Torture by a Stuffed Animal

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This is a tradition with Scott. He throws every single stuffed animal that we own into the crib and then places the baby into the pile to see their reaction. As expected, the twins hate it. Luckily for everyone involved, the tradition stops today!

St. Luke's Day School...Here WE Come!

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Today we kicked off the first day of the 2010-11 year at St. Luke’s Day School. Ben is in Faruolo/Quiroz’s Twos class and Sam is upstairs (big deal for him) in Zook/Bentsen’s Pre-K class. No tears from anyone…just lots of excitement! We can’t wait to hear all about their first day when we pick them up this afternoon.

Mirror Image

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Grace and Graham are in sync...even when sleeping!

Family Fun

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What a great weekend! Jim and Greg came down to Houston (and brought a little bit of cool weather with them) to visit the kiddos. Sam and Ben were especially excited as they got to swim and dine poolside each day at Jim & Greg’s hotel pool. The Sheehan’s also drove down for a day to hang out and allowed Scott & I to sneak away for dinner while everyone watched the kiddos. We might not get to do that again for a while so we enjoyed every moment of our meal and conversation! Today the Sheehan gang left and the boys were extremely sad. Come back soon!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Ben!

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It doesn’t seem possible that Ben turned two-years-old today. Until the twins were born last week, he seemed so young and little. Of course, he’s much older than we give him credit for and is becoming more and more independent each day (and tells us so by saying things like, “I do it” or “my turn”).

I think he had a great birthday today…with the exception of when we sung Happy Birthday to him (see picture on right).

Happy Birthday Big Ben! We love you big guy.

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Here's Ben & Grace enjoying some time on the mat this morning. We just love how he says, “Baby Grace” and “Baby Graham”.

Grace's Tanning Bed

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Grace’s jaundice is getting better but we needed to do something beyond providing her with natural sun light to get rid of the excess bilirubin. Luckily, her levels weren’t too high so we’re providing her with light therapy at home. Her levels are dropping and hopefully she’ll be done and less yellow very soon.

Sam & Sean = Best Buddies

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If you’ve spent any time around Sam in the past 3 years, you know he has a best friend named Sean. Towards the end of my pregnancy, Sean’s mom kindly took Sam on some fun outings. They enjoyed breakfast with the dinosaurs (left) a few weeks back at the zoo & went to Houston’s Downtown Aquarium (right) the day I was induced for labor.

Here’s Betsy’s (Sean’s mom) account of the aquarium ride photo:

Sam coaxed Sean into riding the big "lighthouse drop" at the aquarium. The worker told me they were the smallest kids he'd ever seen ride it alone. Sam didn't want to go again but liked it...Sean went 4 times.

That sounds pretty typical for these two!

My Sleeping Buddy

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I just love watching Grace (left) and Graham (right) sleeping together. They are such at peace knowing that the other is nearby.

Proud Mom, Dad & Older Brothers!

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Welcome to the World, Graham John & Grace Ella!

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Graham John & Grace Ella have officially made their way into the world. It was quite a day!

Scott & I arrived at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital at 5:15am on August 17th to be induced. Labor & delivery was insane so we kept waiting and waiting our turn. Once we finally went back, they hooked me up and we got started. After a few hours of pitocin & an epidural, I still wouldn’t dilate past 5-6 cm. So, our wonderful nurse Dawn (who has been a nurse for 25+ years) suggested that I turn from my right to my left side. Within a minute of doing this, she calmly mentioned that she could see the head of Baby A. She instructed Scott to put on his scrubs as we needed to head to the Operating Room next door in case we needed an emergency c-section to complete the delivery. Scott started to do this and then decided it would be the perfect opportunity to also take a bathroom break. During this time, Dawn went into the hallway to tell someone to call Dr. Dryden. While they were doing this (let me just be clear…I was hanging out in the room by myself, numb from the epidural), Baby A (Graham John Sheehan) birthed himself…literally falling onto the bed. As Dawn peaked her head back in, she noticed our sweet baby boy and yelled into the hallway for all available hands. Nurses, residents, random people (not really) flooded into the room. Luckily, Dr. Sean Rosenberg was also in the hallway and ran to our rescue. He immediately took control and completed Graham’s delivery and cut his umbilical cord (Scott was shaking too bad that I instructed the nurse not to let him do it). Graham was a good screamer and they threw blankets over him to warm him up as the warming station and baby delivery items were waiting for us in the Operating Room. Seconds later, our OB Dr. Dryden arrived (sweaty from sprinting from her office across the street). She assessed my situation and decided that Baby B needed to get out immediately as her heart rate was dropping. Twenty-four minutes after the start of this insane delivery, Grace Ella Sheehan was assisted out with a suction cup on the back of her head. She was a little blue due to the umbilical cord being wrapped around her but after a long minute, she started to cry and regain a pink tone. It was only at this point that a few giggles occurred (but not by Scott who still had a panicked look on his face or Dr. Dryden who was stunned by the events).

