In Ireland, medical history has happened! Maria Jones-Elliott and her husband, Chris Elliott, welcomed their twin daughters, Amy and Katie, 87 days apart.

The Belfast Telegraph reported that Maria went into labor four months early on June 1st, 2012. She gave birth to her daughter, Amy, who weighed in at just 1 pound, 3 ounces. Shortly after Amy’s birth, however, her contractions stopped.

After Amy’s birth, Maria remained at the Waterford Regional Hosptail until Amy’s twin sister, Katie, was born — 87 days later on August 27, 2012.

Dr. Eddie O’Donnell, a consultant obstetrician who worked with the team of doctors delivering the babies, said that the birth of the twins was most likely the “first of its kind”, noting that, “most people haven’t heard about this.”

After delivering Amy, doctors tried (unsuccessfully) to induce labor again, but Maria and her husband opted to wait it out in an effort to let their second daughter arrive naturally.

O’Donnell said that previous medical literature documents that an 84-day interval between twins has been documented, so the Amy and Katie’s 87-day interval could quite possibly be a world record.

Now, as the twin baby girls gear up for their separate first birthdays, mom and dad are proud to note that their baby girls are happy and most importantly, healthy.

*Babies pictured above are not Katie and Amy Elliott.

Can you believe that these two twin sisters were born 87-days apart?

Plus, more from The Bump:

Twins: Fact or Fiction?

Unbelievable Labor and Delivery Stories

Craziest Places Moms Went Into Labor

Before I got pregnant, you could say I was pretty undereducated about the birth options. I just figured I’d have an epidural and have a baby. I didn’t even realize that my own mother had had two natural (drug-free) births before my youngest sister was born via C-section.  But once I saw that positive pregnancy test, I started reading up on what my options were and psyched myself up for a non-medicated, vaginal birth.

Then, at 13 weeks, I found out I was having twins.  After the initial shock wore off, I was left with so many questions. One of the most pressing: What about my natural delivery? My OB-GYN, a mother of twins herself, said it was up to me, but that if Baby A (the baby closest to the “exit”) was presenting breech, it would have to be a C-section. I would also have to deliver in an OR regardless of my choice, and I would have to have an epidural (because of the chance of an emergency C-section or in case the doctor would have to manually flip one of the babies.)

There are other doctors who have different rules, and I could have looked for one who would attempt a breech extraction with twins, but I felt a rapport with this doctor who was easy going and laid back, someone to ease all my worries and who had actually been there herself.

One concern with twins is the possibility of the “double whammy” or mixed delivery — that is you deliver the first baby vaginally and the second one goes into distress, resulting in an emergency C-section.  The chances of this happening are very low, but I personally know a set of twins who’d been delivered this way, and when I brought this up with my doctor, who I expected to alleviate my worries, she acknowledged that it was a valid concern.

Because I didn’t want to end up in an emergency situation, and because I wanted to plan as much as I could ahead of time, I chose a C-section well before the time the babies were born. I didn’t want to wait and see, and then have my dreams of the ideal birth be shattered. I ignored my mother’s stories of how awful her recovery was,  and instead looked to online forums whose posters called their recoveries “NBD” (no big deal).

My recovery was not NBD, but I had a lot of help from my husband and my family. I couldn’t have done it without them. I was at peace with my decision for a C-section because I really believed I didn’t have another safe option (and Baby A was breech, anyway).

I recently read that studies are saying C-sections aren’t any safer for twin births than a vaginal delivery, and I’ve started to second guess myself. I wonder, if I had sought out more information specifically for twin mothers, and not just hearsay, would I have changed my mind and/or changed doctors?  I wish my doctor would have urged me to do more research, or suggested some reading, or something, anything, rather than just “leave it up to me.” Making this decision can be so scary, and I needed more support — not horror stories, and not someone brushing it off as NBD.

