Nearly Three Weeks Later

Hello Everyone,

Things at the Gaggle's house have been quite hectic. Zoe and Sidney are hungry about every 2 hours. During the night we work in shifts which works out well until they both get hungry at the same time. So how do we feel about having two pooping, screaming and hungry girls taking up nearly every minute of the day? We are ecstatic!! Over the moon :)

We are pretty much settled and just enjoying the adventure. We have a lot of help during the day. Our friends bring us food, help us with laundry, feeding and changing. Honestly, we couldn't operate without them. Susan's sister Ruby is coming in the next few weeks and will help us out for a whole month. It will be nice to be able to get some more consistent sleep and have a better chance to get the house in order.

We have the best support system in the world. Thanks to everyone :)

The Gaggle.

Some Pictures

Welcome Zoe and Sidney!!!

As many of you already know, we have had our twins. The stats are:

Zoe Annemarie Grubb
Born 3/2/2009 at 7:33pm PST at St Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR
Weight: 7lb 2oz
Length: 19 inches

Sidney Natalia Grubb
Born 3/2/2009 at 7:39pm PST at St Vincent Medical Center in Portland, OR
Weight: 6lb 15oz
Length: 20 inches

The beginning was easy for Zoe. She was born head first in only four pushes and transitioned perfectly to the outside world. Sidney had a harder time. She was born breech (upside down and backwards) and did not want to leave. At the last second when they were about to pull her out, she spread out her arms. At that point she had already been hanging out for about four minutes and the decision was made to pull her out to avoid more serious problems. On the way she broke her left arm. On top of the arm, Sidney suffered from respiratory distress immediately after birth.

Zoe was brought to us immediately, we got to spend about a minute with her when the nurse came in and told us that we had to go to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) right away. Everyone was talking, but no one was telling us whether or not Sidney would be alright. Finally I just had to stop everyone and ask if everything was going to be ok (they said she would be just fine). Sidney recovered from her respiratory distress that first night and by the next morning looked A LOT better. She did however develop a distended belly during the night. That cleared up later the second day as she discovered her digestive system had an exit. After that it was just a matter of getting her to eat more so we could get her IV taken out.

Our surrogate Dawn did a great job with the delivery, though she had to stay in the hospital for nearly the entire week.

Daddy didn't do so well. I nearly passed out after learning that Sidney would be ok. The next day I got sick from the stress and was all but useless. But I recovered and redeemed myself by the end of the week.

Things have been busy since we got home, but we are managing our time well and getting lots of rest. Anyone who wants to come and take over for a few hours though will not be turned away :)

I put together a slide show for everyone because I am getting a lot of requests for pictures. Sorry for the long wait, here are 110 pics from the first week of Zoe and Sidney's lives on the outside. There are considerably more pictures of Zoe at the beginning. I did take three pictures of Sidney in the NICU (she's the one laying on her side to protect the broken arm).



Enjoy and thank you for all of the support.

The Gaggle

Sigh... Waiting...

The nursery is set up, the clothes are washed, and the paperwork is nearly done. Things are winding down a little now because the Doc's latest estimate says we will have to wait until week 39! Its week 37 now.

A quick update on weights... One is 6lb 14 oz and the other is 6lb 15oz!!! In terms of twins, that is very large. With the average twins being born at 5.5lbs, Zoe and Sidney are obviously doing well.

Of course it is safer for the girls to stay in longer, so we are being patient. Its like the last five minutes of school before summer vacation. For those of you who want to make an "It wont be a vacation" comment, we have been made aware :).

I have attached three ultrasound pictures from January 30th. Not a lot to see I'm afraid, the appointment was more to check on their health than take "cute" shots. There are two feet and a face (looking at you).

Thank You for the Showers!!

Well, its been three parties in two weeks. We want to thank everyone who hosted, helped and showed up at our three baby showers. "Grateful" doesn't even begin to describe how all of your support has made us feel. For those of you interested in our haul over all three baby showers check out the pictures below. Click on a picture for a larger version.

Notice that we eventually realize that we have to figure out a place for everything to go. We can make it work, lots of nooks and crannies in this place.

I already posted pictures of the first shower, below are the slide shows for the other two. The first one was at Swedish Medical Center (Susan's work). They got us a large conference room and some carts to haul stuff back and forth from our cars which came in really handy! The cake was made by Laura, you can see her posing with it in the slide show.

The final shower was at our place. It was finally my turn to open gifts because Susan got to open at the first two. As you can see in the slide show, while I was opening the presents Katie and Jackie beat up Robert and ate him to gain his strength. He will be missed. The authorities agreed that they were too cute to get in trouble for that and Robert had it coming anyway.

Thank you again to everyone for coming. We know our daughters will be loved by all of our friends and family and that gives us piece of mind. Now its time to get ready for the final event. Things will be organized, cleaned, and finished. Sidney and Zoe will be here before you know it!

Love,
The Gaggle

Our First Baby Shower...

We had our very first baby shower. The turnout was great, thank you to everyone who attended. We received so many great gifts. It really meant a lot to see how many people have supported us in the last six years. Of course this is the first of three showers (we couldn't afford a convention center). We had two challenges:

Robert won the diaper challenge with over 500 (Total haul 1484.)
Jeri won the baby wipe challenge with 1000 (Total haul over 3400.)

Congratulations on winning and we hope you enjoy your prizes.

I took lots of photos (with a little help), but anyone who reads this and has pictures to add, just email them to me (or start a blog :). So without further ado, here are the baby shower pictures.

Friends...


Susan and Liz had a fun time making the baby shower cake. The slide show below is proof. The cake had nothing but rave reviews. It was a little difficult to transport though as we didn't have a box and it weighed about 30 pounds!

Cake...


On a different note, our good friend Sam was here to visit just a week ago. Because he is such a nut, I felt I should include a few photos of his visit just for giggles. Unfortunately he couldn't stay for the party.


and Laughs!


Ultrasound pictures are coming as soon as I can get down to Kinko's and have them scanned. For now, thank you again to everyone who came to the shower and to everyone coming to the others.

The Gaggle loves you all :)

Moving into the New Year

Our new year started with a great experience. We haven't been able to see our surrogate for a while now mostly due to scheduling conflicts. Today, finally we were able to get together. We had been hearing stories about our girls moving (very ferociously) at times. During lunch we were able to finally feel them.

It was a wonderful experience. Everything became more real when our girls were kicking (or headbutting?) our hands. Apparently they really like the Olive Garden. We were having so much fun feeling them move that before we knew it all the wait staff was staring at us because we had been there three hours!

Dawn hooked us up with more ultrasound pictures so those will be up soon. For now here is a parting shot of a VERY pregnant surrogate.

Best wishes and Happy New Year from the Gaggle!