By Melissa Meehan
They say that things come in threes.
And this is certainly true for Jaimee Fraser.
She has lost three babies and recently welcomed triplets into the world.
Her journey to motherhood hasn’t been an easy one.
She welcomed her first son Arlo without any issues. As he was about to turn one, she and her husband Cam decided it was time to expand their family.
She fell pregnant straight away, as expected.
Her mum had four children, including one set of twins, without any issues and Jaimee had no reason to believe she would be any different.
She’d never met anyone who had lost a baby and pregnancy loss couldn’t have been further from her mind.
But the day before a family trip to Bali – their last as a family of three – Jaimee was shopping and noticed something wasn’t right.
She went to emergency and was reassured that light bleeding was completely normal in early pregnancy.
She was told her HCG levels were rising and she had nothing to worry about.
SO THEY LEFT FOR THEIR BALI HOLIDAY THE NEXT DAY…
The first week of their holiday was everything they dreamed it would be.
They spent it exploring and relaxing by the pool.
But during their second week, Jaimee again started to bleed.
It was different than before.
She was raced to Denpasar Hospital for an ultrasound and was told her baby had no heartbeat and hadn’t grown in two weeks.
They wanted to operate right away, but Jaimee refused. She hoped the little one would hold on until they returned to Australia.
She went back to her villa, where she was staying with her sister and mum, and told them she was pregnant – and that she had lost the baby.
It wasn’t until they were walking their bags into the departure line at Denpasar Airport that Jaimee began to feel contractions.
Doubled over in pain, she ran to the bathroom and lost her baby at eight weeks.
Autumn is remembered as her first angel.
They welcomed Theo into the world with much excitement shortly after.
AS COVID RESTRICTIONS EASED….
Jaimee and Cam booked a weekend away in the Yarra Valley for their fifth wedding anniversary.
In the depths of Melbourne’s lockdown they had decided to try again for another child, but were in no hurry.
As she was packing her bags for the trip, Jaimee had an inkling she was pregnant.
She couldn’t bring herself to take a pregnancy test, but packed one in her case.
Jaimee took it the next morning – and it was POSITIVE!
“I was terrified,” Jamiee told Kids Today.
“But I reasoned with myself that lightning never strikes twice in the same place.”
She booked a scan for Christmas Eve. Cam was working so she went alone.
She was 7.5 weeks and felt a wave of calm wash over her when she heard the heartbeat.
It would be the first and last time she would see her baby alive, and she regrets Cam wasn’t there to enjoy it too.
They went to their holiday house to spend the silly season with family and friends and share their happy news.
But the morning some friends were to arrive, Jaimee started bleeding again.
SHE DIDN’T IMMEDIATELY PANIC….
She had some light bleeding with her second son, Theo, and he was a perfect, healthy baby.
Jaimee and Cam went for a scan. She was 11 weeks and begged the technician to tell her the baby was OK.
But there was no heartbeat, and her body had not registered that her baby had died.
She named her Summer.
At that point, Jaimee described being broken.
“I was just devastated,” she said.
“I had a lot of support offered to me which was great, but I was just exhausted from the trauma and the grief.”
A month after losing Summer, Jaimee found out they were pregnant again.
“We weren’t expecting it to come so soon, and we were petrified,” she said.
They waited until nine weeks for their first scan, and the baby was “perfect”.
The ultrasound technician noted there was a 4 centimetre subchorionic haemorrhage but that it was very common and should heal.
They had another scan before their harmony test, and the haemorrhage had shrunk by half.
But at 11 weeks, Jaimee woke up to another bleed and went straight to emergency.
A scan found her baby alive and well, as would be the case many times during her pregnancy.
At 12 weeks he was perfect. At 20 weeks he was perfect. But the haemorrhage kept growing and doctors couldn’t fix it.
Jaimee went to bed on 13 July to pain coming in waves.
Her waters had broken and at 21 weeks she was dilating and her placenta was coming away.
Her baby, still perfect, was about to be born.
A doctor entered the room and explained if they could get the baby to stabilise they could be moved to the Royal Children’s Hospital in a few weeks.
She then asked the baby’s name.
“We hadn’t settled on a name, but decided on Remi,” Jamiee said.
She went to sleep in the room, hoping for the best, but was woken by intense contractions and rushed to the bathroom.
“And in the lonely light of the morning, while the world slept, Remi was born,” she said.
“The silence was heavy, not a cry or murmur could be heard. I was frozen. Afraid to look at him. Afraid he was dead. Afraid he was alive.”
Cam called for the midwife, who confirmed their worst fears – Remi had passed away.
SOCIAL MEDIA PROVIDED AN OUTLET…
“I started an Instagram page,” Jaimee said.
“About pregnancy loss and my loss and a place that I can share photos and stories and my journey so that other people like me don’t feel alone.”
The account @rememberingremi helped Jaimee find others who have experienced loss.
It’s also where she sensitively announced she was pregnant – with triplets.
“As if picked by their three siblings in the stars, we are so happy to announce that we are expecting three precious rainbows,” she wrote.
Conceived naturally, without the help of IVF or fertility drugs, the news blindsided Jaimee and Cam.
She sensitively shared her journey on the page, too, expressing her concerns about viability and her obstetrician’s advice that getting to 26 weeks was the goal.
She welcomed Ziggy, Daisy and Sonny on 14 September.
They were born at 32 weeks via emergency c-section thanks to the same placental abruption that had taken Remi.
They spent some time in special care and Jaimee, Cam, Arlo and Theo are looking forward to enjoying life with three new babies in their lives.
