The latest addition
P.E.I. couple welcomes ninth child following challenging birth
The large Cheeseman clan has grown yet again, but the arrival of the latest addition to this Bangor Road family was far from easy.
Bobbi-Sue Cheeseman gave birth to her ninth child Wednesday after spending more than two months in hospital in Halifax in a precarious state.
Due to having the most rare and severe form of placenta accreta, Cheeseman faced the possibility of hemorrhaging, which put both her life and that of the baby at risk.
Jason Cheeseman said the surgery to induce early labour was “very complicated,’’ taking close to six hours. Thankfully, the procedure went well.
Monica Grace was born roughly eight weeks premature, weighing four pounds and one ounce.
The operation, said Cheeseman, was “pretty near perfect.’’
The tiny baby is doing well but is having a little trouble breathing and is being tube-fed.
“She is just doing fantastic,’’ said her dad. “The doctors and the nurses can’t believe how well she is doing.’’
Monica Grace is expected to stay in the Halifax hospital for about two weeks before being transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown, where she will likely stay for four to six weeks.
Cheeseman said his wife Bobbi-Sue is sore and “pretty weak’’ following the surgery. She will likely remain in hospital for another week.
“She was pretty anxious and nervous before the surgery,” he said. “There were so many possible outcomes.’’
Cheeseman was returning to P.E.I. today to pick up his other eight children to visit their mom and their new sibling in the hospital in Halifax.
Cheeseman told TC Media in an interview in December that years ago the couple “knew we were going to have more than the average (size) family.’’
Bobbie-Sue also had lengthy hospital stays carrying her fifth and sixth children.
Monica Grace joins siblings Matthew, 19, Timothy, 17, Thomas, 16, Michael, 14, Maria, 12, Tobias, 10, Theresa, 6, and Mark-Francis, 3, as part of the Cheeseman family. The Cheesemans, devout Catholics, have named all nine children after saints.