article originally appeared on our sister site, Now To Love.