In the end, though, my babies were born healthy and continue to thrive, and I’ve recovered just fine after a few initial hiccups. If I do get pregnant again (someday in the faraway future!) I will have this experience to inform my choices as I navigate yet another decision-making process: VBAC or repeat c-section?

Did you have a C-section? Share your story with us!

Plus, more from The Bump:

Care and Recovery After a C-Section

10+ Things No One Tells You About C-Sections

Do You Always Have to Have a C-Section With Multiples?

It’s easy to get swept into a buying frenzy when you find out you’re pregnant with multiples.  The confirmation of pregnancy brings a unique and overwhelming sense of excitement mixed with panic for any woman. Add another baby to the mix and the emotions just intensify!

While your first instinct might be to just swipe everything off the shelves, don’t give in.  You can scour the internet and find contraptions you never knew existed as you picture yourself with a baby at each boob or as a pack mule wearing one baby one your front and another on your back — but remember, a lot of these contraptions are unnecessary.

Since I know there are other multiple mama’s out there ready to swipe, swipe, swipe, here’s what I’ve found most (and least!) helpful when it came to my twin babies:

Most Useful Purchase:

Baby Jogger City Select stroller.

Many people recommend using a simple Double Snap n Go for the first few months, since these can be used with the infant car seats, and then upgrading to a more long-lasting stroller choice.  The BJCS, however, takes infant seats, as well as its own bassinets and later on you can use seats for older babies.  It also allows for many configurations once you’re using the seats:  facing towards each other, facing you, facing out, etc.  And, it features “stadium style” seats, so one is higher than the other. Only downside is that you you can’t see baby in the backseat when you’re using the car seats.

Least Used Purchase:

Twin Feeding Pillow. 

There are a couple of different models of this available, but I don’t think it really matters which one.  When I was pregnant with twins, I was convinced that I would feed both babies simultaneously to save precious time, and I bought one of these monstrous pillows to help with that goal. Turns out that for me, it’s easier to feed one baby at a time. Those times that I do tandem feed, I have just as much success using regular pillows as I did using the Twin Feeding Pillow.

Also, finding a winning combination of location (couch, bed, armchair) and position (sitting with legs out, sitting with legs down, sitting completely straight or more relaxed) was difficult for me and I’m sure other moms have similiar issues. If the point of tandem feeding with the Twin Feeding Pillow is to be more efficient, then I haven’t found the right pillow to achieve that goal.  So the search continues!

What baby items can you not live without? Any you wish you didn’t buy?

Plus, more from The Bump:

Top 10 Strollers!

Cutest Baby Products

Best Products to Make Moms’ Lives Easier

Stop what you’re doing and prepare to drool! These two little guys look so pleased with their dinner messes, don’t they? Will, on the left, literally got caught with his hands in his mouth and Miles, on the right, thinks it’s pretty funny. (We do too!) And they’re double the trouble so that means, double the clean up! Hope mom had an extra set of hands to help her rinse of these two handsome dudes!

Aren’t they just the cutest?

We want to hear from you! Tweet us @TheBump using #TBcutebaby or send us an email directly at community@thebump.com to be featured in our Cute Baby of the Day series! We want to see your tot at his/her wackiest, craziest, fussiest and most adorable moments. Make sure you tell us baby’s name, too. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Plus, more from The Bump:

Most Hilarious Baby Photos Ever!

Hilarious Baby’s First Birthday Photos

The Funniest Baby Videos

Two of a kind is twice as nice!

Twin sisters Aimee and Ashlee Nelson, both 19, have always been close. So it seems only fitting (and only out of this world amazing and ridiculous and fabulous!) that the identical twin sisters gave birth to their babies on the same day. No jokes, people, this is real.

The sisters, who were born only 15 second apart, found out they were expecting and due within five days of each other in early January. And while the due dates promised they’d have children days apart in age, no one could have expected that they would go into labor within hours of each other.

