Twins Amber Tramontana and Autum Shaw of Knoxville, Tennessee, always wished that their kids would somehow get to experience the sister bond they shared growing up. That might happen because the twins’ births are surely meant for the history books. The two sisters both became moms for the second time together at nearly exactly the same time — just 90 minutes apart on October 29. And in another serendipitous twist, that happened to be the sisters’ birthday.
The sisters have done everything together their entire lives.
“From childhood to homecoming to high school to college and nursing school, nurse practitioner school, our sons who are 10 weeks apart, having them close in age and now our girls,” Shaw told news station WREG.
“We wanted our kids to have the same experience that we had growing up,” she continued.
They had their first pregnancies together about two years ago.
Not only were the boys, now 2, born only weeks apart, but they also both weighed the same and were the same length at birth.
But getting pregnant for a second time wouldn’t come as easily for Shaw. She told Good Morning America that she struggled with infertility this time.
On Christmas Day 2019, she miscarried.
“We didn’t really understand God’s plan or why that happened to us. We knew that it was common, but we knew he had a bigger plan and we just trusted that plan,” she told WREG.
Months later, the sisters would get their wishes — they were both pregnant and had matching due dates to boot.
This meant that the sisters ended up spending their 33rd birthday in neighboring rooms at Fort Sanders Regional Hospital in Knoxville.
Separated by only one wall in the hospital, they both were induced late last month. Shaw gave birth first to her daughter, Charleston Scott, who weighed 9 lbs., 4 oz. A little while later, Tramontana’s daughter, Blakely James, who weighed 7 lbs., 2 oz., followed.
“Autum delivered and we were able to hear a faint cry,” Tramontana recalled to Good Morning America. “My husband knocked on the wall as a way of saying congratulations. Ninety minutes later, we deliver and they returned the same knock.”
The doctor who delivered both babies told the news program that he’s never seen anything like this in his 40-plus year career.
Even though Dr. George Vick has delivered for twins before, it was never on their own birthday.
“It’s something that’s really an unusual thing,” he told WREG. “It was when we found out they both had the same due dates. It was just a God thing the whole way.
“Amber had a little taste of labor. I saw her the day before and then her sister was ready to roll so we had babies,” he shared with Good Morning America. “It was a miracle.”
Shaw added that although they hoped to have kids close together, this felt predestined.
“We didn’t plan that it was going to be this close together,” Shaw told WREG.
Now they’ll have a lifetime of quadruple birthday parties and they’ll get to raise their daughters almost as sisters. That’s the small silver lining for Shaw, who told Good Morning America that having a “twin” daughter with her sister is a bit of sunshine after so much sadness.
“There was all this waiting and heartbreak … now I look at this bigger picture and God had a bigger plan,” she explained.