New Year babies? Twins born apart in different years in US

Twins Jaelyn and Luis were born on the last few minutes of 2015 and first few minutes of 2016. SCREENGRAB FROM KUSI NEWS

A set of twins in San Diego, California will not be sharing the same birthday as one of them was born in the final minute of 2015, while the other came out during the first minutes of January 1.

A report by NBC Washington said baby girl Jaelyn and baby boy Luis were born three minutes apart–11:59 p.m. and 12:02 a.m., respectively–to 22-year-old mother Maribel Valencia at the San Diego Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center.

“We were actually watching the clock. We wanted to see if we were one of the first ones,” said Maribel’s husband Luis, a diesel mechanic for the US Navy.

“[Maribel] really wanted to have the babies on the same birthday because you know later on in the years, they’re going to have a little confrontation and be like, ‘my birthday came first,’ so it means two birthday parties, back to back,” he added.

The report said the twins’ birth times could mean that they were the last babies to be born in 2015 and first in 2016 in the San Diego county.

Maribel was originally scheduled for cesarean-section delivery on Jan. 6, but the babies decided to come out earlier than expected.

The report quoted nurse Lynnette Coetzee as saying that the twins’ case was “very unusual” and “very special,” something that she had not seen yet in 34 years of nursing.

The hospital said the babies, who were both 18.5 inches long, were born “healthy and happy.” IDL