Welcome Gage and Brody!

After contractions for several weeks, a difficult decision to leave Connor, Carter and Joe in Twin to come to Billings and be closer to the NICU, and her water breaking at about 6:00 pm on Tuesday, February 8, Ali gave birth to her beautiful twin boys Gage and Brody at about 11:10 that night. It was a difficult reality for all of us, but after discussing the risks and benefits with her doctors everyone agreed that a c-section that night was the best for the boys. So, we all geared up and got ready for the newest arrivals to our wonderful extended family.

Here is Ali just before she went into the OR, and as she walked down to the OR to give birth to the boys.

Both Mom and Grandma Cindy were there (Cindy was with her when her water broke earlier that day) as was Kendall, myself, and Joe's dear cousin Tiff. Since Joe could not be there (he was driving with the boys from Sheridan to Billings), Mom went into the OR with Ali and is shown here in scrubs just before she joined Ali.

Above is a picture of Gage - whose face is a bit smooshed here. Below is baby Brody. Both boys are doing absolutely as well as they could be. They were big for 32 weeks - 4'4 and 4/10 (Gage was bigger and longer - over 19 inches compared to brothers 17"7/8. They are on C-Pap, which means they are getting extra oxygen through their noses, and are getting some help with maintenance of their body temps - but are otherwise doing very well.
In fact, Gage was intubated and on the vent beginning at about 6 am Wednesday morning, they extubated him yesterday at about 1:00 pm. Below is a picture of a very happy momma putting her hands on her baby immediately after he was extubated.
Connor and Carter are thrilled about the birth of their new baby brothers, and they were very interested in getting a peek their first trip to the NICU. Below are the boys looking in on Baby Brody.
And getting their first look at Baby Gage...
We are all just so thankful that these beautiful babes are going to be just fine. The doctor told us the night Ali delivered that babies delivered at 32 weeks have no long-term health problems and are just as robust long-term as their full term counterparts. All of the care Gage and Brody are getting now is completely normal and to be expected in light of their gestational age and the boys are making huge gains everyday! In fact, Ali just left me a voice mail that she held Gage for the first time this morning as was going to get to hold Brody this afternoon!