She wanted people to see that her family was just like any other: filled with laughter, chaos, and unconditional love. What began as a small project soon grew into something far bigger than she expected. Within a few years, her Instagram account attracted over 300,000 followers, many inspired by her honesty, humor, and courage.
A Third Pregnancy — and a Difficult Reality
For most mothers, reaching the 12-week mark is a time of celebration — a chance to finally share the happy news. But for Charli, it marked the beginning of another round of painful and emotional genetic testing. Because of their unique genetic makeup, each of their pregnancies comes with four possible outcomes:
-
Their baby could be of average height.
-
Their baby could inherit Achondroplasia, the same type of dwarfism Charli has.
-
Their baby could inherit Geleophysic Dysplasia, the same type of dwarfism as Cullen.
-
Or, the baby could inherit both conditions — a combination called “double dominant dwarfism,” which doctors have determined is fatal shortly after birth.
That means, with each pregnancy, there is a one in four chance that their baby will not survive. So, while most expectant mothers at twelve weeks were picking out baby clothes or posting ultrasound photos, Charli was lying on a hospital bed, preparing for a procedure known as Chorionic Villus Sampling (CVS) — similar to an amniocentesis. “It’s a massive needle through my abdomen,” she explained, “to take a sample of the placenta, which carries about a 2% risk of miscarriage. It’s the only way to find out the genetic makeup of my baby.” The wait for results was agonizing. “I wasn’t just waiting to find out the baby’s gender,” she wrote on Instagram. “I was waiting to learn whether I could bring this little one into the world come March 2021 — or if his or her journey would end before it began.”
