The Story of Charlee Rae

Hello everyone!  You may, or may not, have noticed that it’s been a while since I’ve written here on our blog.  I have a confession – a little secret I kept from the online world for 35 weeks.

This was me four weeks ago! I was 33 weeks pregnant and it is a good thing we snuck out to do these photos because a few days after this I was in the hospital until the birth of our baby.

Meet our daughter, Charlee Rae! Charlee was born November 6th.  She weighed 6lbs4oz and was 48.5cm long – a decent size baby considering she was born premature at 35 weeks gestational age.

Charlee came into this world screaming a loud pitched and beautiful HELLO! She clasped her tiny hand around her Pa’s finger and hasn’t let go since.

My pregnancy with Charlee was an experience.  The first trimester found me very sick all the time (nothing new, I know, but seriously…the puking!)  I also suffered a hemorrhage at 7 weeks pregnant and spent the weekend in emergency at the hospital getting blood tests and ultrasounds.  The second trimester was a breeze; I felt great, looked great and cruised through those three months.  The morning I started the third trimester I woke up and vocalized, “I’m done!” The third trimester was, well, terrible for me.  I was hospitalized for four days at 32 weeks and was; therefore, not allowed to go back to work (I haven’t been teaching since October 15th).  I was hospitalized a second time on Hallowe’en and that time I didn’t leave the hospital until Charlee was born on November 6th.  Actually, I DID leave the hospital.  I was sent to Vancouver via helicopter the day before Charlee was born because there wasn’t space in the special care nursery here in Victoria.  To top that all off, I developed pre-eclampsia halfway through my 35th week of pregnancy (combined with placenta previa and an anterior placenta).  Charlee was born via a “high risk” c-section, but all turned out just fine.  You can read the full story on our family blog if you’re keen to know more.

So, 36 viles of blood, 35 weeks of carrying this baby, 10 ultrasounds, three hospitalizations and one high risk c-section later our baby girl arrived!

Here are some photos of our champion little girl.

Charlee’s best “milk drunk” face.

Charlee loves her Pa’s fingers and holds tight to them whenever she can!

This is my life now.

After 11 days in the special care nursery in Vancouver Charlee passed her car seat test like a champ!

On Monday we were so happy to finally be heading home.

Our first night and day at home. A new pace to this former busy, jam-packed life.

We love this little fighter so much. She put up with so much while in the womb – we know she’s going to be just as resilient in this big, wide world.

I intend to stay connected with the education world via this blog while I am on maternity leave for a year, after all, I can’t leave Meaghan hanging!  That said, I might only pop in every now and then until we get a set routine in our new life.  See you all soon!