On New Year’s Eve at Summa Akron City Hospital in Ohio, Aimee Nelson arrived at the hospital around 3:30 a.m. Her original due date was not until January 6th. Sister Ashlee, who was actually due on January 1st, waited at home. Then, when she got up to use the bathroom, her water broke.

Within hours, the identical twin sisters were both patients in the labor and delivery unit at Summa Akron City Hospital. Just after 12 noon on December 31st, Aimee delivered her son, Donavyn Scott Bratten, weighng 7 lbs., 2 oz. Just one hour and 52 minutes later, sister Ashlee gave birth to a healthy baby boy, Aiden Lee Alan Dilts, weighing 8 lbs., 12 oz.

How incredible is that?!?! Not only to be identical twins — but to give birth within hours of each other. And the sisters are just as shocked. “We didn’t think it was going to be this close at all,” said Aimee, though she did admit that the close two-some hoped it would turn out this way. Her sister, Ashlee said, “I think it was a big surprise, but it definitely happened the way I would want it to happen, together.”

Weeks before, they even tried to be induced, to ensure that their children were brought into the world together, just like they were. Aimee said, “We tried getting induced together but they wouldn’t let us.” Days later though, as fate or luck would have it, it ending up working out in their favor.

“We’re best friends,” Ashlee said about her sister, adding, “Now our babies are going to be best friends.”

Congratulations to the two sisters and their entire families on their two extraordinary little bundles! What a wonderful way to welcome the new year!

*Note: The above photo does not depict the children born on New Year’s Eve.

Plus, more from The Bump:

Twins: What’s Fact and What’s Fiction?

How to Know You’re Really in Labor

10 Things You Have to Do Before You Go Into Labor

It’s hardly shocking that some of the most common New Year’s Resolutions are also the most commonly broken.

Personally, I’ve always treated my resolutions as projects to undertake.  So “exercising” meant adopting a specific regimen and losing X number of pounds, “eating healthy” meant learning certain recipes or incorporating a new ingredient, and “more crafts” became “finish wedding scrapbook before babies are born.” I believed that seeing my resolutions this way is helpful as they are specific, measurable (and sometimes rewardable!) goals.  As logical as it sounds, midway through the year or sooner, my steam would run out, leaving me with an assortment of half-finished projects that I guiltily pushed aside until next New Year’s.  This year, as a new mom to three-month old twins I’m reconsidering what my resoultions will mean to me.

I did my research while I was pregnant.  I read tons of parenting books, from attachment parenting to Ferberizing to making your own baby food.  I learned that as a new mom, there will always be a new project to tackle, and there will always be someone who seems to do it all.  The idea inspires and scares me at the same time, but this year, instead of focusing on certain projects, I know I have to look at things in a new way.  Not only do I not have extra time and energy to waste on half-baked projects, but I am setting an example for my babies, no matter how young they are at the moment.  So this year, my Pinterest boards with hundreds of inspiring ideas may have to wait.  I must choose my endeavors wisely; I may only try one or two of the projects.  This year, I resolve to follow through with my ideas and undertakings.

Of course, if my pregnancy and the first three months of mothering twins have taught me anything (and I think they’ve taught me a lot!), it’s that flexibility is the key to feeling successful and maintaining sanity.  I want to follow through with what I set out to do, but I won’t be guilted into continuing something that doesn’t work for my family and me.  So another resolution I will make is to allow myself the freedom of flexibility, whether it’s discarding a DIY project for the nursery, or adjusting my plans to breastfeed for a one year minimum.

 I may not have an easy checklist of resolutions this year–it’s more about an outlook, an approach to life that started when my twins were born.  Although they may seem like opposites, this year I will strive to find the balance between flexibility and follow-through.

How will you make your resolutions this year?

Plus, more from The Bump:

You Know You’re a Mom When…

Bumpies Spill Their New Year’s Resolutions!

Get the Perfect Feeding Gear for Baby — Here!

