She was born to proud parents Jason and Bobbi-Sue Cheeseman on Feb. 1 in a hospital in Halifax.
Born eight weeks premature, she weighed a mere four pounds and one ounce. Monica Grace needed to stay in the Halifax hospital for a couple weeks before being transferred to the neonatal intensive care unit at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Charlottetown.
Jason says his baby daughter was on a feeding tube and spent about six weeks on a monitor.
She was released from the QEH on March 25, creating a good bit of commotion at home in Bangor Road for her brothers Matthew, Timothy, Michael, Tobia and Mark-Francis and for her sisters Maria and Theresa.
“The first couple days it was a lot of excitement,’’ says Jason.
“Chaos is a good word. We’re starting to get back into our normal routines.’’
Both baby and mom are doing well following a precarious pregnancy.
Bobbi-Sue spent two months in hospital before giving birth to her ninth child. Due to having the most rare and severe form of placenta accrete, she faced the possibility of hemorrhaging, which put both her life and that of the baby at risk.
Fortunately, surgery to induce early labour, while very complicated, went well.
Now the large Cheeseman clan is resting easy.
“The stress is gone and everybody is more happy that mom is home and baby is home,’’ says Jason.
He is also quick to recognize the considerable community support that helped him and his family through a challenging period that saw Jason balancing the care of eight children, holding down a full-time job as a mechanic, worrying over the fate of his wife and unborn child while facing significant home repair and travel costs.
“We felt a great sense of community for the help and faith for all the prayers that we got from people,’’ says Jason, a devout Catholic.
“We really couldn’t have done it without all the help from the community.’’