on the podcast<\/a> as a big change in his life.<\/p>\nHe spoke about his son\u2019s diagnosis of gastroschisis, a type of abdominal wall defect that occurs when a child\u2019s abdomen does not develop fully while in the womb, which can lead to the intestines developing outside.<\/p>\n
He went on to say that Christmas will look a little different this year as his son JJ remains in the hospital, where he is getting stronger every day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a car seat in the car waiting to be filled, and someday we\u2019ll fill it, and we\u2019ll drive back down the motorway with him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Opening up about the challenges he and his wife Annie had when trying to conceive, he said: \u201cWe were trying and trying\u2026 trying and then trying more. In my group of friends, a lot of the lads have kids. There are a few of us who didn\u2019t, and the whole fertility thing is something lads don\u2019t talk about.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said they had been trying for a year and a half and said that he didn\u2019t know what the problem was.<\/p>\n
After turning to Google, he ordered a home kit to check his sperm count, which turned out to be quite low. Ordering an even better home kit that also showed a low sperm count, he decided to contact a fertility clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a weird feeling because I had it in my head that I knew it was me. I felt so bad for her that I couldn\u2019t do this. We have so much going for us, life and work-wise, I was like\u2026 the one thing. There\u2019s no magic fix for this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He shared his experience at the fertility clinic and how he went on to give up alcohol, eat healthily, and try royal jelly.<\/p>\n
McMahon said the fact that they couldn\u2019t get pregnant was consuming him.<\/p>\n
Months later, after returning home from a trip to America, Annie surprised him with the news that she was pregnant on the night before he was due to return to the fertility clinic.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe I wasn\u2019t thinking about it as much, I wasn\u2019t stressed, and I was eating healthy, and I was training, and I was on royal jelly and wasn\u2019t drinking, and maybe that mattered for nearly the three months. But it did the job. She was pregnant. I was relieved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I know there\u2019s going to be people who\u2019ve had much worse in terms of fertility, you know, they probably can\u2019t have babies, or there\u2019s other problems, and they go through IVF, and I can\u2019t imagine what that\u2019s like. I only know how stressful it was for me to have to only go this far.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After nearly two years of trying to conceive, and finally becoming pregnant, McMahon said they had a 12-week scan and were asked to come back for a 14-week scan.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never heard of a 14-week scan, but I didn\u2019t question it. What did I know about it? I\u2019d never been through it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the 14-week scan, the consultant told them there was a problem and explained that their baby had gastroschisis.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went on the internet, which is probably what you shouldn\u2019t do, but I wanted to read up and find out as much as I could about it [gastroschisis], and I watched documentaries and all that. I\u2019m glad I did all that stuff,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
At the 20-week scan, they found out that everything else was good, which he said was a relief.<\/p>\n
He spoke about his experience taking a prenatal class before he delved into the details of the birth, for which they had to travel to Dublin.<\/p>\n
When they arrived in Dublin, they were told their baby would be delivered by C-section, with McMahon explaining how difficult the birth was for both of them.<\/p>\n
He explained that when JJ was born, he had to be taken into a separate room, and that they couldn\u2019t have skin-on-skin contact as his bowel had developed outside his abdomen.<\/p>\n
McMahon described the emotion of the day \u2013 seeing his son for the first time, being there for Annie who had gone through a major procedure, and having their son transported from The Coombe Hospital to Crumlin Hospital for his surgery, which he said was particularly difficult on Annie, who couldn\u2019t see her son for those two days while she recovered.<\/p>\n
He spoke about how JJ had made great progress after those surgeries, but that one night, they received a call from the hospital.<\/p>\n
They were informed that something was wrong and another operation was needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat few hours was hell. We were sitting there waiting to find out if he had made it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After what was his third surgery, JJ began to get better and went on to have a fourth surgery, eventually moving from the ICU to a normal ward.<\/p>\n
Both McMahon and his podcast co-host, and the other half of the 2 Johnnies, Johnny \u2018B\u2019 O’Brien, teared up as McMahon spoke about JJ pulling through.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe fought through it, and he\u2019s good now. He\u2019s still in hospital, and we don\u2019t know how long, but he\u2019s out of the woods now and he’s stable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
McMahon and Annie will continue to live in Dublin while JJ is in hospital, with McMahon saying he cannot wait to bring baby JJ home to Cahir.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just waiting for Annie to snap that picture of me holding the baby, walking out the door of Crumlin. I\u2019ll do some crying when I get to leave there, I\u2019ll tell you. But the staff, I can\u2019t say enough about them, they\u2019ve been unbelievable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
As a thank you for the care McMahon and his family received, the 2 Johnnies are set to take to the stage at the 3Arena next Easter for a charity family show.<\/p>\n
The 2 Johnnies Big Big Family Show will take place at the 3Arena on Monday, April 6, where the Tipperary lads will be joined on stage by special guests Garron Noone and Marty Mone.<\/p>\n
All proceeds from the event will go directly to the Children\u2019s Health Foundation. Tickets will go on sale this Thursday at 9am.<\/p>\n
Experiencing fertility problems or going through fertility treatment may be stressful or upsetting for you and your partner. For more information on the help and support available to you click here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2 Johnnies star Johnny \u2018Smacks\u2019 McMahon has spoken out about his and his partner\u2019s pregnancy journey after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":193871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[5658,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-193870","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-irish-examiner-instagram","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193870","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193870"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193870\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/193871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}