Diane's labor lasted about 14 hours; that's from when her water broke until we welcomed our two new sons into the world. During that time, we had three unbelievable nurses assisting us--Kristi, Linda and Amy. Kristi and Linda were really hoping the twins would be born during their shifts, but it wasn't to be. But at least they each were consoled by the actual birthdate, June 7, as that happened to be Kristi's birthday and Linda's husband's birthday. Amy was the night-shift nurse who was with us as Brady and Colby were born and she was so supportive and helpful.

Our doctor, Wendy Hartshorne, was a beacon of support and guidance and we want to thank her publicly again. Also all the other support staff at the hospital who braved one of the worst flooding events in Houston history to help us and the other many women delivering babies at the same time need to be recognized and saluted.

We want to thank each of our parents, who we now have greater respect for, knowing firsthand the challenges of taking care of two newborn twins. My mom tried to be there for the delivery, but as Wednesday stretched into Thursday, she had to go back home to beat the weather and get ready for work. Diane's parents get to see their new grandsons for the first time tomorrow as they arrive from their Illinois home.

Of course our twins, Diane's sister, Darlene, and my brother, Mark, have been there every step of the way, and at the hospital and now that we're home, their assistance has made this adjustment so much easier. Mark put the photos of our sons online the day they were born, and as we learn the differences between the two boys, I do think we were correct in naming Brady after Mark (they share the same middle name but with different spellings) as Brady does take more after our side of the family and Colby more after Diane's. Unfortunately, Brady is the fussier of the two babies, but I guess that's the Sanders Family genes kicking in.

We've also had a lot of welcomed support from our neighbors, who actually made a schedule of delivering home-cooked meals to us each night for dinner since we've gotten home (Saturday). One of our neighbors delivered a healthy son of their own three days after Colby and Brady were born so the three boys will grow up almost sharing the same birthday.

We also want to thank all the twinstuff.com visitors and friends and family who've written us with congratulatory notes. It's given us a great amount of pleasure to put down some of our thoughts and reflections into these diary entries these past nine months and we're happy to see that other parents seem to appreciate the updates.

So how has the past week been? Diane is still a little sore today (that's why she can't make the upstairs trip yet to the computer), but is doing great and she's gaining more of her strength back each day. The first few nights were really rough with lack of sleep but last night was our best night yet with Diane getting about 4 hours and me getting close to 5. Each day we're bonding more closely with our two bundles of joy and responding to their needs and signals.

The actual labor seems so long ago now but it's still been less than a week. It was a long 14 hours of labor, but Diane did get an epidural after she was 5 cm dilated and that helped ease the pain and make the process easier for her. Once she became fully dilated (just after midnight), it didn't take too long for our sons to arrive, about 50 minutes of pushing.

We can tell you that we'll never forget our joy when first seeing Brady enter the world, followed 11 minutes later by Colby. My wife and I want to thank these two little men for sharing these past nine months together and for teaching us the true meaning of being adults and parents. We promise to try to always be patient around you and to ensure that our needs are secondary to yours, and to treat you as individuals, while letting you enjoy and relish in your twinship.

Finally, I want to thank my lovely wife, Diane, who carried the pain, discomfort and exhaustion of the pregnancy and now has accepted and embraced the transition into motherhood so effortlessly. She is the love of my life and I am so lucky I have her by my side.

This will be our last update for a few weeks. Once we get settled down into the cycle of being parents we'll try to provide some more photos of our new twin sons.