Charlie Sheen & Wife on Preemies: "It Was Frightening!"

April 24, 2009

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Charlie's wife, Brooke Mueller, gave birth to Bob and Max several weeks early on March 14 and the underweight boys had to remain in the hospital. However, the couple says they're now "doing great."

"It was scary," Brooke tells Entertainment Tonight. "I went to the NICU to see them and words can't express how amazing and shocking to see two human beings that came out of me. But I was scared. Our babies had so many tubes on them, it was frightening. I didn't have the easiest pregnancy. I had preeclampsia, gestational diabetes and cholestasis."

Adds Charlie: "She would have been in serious jeopardy had they stayed in longer."

When Bob was sent home several days before Max, there were reports that he was suffering from a heart condition — which Charlie's rep denied. "They were 7 weeks early so things were still developing," explains Charlie. "Max has something called ejection fracture. It's the volume at which the heart pumps and how much blood the heart can pump. There wasn't anything that any other premature child, especially a twin, doesn't normally go through. Things are gradually going toward normal. The reason he had to stay longer in the hospital than Bob was a weight issue."

As for who the wee ones look like, Brooke says it's Charlie all the way! "They are completely Sheens," the new mom jokes. "They don't have any Mueller genes. I'm like, 'Can I at least have an ear?!' Bob looks identical to Charlie. Everybody at the NICU called him Charlie. And Max looks like (Charlie's dad) Martin [Sheen]."

Max and Bob are the first kids for Charlie and Brooke. He also has daughters, Sam, 4, and Lola, 3, with ex-wife Denise Richards, and another, 24-year-old Cassandra, from a previous relationship.