Special double cousin delivery
Sisters Kendra Dorosh, left, and Tara Dorosh, both of Hayden, take their babies Blake (left) and Everly for a stroll through Kootenai Health after the babies were born within about 24 hours of each other on Sept. 23 and 24. The sisters married brothers Michael and Gabriel Dorosh, respectively, so the babies are double cousins and share the same genes as siblings.
Double cousins Blake and Everly Dorosh were born just more than 24 hours apart in Kootenai Health on Sept. 23 and 24. Their moms are sisters and their dads are brothers, so they're cousins on both sides of their family.
Kendra and Michael Dorosh of Hayden welcomed baby Blake at 1:07 p.m. on Sept. 23. Kendra's sister Tara, who is married to Michael's brother Gabriel, delivered baby Everly at 1:48 p.m. the next day. "It was absolutely amazing," Kendra said.
New daddy Gabriel Dorosh welcomed his baby girl Everly into the world on Sept. 24. Gabriel and his brother, Michael, married sisters Tara and Kendra, who delivered babies just more than 24 hours apart. Gabriel's nephew, Blake, arrived Sept. 23, the day of Gabriel and Michael's late grandmother's celebration of life.
Two sisters who married two brothers were both expecting.
But they weren’t expecting to be giving birth to their double cousin babies within a day of each other.
“It was absolutely amazing,” Kendra Dorosh, of Hayden, said Wednesday.
Kendra spent the past nine months with her big sis, Tara Dorosh, enjoying pregnancy and preparing for mommyhood.
“We’re pretty close,” Kendra said. “We spent almost every day together since we were going through all the new mom things together.”
Kendra and husband Michael welcomed their second child, Blake, into the world at 1:07 p.m. on Sept. 23. Tara and her husband, Gabriel, who is Michael’s big brother, welcomed their first baby, Everly, 24 hours and 41 minutes later.
“I had Blake right as Tara was coming into the hospital to get induced,” Kendra said. “So he had literally just popped out five minutes before she got there, and then she went into labor.”
“She had just had the baby, and they said, ‘Come in here,’” Tara said. “I was able to see their little baby right after he was born. That was right when I went into the hospital, it was so sweet.”
Michael also shared how special it was they could all be together. They were in the room right next door.
“It was cool to see my big brother get those tears in his eyes, that joy, and to get to see him become a dad for the first time,” Michael said.
Kendra shared how much it meant to see her sister become a mom for the first time, to “go through that euphoric mom moment when you push out your baby and they put the baby on your chest.”
“It was so special after having just gone through it myself,” she said. “And taking our babies on their first walk down the hall together.”
“She went a little bit late and I went a little bit early, it was crazy,” Tara said. “It was just really comforting and relieving, I can’t imagine having a baby without my sister having her baby, just knowing she was right there and everything.”
The babies are double cousins, which happens when a set of siblings marries another set of siblings and the couples have children. Double cousins actually have the same set of genes as siblings, and could end up looking quite a bit alike.
Blake and Everly arrived at a significant time for their family. Michael and Gabriel’s grandmother, Isobel Grace, died Aug. 21. Her celebration of life was Sept. 23, when Blake decided to join the world.
“It came together pretty quick,” Gabriel said. “We were scheduled to have our baby on the 28th.”
Grandma Isobel was a woman of faith, and both couples shared how a higher power must have had a hand in how everything unfolded.
“I would go with Gabe’s mom to visit her a lot,” Tara said. “She was always talking about God, ‘I don’t know why he hasn’t taken me yet, he still wants me here for a few weeks,’ she would say.”
Although she didn’t get to stay around to see her new great-grandbabies born, Michael said she would think it was pretty special her life was being celebrated when they began to enter the world.
“She loved all her grandkids and she was excited when she found out the girls were pregnant. She was excited to meet them,” he said. “For it to happen on the day of the celebration was pretty special.”
Tara said her paternal great-grandmother also passed away around the same time Grandma Isobel passed.
“Both lived to be close to 100,” Tara said. “I just don’t even know how to describe it, just knowing those two are the reason we’re here today and they left the Earth and brought two more beautiful people to the Earth.”
“It does feel like there’s a higher power controlling all of this,” she said. “We are very blessed."
