Charpentier Family

At 29 ½ weeks pregnant, I was admitted to The Birthing Inn at Inova Loudoun Hospital for what I thought was severe indigestion. It turned out that I had severe preeclampsia and a condition known as HELLP Syndrome. I was hooked up to IV’s, monitors and given a steroid injection, (surfactant), to help mature my unborn son’s lungs. I started improving, but not enough to be sent home, I spent the next 4 days on bed rest, listening to women give birth to their healthy babies. By Day 4 it became clear that I wasn’t going to get any better, and on the morning of Day 5 (May 16, 2007), Martin Alexander was born via emergency C-section at 30 weeks gestation. So much for my natural childbirth plan! It was all so scary – even though he let out a cry and began to breathe on his own, he was very underweight. He spent the next 3.5 weeks in the NICU gaining weight and learning to eat from a bottle. He came home in early June weighing only 3 lbs. 6oz. and aside from a double-inguinal hernia (that was repaired several months later), he has grown up to be a healthy, happy and very energetic little boy! Alex turns 5 years-old this May and we’re thankful for every day we have with him and his little sister, Gabriela, who was born full term in 2010.