Anya's Home!

On monday Sept 29, Anya was able to finally come home with us. These top two pictures are her being wheeled out of the hospital front doors in her isolette to our car.

We ended up having to use the hospital provided car seat because ours was only approved for babies 5-20 lbs and little Anya only weighed 4lb 4oz that day.

Both girls arrived home asleep.

They're so sweet... when they sleep.

Proud parents

Anya and Mira with grandma Kim and papa Mike.

The girls being held by great- grandpa Roberts and Jeannette is patiently waiting her turn.

My how they both have grown! Mira is now over 6 lbs and Anya was 4lbs 10 oz on thurs Oct 2nd.

Mom's tired and the babies are not as asleep as they look!

We did recieve the results back from their genetic testing and we now know they are not identical. Turns out the placentas fused together upon implantation which made them look like one instead of two separate ones. This probably also resulted in Anya being so small.

She loves to sleep with her arms and legs stuck straight out. She may be small but her attitude is not.

They're Finally Here!

Hello everyone! Mira and Anya have finally made an appearance. Sorry for the delay in posting pictures but we have been a little busy. The picture on the left is me in labor, the dr's only let this go on for 40 mins before they stopped my labor and decided to do a c-section. Little Anya's heart rate kept dropping during contractions, so we took no chances. My wonderful mother-in-law took me to my regular dr's appt and they caught my labor and anya's heart rate at the same time.

Mira is above and Anya pictured below, were born on September 11, 2008 at 3:07pm and 3:08pm. Mira was 5lbs 9 oz but dropped to 5lbs 2oz in the hospital, Anya was 3lbs 9oz and has gained since to 3 lbs 15oz.

Anya Gilman

Mira Gilman

Daddy and his girls

Anya relaxing after a feeding. She has no IV, only a feeding tube to finish the rest of a bottle she can't finish.

Mira's coming home from the hospital!

Mira had trouble keeping her body temp up so daddy is doing kangaroo care and keeping her warm at home.





Both girls are doing great. Mira is home and gaining weight, and Anya is expected home in a week or so. We are just waiting for her to be able to take all of every feeding by bottle and she is already keeping her body temp up on her own.

We appreciate everyone's thoughts, prayers, gifts, and calls. We can't wait to be able to bring the girls for everyone to see and meet.

Love,

The Gilman's ( all 4 of us)

If only real life had an airbrush!

We had lots of fun taking these! My little sis Jackie did a great job and these are our favorites. This is my belly at about 34 weeks and I found this great little function in my photo editing called AIRBRUSHING. Stretchmarks are no more, if only real life had an airbrush.

32 weeks and baby shower pictures

The following are pictures of my wonderful co-workers and the great baby shower they threw me at J Parrino's. Not pictured because they were working behind the cameras are Dr. Jeff and Angie, Nina, and Suz. It was a great night and thanks to everyone, Mira and Anya got all of the bedding for their cribs plus lots of extra goodies.

Nina had a fantastic cake made (chocolate on chocolate my fav!) which we all enjoyed.

32 weeks belly picture (and still growing).

Here are pictures of the finished nursery. Thanks to everyone it's just as perfect as we imagined and we are so excited.

Not pictured right now are all my pictures from the baby shower my sweet mother-in-law Char threw me. I am so disappointed not to be able to put those pictures in but the file i put them into is corrupted and the blog site will not down load them.

Many good friends came and brought wonderful gifts. We actually recieved everything we ever thought we might want throughout this whole experience and appreciate all the hard work Char did to make such a wonderful shower.

It was an afternoon lunch and shower at the Fremont Hills Country Club. We had a strawberry and spinach salad, with fruit and chicken salad wraps. For dessert there was a delicious and beautiful strawberry cake to eat while opening gifts. I thank everyone who came to see us and want you to know i really enjoyed your company and well wishes and can't wait to introduce the girls to you after they are born.

Jay and i will continue to try to get the picture up, so please continue to check our site.

Here is me writing thank you notes to everyone in my HUGE jammies. Thank you to Jay for this great picture of me.

As of monday Aug 18, Mira is 4lbs 1 oz and Anya is 3lbs 9 oz. As always Anya is about 8 oz behind Mira which is very normal and healthy the dr's tell me. They were both head down and moving all over the place, so we got another A+ from all our dr's. Last Thurs was my last day of work which is relieving and disappointing at the same time. I was told that i am full term sized now and my body is going to be trying to go into labor even without the stress of working.

So in conclusion, we are almost to 33 weeks and trying to get 4 more weeks in before D-day and as of monday, a regular (non c-section) delivery looks possible.

Will keep you all posted!

Love,

The Gilmans

29 Weeks and Baby Showers Begin!

Wow has it been a busy month! Sorry it has been so long since I have updated, but alot has been happening.

First, Jackie and Jonathan got engaged, Woo Hoo! Jonathan was nice enough to include family and friends in the surprise on July 4th. In the backround you will see the nice house boat they were able to borrow so he could propose at sunset and watch the fireworks on the water. It was a beautiful night and Jackie (not pictured because she was too busy being surprised) said yes.

I, on the other hand, have been doing what you see on the left as much as possible. Month seven hit and the fatigue came back. Bad timing because July has been a whorlwind of Dr's appointments, birth classes, baby showers, and our 5 year wedding anniversary on July 25th ( which i totally forgot until i recieved 5 roses at work that day).

Mom and dad came up for the weekend and gave us our shower gifts early. They purchased and helped us assemble our cribs. Thank goodness because that

is not a one or even two person job.

This is my 29 week belly, and I am wearing my baby shower dress. At my Dr.'s visit on monday, my belly was measuring at 34 weeks. One week ago it was 32 weeks so I am growing fast. Mira is now 3 lbs and anya is just over

2 1/2 lbs. So far, all still healthy and in the 60th percentile for growth which is good for twins. Mira is head down and anya is still head up, so we have some flipping to do if mommy is going avoid a c-section (unlikely).

This is the shower Karrie and Jackie threw the girls and I. Mira and Anya both had a diaper cake and their very own iced cake. Everything was beautiful and as perfect as I could have wanted. I know they worked very hard and appreciate all they did.

Lots of family and friends showed up and we had a great time eating snacks, playing games, and opening gifts.

All of my nieces Sydnie, Samantha, and Anna were there, and also cousin Shalynn, to help me with opening the presents.

Samantha thought I needed a little help unwrapping this one.

After the shower, excited daddy got to look through all the gifts and decided to test out some hair bows the girls recieved to make sure they were safe to wear (haha).

I on the other hand did what I always do in the in between times, I took a nap. It was a long and wonderful day, and the three of us were tired!









Thank you everyone for the gifts, thoughts, and good wishes. I know some of you were there in spirit if not in body, and we thought of you too.

I will try to do better at keeping this site updated more regularly.

Thanks again from the Gilman Family