Rainmaker Properties - Improving Lives with Silicon Valley Real Estate - Sunnyvale and Mountain View Real Estate Agent - Rainmaker Properties Supports March of Dimes

Oct

Rainmaker Properties Supports March of Dimes - Improving the Health of Babies

Real estate agent Sara Greenwood and I had the great opportunity to help a family move into their first home in the desirable Cupertino / West San Jose Capistrano Community. The sellers gave Sara a great review on Yelp. We were thankful to have had another opportunity to cultivate a great relationship with a client and as part of our Rainmaker Properties mission, we were able to make a charitable contribution to an organization that has had a huge impact in Sara’s life: the March of Dimes organization. Below is Sara’s story…

March of Dimes is a charitable organization that has a mission to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality. They carry out their mission through research, community services, education and advocacy to save babies’ lives. March of Dimes advocates work to give all babies a fighting chance against threats to their health.

March of Dimes is an organization that is very personal to me. Because of their mission, my daughter may not be here today. Astrid Gwyneth was born 11 weeks premature weighing only 610 grams (1 lb, 5 oz). She was born at Good Samaritan Hospital in San Jose with a condition called IUGR/SGA (Intrauterine growth restricted/Small for Gestational Age).
Although I thought that I was having a perfectly normal and healthy pregnancy, my last doctor’s visit revealed that she wasn’t growing inside my womb because she didn’t have the proper nutrients to keep her alive. The flow of nutrients and oxygen to her body were restricted because of an abruption to her placenta; the placenta was extremely close to being detached from her only source of life — me. It was decided that she would thrive better outside my body and have a better chance of survival, and was delivered at only 29 weeks (normal gestation is 40 weeks). She had the struggle of her life before she even had her first breath.

I continually flashback to the moment in the delivery room when I saw Astrid being quickly handed off from the doctor, and into the hands of Nurse Heather Emery; she needed to be quickly turned over from my body and into the apparatus of an incubator. Heather was Astrid’s primary nurse for the time that she spent in the hospital; she took care of my baby and saw my family experience some extremely stressful and emotional times. There were a lot of heartbreaking and anxious moments as we watched Astrid grow from a 1 lb baby to when she finally came home 3 months later weighing ~4 lb.

Today, Astrid is a beautiful and bright 3-year old. She is normal in every way. I thank Heather, thank Good Samaritan hospital, and thank March of Dimes for keeping my baby alive by giving that fighting chance that was threatening her precious life.