Tight on space or expecting twins and want them to sleep together? In this video, Christopher from Buy Buy Baby explains why the Stokke Sleepi is a such a great crib. It truly grows with your baby (or babies) from a small, bassinet-sized sleeping you can easily roll from room-to-room, to a crib, to a toddler bed for ages two to five. And it’s ideal for twin cosleeping. See it in action!

Buy the Stokke Sleepi at Buy Buy Baby or register for it here.

Plus, more from The Bump:

How to Buy a Crib

Top 10 Cribs

Best Travel Cribs and Playards

Before there was Modern Family, there was The Cosby Show. Growing up, I looked forward to watching the humorous trials and tribulations of the Huxtable family each week. They were like every family, but not, because whatever issues Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy were dealing with were wrapped up neatly in a half-hour episode with a life lesson from their loving parents, Cliff and Clair.

Even now, watching reruns of the show is like my comfort food when I’m having a bad day. I recently realized The Cosby Show is still relevant, even all these years later.

Scene: the oldest daughter, Sondra, and her husband, Elvin, arrive at the Huxtable house with their newborn twins. Both sets of grandparents are there. They immediately grab the twins and start fawning over them. Sondra slumps into a chair, exhausted and ignored. Who cares about the mom? Bring on the babies! Elvin makes some bumbling attempts to include his wife; she huffs and glares at him.

Later, in the kitchen, the women all gather ’round the table and Sondra complains about how all she does is housework and take care of the babies, and how her husband’s life has barely changed. “Welcome to the club,” says Clair knowingly. “The I-didn’t-know-it-was-going-to-be-like-this club!” Three generations of women all nod and smile and start exchanging stories about when they were young mothers.

In the next room, the men are all sitting around trying to educate poor, clueless Elvin. Your wife needs a break, they tell him. Just smile and nod and say “Yes, dear.” Then, in his signature Cosby way, with his eye rolls and crazy sweater, Cliff proceeds to tell a funny story about when his children were small and he took them on a fishing trip to give Clair a break. Clair has a different memory of that time. Hilarity ensues.

Lying there on the couch, exhausted after a long day of parenting, it hit me like a lightning bolt: this is the story of my life. My struggles with motherhood and marriage are nothing new. They are as old as time, or at least as old as “The Cosby Show.” And they are something every mom experiences. Not only that, but at least the way Bill Cosby was portraying it, parenthood was actually pretty funny. New moms do get hysterical. New dads are clueless in the beginning. I looked over at my husband and he was chuckling, too.

And just like that, I forgot about all the stresses and messes that come with being a mom of little ones. At least for a half-hour.

What are your favorite shows to watch? Do you think parenthood is realistically portrayed on TV?

Tell us about the day we were born, I often imagine my children saying to me one day. Before my babies were born, I romanticized about the delivery and I saw myself sharing my glory story with family and friends, even writing blog posts about my birth story and speedy recovery. The truth is, it was all very different than the story I had daydreamed.

I still want to share the story of how my babies came into this world, but when I finally sat down to write my story, I realized how few details I actually remember through the fog of narcotics and sleep deprivation. I’m thankful for the pictures we have, proof that I was actually there and witnessed these things, and for my husband, whose retelling will be much more accurate and coherent when our children want to know about their grand entrance.

So here are some of the things I do remember about the experience.

First, I remember the feeing of anticipation the day before my c-section. Everything we did have a sense of finality about it — this is the last time I will eat a cheeseburger without kids. This is the last episode of Dexter I’ll watch without kids. I was ready in the sense that I had reached my goal of 37 weeks, and I was ready to not be pregnant any more, but I was really apprehensive about the surgery and about meeting the people I would spend the rest of my life loving. I remember saying good-bye to my sisters and parents as my husband and I left for the hospital after only a few hours of sleep and thinking, this is the last time my mom will just be a mom and not a Grandma, my sisters will be aunts in just a few hours.

