When Dawn Gilliam visits the NICU at Ascension St. Vincent in Carmel, she still can’t believe what she sees: two babies. Her babies.
Gilliam and her partner of seven years, Jason Tello, welcomed one 𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑦 — Joslyn — at 11:37 p.m. on Dec. 31, 2019. Exactly 30 minutes later, at 12:07 a.m. on Jan. 1, 2020, Jaxon was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧.
“(We’re) still kind of overwhelmed,” Tello said Friday, sitting in a waiting room at Ascension. “We’re kind of speechless still.”
Two babies, 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 on different days, in different years and different decades.
And it wasn’t an easy road to New Year’s Eve for Gilliam and Tello. A high blood pressure scare had Gilliam thinking she might need to deliver as early as Thanksgiving.
On New Year’s Eve, she made an unplanned trip to the hospital for lack of fetal movement.
“They were like, ‘you might have to deliver today,’ ” Gilliam remembers.
Sure enough, she did — and the next day. Joslyn and Jaxon weren’t supposed to arrive until Feb. 19, making them nearly two months early to the party. Jaxon was 𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 breech. The siblings are still in NICU but are doing well.
The couple hasn’t thought much about the 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡day celebrations to come (they’ve had enough on their minds), but Gilliam pictures future NYEs as small celebrations with family.
As for what’s next, Gilliam hopes she can go home Saturday — “fingers crossed.” She’ll continue as a stay-at-home mom in Pendleton where the couple lives, raising a 10-year-old, a 5-year-old and now, the twins.
Tello, who quit his job a couple of months ago, is working on growing his own business that builds structures for the entertainment industry.
A new year, new twins and a new job. Tello doesn’t think it has hit him yet.
“It’s been a ride, that’s for sure,” he said. “It’s been a good ride.”
Source: indystar