Looking back, I know I got off lucky with this delivery. One baby fell out and the other was pulled out. If we were thinking about having other children (which we’re not…thanks for asking), I would know to stop with this experience. We got lucky and we’ll be forever grateful to all the wonderful people at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital for being such top notch medical professionals.

In all the pictures above, Graham is on the left and Grace is on the right. Their stats are:

Graham was born August 17th at 3:52 PM. He weighed 5 pounds, 9 ounces and measured 18 1/2 inches long. Grace followed at 4:16 PM. She weighed 6 pounds, 3 ounces and measured 19 inches long.

We could not be more proud!

Wow! That's a Big Belly!

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No one’s allowed to laugh at my very large belly. I just wanted a picture for the twins so they could see how big I was at the very end of the pregnancy. It’s amazing how much it sticks out when there’s a little over 11 lbs worth of the babies in there!

Our Sweet Boys!

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It’s hard to imagine that life could get any better than it is already with our two boys. Love love!

Now That's a Mouthful

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The Return of the Train Table

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Sam & Ben have been playing with the tracks & trains on the floor for a few weeks now so while they were in Austin last week, Scott got out the train table and put it together. Not that we expected anything different, but it’s a huge success! Surprisingly, the tracks have yet to be destroyed and we’ve only had a few minor freak attacks over who gets which train. We love trains!

Yippee!!! Week 36 has arrived!

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**Picture #1 is of both of their heads (Baby Girl has yet again flipped & in now head down

**Picture #2 is of Baby Girl's face (looking straight at the camera) and the black portion that covers one of her eyes is baby Boy's head.

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Scott and I are amazed and truly feel so blessed to have made it to the crucial 36 week mark. I remember reading my first twin book and it said to divide your pregnancy into 4 quarters (like a football game) so that the task of going full term (37 weeks for twins) didn’t seem so daunting. I’ve celebrated the completion of each quarter (18, 28, 32 and 36 weeks) and I actually feel a little relief that I reached the final mile stone today. There have been bumps in the road (tests and retests…contractions…extreme exhaustion & discomfort) but I never expected to feel so good for a majority of the twin pregnancy.
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I know that we didn’t do this on our own. For the entire month of July, we had one grandparent or another at the house helping out with Sam & Ben. When they weren’t running around in the heat with the kiddos, they were busy organizing, painting, sewing, installing fixtures, etc. I know they helped guide me to this final place and we appreciate their love and support more than they will ever know.
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And, of course, my dear husband has yet again been my biggest champion and source of strength throughout this entire process. He’s allowed me to sleep in every morning and truly gets the Father of the Year Award for the love, playfulness & dedication he has shown to Sam & Ben while I sat in my “pregnancy chair” (as Sam calls it) watching from a close distance. Though he missed that amazingly fragile first appointment (I’ll never forget calling Scott while he’s in NYC for a big meeting to tell him we were expecting twins…trying to convince him that I wasn’t kidding) he has made up for it 1000 times over. He hasn’t missed a single appointment since and I have no doubt we’ll survive the insane newborn phase because we have him to rely on. Thank you!!!
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We also reached another milestone yesterday as both babies are now over the important 5 lbs mark. Their weights are:
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Baby Girl * 5 lbs, 15 oz
Baby Boy * 5 lbs, 2 oz
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So, now the wait is down to 10 days or less. To say I’M READY would be the understatement of the year. So, unless you hear from us otherwise I’ll be induced on Tuesday, August 17th and will hopefully welcoming two healthy, full of hair babies into the world sometime that day.