What I remember most about the surgery are those feelings; I had had only one surgery prior, to remove my wisdom teeth in 2007. I’d had a panic attack in the waiting room and cried until they put me to sleep.  I even woke up crying.  The idea of major abdominal surgery was finally sinking in and I tried my best to suppress the nerves. My husband even told me later that he was impressed with my behavior leading up to the surgery. The actual surgery deserves its own blog post — today I just want to talk about the babies!

The twins were born via c-section on September 25, 2012 at 37 weeks and 1 day. Baby Girl came out at 8:27 am, weighing 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and Baby Boy at 8:29 am, weighing 4 pounds, 14 ounces. They each measured 18.5 inches long. When Baby Girl came out, I expected to hear screeching or wailing, but what we heard was a single, loud squawk. I started to giggle and cry at the same time as the doctor held our now screaming baby over the screen so we could see her for the first time. Then she was handed over to some nurses that I couldn’t see and it was time for brother to come out. “He’s really cute, you guys!” the doctor said as she pulled him out. I remember still laughing and asking if he was really big — the babies had been monitored via ultrasound throughout the pregnancy and were consistently measuring right on track. At my final doctor appointment at 35 weeks, each baby was estimated at six pounds, so I assumed that by 37 weeks they would have been around 7 pounds. Baby Boy’s weight took us all by surprise. “No, he’s pretty small,” my husband said, as he watched them take our son to be cleaned and weighed. By this point, everything starts to blur together and all I really remember is worrying about my son. Thankfully, although he was quite small, everything was working the way it was supposed to, and the nurses brought both of the bundled babies over to us to kiss and to take a picture  – a photo I’ll treasure forever, but of a moment I sadly don’t remember much.

My husband accompanied both babies to the nursery as my doctor continued to stitch me up and engaged me in small talk. I was transferred to the recovery room, where my mother found me. I remember various nurses and technicians talking to me, asking me questions and telling me what was going to happen as if I were a coherent person just chilling in a hospital bed. I felt like I couldn’t even keep my eyes open or form words properly. My mother had seen the babies in the nursery window as they were given their bath, and she excitedly told me how they looked just alike, and how my husband held them up to the window for my family to see. Finally, my husband and babies came to the recovery room. I held my babies on my chest and tried to nurse one, I don’t remember who, but my arms felt so heavy from the anesthesia that I couldn’t quite get the hang of it.

I don’t remember being wheeled to the post-partum suite, or the visitors that were waiting in the room when I arrived.  I was so thirsty but so sick from the anesthesia that I couldn’t hold down fluids and yet I couldn’t stop myself from gulping water, Sprite or the broth they brought me for lunch. The pictures from this time show me pale and puffy-faced, struggling to keep my eyes open and with a heavy smile.

The babies were all bundled up and wearing matching beanies. In the time since then, it’s become so clear that the babies look very different, but those first few days we were all convinced they looked the same, and it was even hard to tell them apart. It wasn’t long before we got to know them, their personalities, and their cries well enough to distinguish them from across the room. (Although, I admit, it is harder to do at 3 a.m. and bleary-eyed!) I remember wanting to inspect their naked bodies, since I had only seen them once they were swaddled in the hospital’s flannel blankets. I didn’t even change a diaper for several days. (How great is my husband!?)

I attribute much of my mental fog to the surgery. My mom, who’d had a traumatic c-section experience, had warned me about it, but I’d heard from so many people that the surgery and recovery were no big deal. Since I knew c-section was my only option (certain doctors may restrict your birthing options depending on your/babies’ health and babies’ positions), I accepted it and minimized the possible problems in my head.  I regret not being able to remember more of the first few days but there are wonderful things I do remember: how tenderly my husband handled our babies, the delicate smell of the tops of their velvety heads, and my parents cradling their grandbabies.  After having spent the last year planning, wishing, daydreaming and worrying, it’s hard to believe I’m actually somebody’s — make that two somebodies’ — mother.

Did you childbirth experience differ from what you expected?