If you thought the likelihood of having twins was slim (about one in 250), then the chance of two siblings both giving birth to twins would be improbable in the extreme - let alone within weeks of each other. However, that is exactly what happened to sisters Megan O'Brien, 29, and Sara Seyler, 32, who both gave birth to identical twin girls within the last year.
Younger sister Megan had Lilah and Josie just three months before Sara followed suit and gave birth to Lennon and Parker. The double pregnancies came as a complete surprise to both women, as twins do not run in the family at all.
Although Megan’s husband, Matt, is a triplet, there was no indication Megan would give birth to twins, never mind her sister Sarah too. Remembering the moment she discovered her sister would be having twins as well, Megan said: "My jaw dropped.
“I got tears in my eyes because there are no twins in our family anywhere. It was so cool that she was having twins too.
"When she told me that she was pregnant with twins I was actually not home. I was celebrating a friend's bachelorette.
"I knew she was having an ultrasound - her very first ultrasound - and then she called me as well. I was like, oh, she is probably just FaceTiming me just to tell me how the appointment went, and I answered the FaceTime and she was crying, and I thought 'oh my god, what's wrong?'.
"Then, she holds up the ultrasound picture and there were two babies." The siblings, from Doylestown, Pennsylvania, revealed how the fact they both fell pregnant at the same time was a complete coincidence.
"When I found out I was pregnant, I called her, and I was apologising,” Sara added. "I was like, I'm so sorry. Because you know I had my first baby, and this was going to be her first pregnancy.
"I thought she was going to be mad at me, like, 'you're stealing my thunder.' So I called her, and I was like, I'm so sorry."
However, the pair admitted they enjoyed going through the pregnancy journey together. Megan said: "Sara was pregnant before me with her son, but when I was pregnant with twins, I was always three months ahead of her.
"So, she would say, 'hey, what is going on with you? So, it's normal, yeah.' You always had someone to answer questions and kind of relate to, but it was always nice to have her because she just went through a pregnancy, we kind of bounced off each other in different ways, I guess."
While four tiny additions to the extended family could easily overwhelm, the duo said it has been easy to get used to the new arrivals as they naturally come from a large family themselves. So when the whole family gets together, they describe the chaos as “pretty normal”.
While Megan said she had a “really easy pregnancy”, she admitted to thinking “this is awful” at the 32-week mark. "It was a lot on my body,” she said.
"I'm only like 100 pounds normally so it was just a lot, but the majority of the pregnancy was great and then I hit 32 weeks and I was like, I'm ready. Then they ended up coming early because I had gestational hypertension. I had high blood pressure.
"My body was just saying it's time to come out and then they had 17 days in the NICU after that - they were very healthy, just had to grow." Megan’s daughters, Lilah (at 1.33am, weighing 4lbs 14oz) and Josie (at 1.34am, weighing 4lbs 6oz), were born on November 21, 2021 at Doylestown Hospital, Pennsylvania.
Sara said she had a very similar pregnancy to her sister, and admitted to her first trimester being “awful” with sickness. She said: "My first trimester was absolutely awful with the sickness.
"My second trimester was actually really good. I felt pretty good the entire time. Probably around the same time as Megan, the 30 to 33-week mark, it gets very very painful.
"You know, when you're carrying twins, you're basically carrying a full-term baby at like 32 weeks, because you have more than one in there, so, it gets very, very uncomfortable. The doctors told me to monitor my condition overnight and then by the next morning, it was super high.
"It was like 142 over 94 and that's really high for when you're pregnant. I went into the hospital on February 8, 2022, for monitoring and I was just scheduled to be there for a couple of hours and go home.
"During my monitoring, I went into preterm labour. Thankfully I was already in the hospital. Then, during my preterm labour, my girls went into foetal distress, they were not handling the contractions very well and their heart rate was dropping really low, and it was like, 'ok, we have to go and then within an hour I had a C-section.'"
Lennon (at 7.31pm, weighing 5lbs 11oz) and Parker (at 7.32pm, weighing 4lbs 5oz) were born on February 8, 2022, at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Pennsylvania.
Understandably, the sisters said it had been an “adjustment” for them both. "So going from one to three was quite the adjustment,” Sara said.
“In a way, it was kind of easy, because, you know, I was already in mum mode. I was just doing my normal, but I just kind of threw two new wrenches in there.
"There's a lot of days where it is very difficult. I'm a stay-at-home mum right now. So having all three of them some days is a lot. But lots of fun. More positives than negatives, that's for sure."
As Megan doesn’t have a toddler to look after as well, she said the adjustment has been a little easier for her. She said: "Obviously, I don't have a toddler in the mix.
“So, it's a little easier for me. It's been great, I mean, we're super blessed as crazy and wild chaotic it is at times. To be a first-time mum of identical twin girls and to share it with my sister, it's the coolest thing ever."
Megan added: "It's not always rainbows and butterflies. There are some hard days.
"So, you know, especially because we have an outlet in each other - we're going through the same thing. That has been super helpful. It's a big support for the both of us and then we get to share the funny stories and buy them the same outfit."
