"Finding out I was pregnant again on 24 December 2013 made for a very happy Christmas," Penny remembers. "My partner Stuart, 41, and I had met back in 2009. I already had two young children but that didn’t faze him."

Within five months, the couple were engaged and soon Poppy, now 11, and Charlie, now nine, were joined by Archie, five, and Lilly Jo, three.

Then, at 13 weeks into Penny’s fifth pregnancy, the couple were in for a shock.

"A scan revealed a 1 in 5 chance of Down’s syndrome, but also a 1 in 10 chance of Edward’s syndrome, which is fatal," explains Penny. "We were relieved when further testing confirmed the baby just had Down’s."

But there was a lot more to worry about.

"We were warned his heart was enlarged to over half the size of his chest and was surrounded by excessive fluid. We were told to expect a stillbirth."

Penny went into premature labour twice and doctors were concerned that Teddy, as he’d been named, was receiving too much blood through the umbilical cord. At 35 weeks, the placenta started to fail and Penny was induced on 7 August 2014.

"He’d have died if he’d spent another moment inside me," she says.

A battle to survive

It was a traumatic birth.

"I had just seconds to hold him before he was rushed to an incubator," Penny says. "His airways were full of amniotic fluid which needed to be sucked out. My other births had been mayhem, but Teddy arrived to a scary silence. It was terrifying. He was battling for survival."

A week later, Poppy, Charlie, Archie and Lilly Jo met him for the first time.

"It was hard to watch," Penny says. "They were all besotted with him, but Poppy and Charlie were asking difficult questions. We didn’t want to lie to them, but didn’t want to tell them the truth either."

Teddy was diagnosed with a large atrial septal defect, known as a hole in the heart, as well as duodenal atresia, which meant his stomach wasn’t joined together properly.

After a platelet transfusion at four days old, Teddy was given an operation to remove a section of stomach and reattach the lining. At 21 days old, he was discharged from Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge; but he was only home for five days.

"He was listless and pale, he seemed dozy and was refusing food,"explains Penny. "I took him back to hospital, where he stopped breathing because his bowel ruptured."

On a life support machine for a week, things only got worse. Penny says,"A surgeon was cleaning Teddy’s wound when it just burst open. His insides literally spilled out on the bed while I watched in horror."

Every day, Teddy faced a new challenge in his fight for life.

Penny says, "He couldn’t feed, so they were dripping 10ml of milk per hour straight into his stomach. He suffered several bouts of bronchiolitis and went into respiratory arrest.

"We didn’t know how much more Teddy could physically cope with, and we were exhausted. I tried to balance being there for my older kids too; I always took them to school in the morning, before Lilly Jo and I spent all day by Teddy’s bed."

The months passed in a blur. In October, Teddy was transferred to Ipswich Hospital, closer to the family home.

Penny says, "I feared we wouldn’t even get one Christmas with Teddy." Then she remembered a company she’d come across when she was pregnant with Teddy, called Little Box of Memories.

"They offered photoshoots with the most incredible detail in the scenes," she explains. "I remember thinking it was such a lovely idea. If we were only going to have one family Christmas photo, I wanted to make it count."

But Teddy was under doctors’ orders to stay in hospital. Penny explained how important it was for the family. "If Teddy survived, it would be a reminder of his strength," she says. "If he didn’t, it would be the only picture of all our children together."

Memories

Doctors finally agreed to let Teddy go for a few hours.

Suffering bronchiolitis and on a continuous flow feed machine, Teddy surprised the family with a strength that has since earned him his nickname, Super Ted. It was an afternoon spent as a family united, after six months of life in hospital, constantly fearing the worst.

Penny says, "Teddy was the centre of attention. For a few hours, we could be a happy family. I watched as the kids raided the clothes rail, deciding what everyone would wear."

Sadly, as soon as the photoshoot finished, it was straight back to hospital for Teddy.

"The kids didn’t want to see him go, but they understood. It was a tearful goodbye," Penny recalls.

But come Christmas Day, Teddy was allowed to spend a few hours at home with his family.

"The kids were under strict instructions not to peek at the tree and all the presents until I was back from hospital with Teddy. Then, he sat on my lap and watched his brothers and sisters open their gifts. I didn’t want to take him back to hospital again."

After an operation in January to reverse the stoma [opening] in his stomach, Teddy started pulling out the feeding tube that snaked up his nose. He clearly didn’t want it anymore, so doctors removed it and from then on, he started to thrive.

"Teddy has blossomed into a chirpy, inquisitive little soul," says Penny, happily. "He fought a tough fight but in October, a scan revealed good news: the hole in Teddy’s heart had closed all by itself.

"He’s so cute that we have to add half an hour to every trip we take. We call it Teddy Time – people coo and want a cuddle wherever we go!

"Not a lot of people get to meet their heroes, but I gave birth to mine. We’re all pinching ourselves that he’s here, he’s happy and healthy. He’s Super Ted!"