Twin Is Born 5 Weeks after Her Brother

Twin boy was born on Valentine's Day, and his twin sister was born more than 5 weeks later.

The Short of It

A baby girl is born five weeks after her twin brother. Wait, what?!

The Lowdown

That's right, a couple has welcomed twins five-and-a-half weeks apart. Here's how it all went down:

According to WBIR 10 News, Kristen Miller was pregnant with twins due in June 2016. She had zero complications during her pregnancy until she was 22 weeks along, when her water broke. Luckily, her doctors were able to hold off labor for two more weeks, before one of the twins, Micah, made his grand entrance on Valentine's Day.

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"Our goal, before he was born, was, 'we've got make it to 24 [weeks]!'" said Kristen's husband Ian. "Sure enough, he made it to 24 and one day."

In a surprising twist, the doctors were able to keep his twin sister from arriving too.

"Just because we're having one [baby], doesn't mean we have to have the second or the third. But it's hard to find the person who's a really good candidate," said Dr. Kristina Shumard, a Maternal Fetal Medicine obstetrician at UT Medical Center.


The twins were good candidates because they had separate sacs and placentas. Even so, Dr. Shumard said she wasn't hopeful—she expected the second baby to come within the hour. But against all odds, Madelyn, held out and she finally joined her brother five-and-a-half weeks later!

The Upshot

What an amazing story! I had no idea this sort of thing was even possible! But doctors describe the process of welcoming the twins weeks apart as something called delayed interval delivery, and apparently, it's pretty rare; most do not last more than one week. UT Medical doctors can only recall one other time when twins were born more than five and a half weeks apart.

"I don't know that we've broken national records, but it certainly felt like such a coup for all of us," Dr. Kimberly Fortner, UT Medical Center's Director of Obstetrics, said. "It's been amazing and exciting!"

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The Miller twins will be in the NICU for at least another two months. Madelyn is breathing on her own in the same room as her big brother, and both babies are doing as well as to be expected.


"We feel so blessed to be here," Kristen said.


source: http://www.parenting.com/news-break/twin-born-5-weeks-after-her-brother