An extra fertile mother was overjoyed when she discovered she was pregnant again—while already pregnant—after apparently conceiving her ‘twins’ 28 days apart.
Sophie Small conceived Holly and Darcy one month apart due to an incredibly rare phenomenon known as superfetation, where a new pregnancy occurs after the first one.
Sophie and her accountant husband Jonathan, who already have a 6-year-old son named Oscar, were trying for another baby.
Although the 30-year-old had an inkling that she was pregnant, the couple decided to keep trying just in case. The swimming instructor was thrilled when she took a pregnancy test and discovered it was positive. But, after extreme morning sickness landed her in the hospital 7 times, a seven-week scan showed she was pregnant with twins.
The two babies were different sizes and doctors were stumped as to why, until they realized she’d ovulated twice.
The couple only discovered the tots weren’t conceived at the same time after the birth in August 2020 when Darcy was born weighing 4lbs 2oz and her sister followed two minutes later weighing 6lbs 1oz.
“I was carrying two babies who were growing at different stages, but we didn’t know that,” explained Sophie, from Herefordshire, England.
“They couldn’t work out why I was so sick. I had a scan at seven weeks and they said they could tell something wasn’t right. They couldn’t work out why one twin was bigger than the other.
“They had their own sacs and placentas so they could feed when they wanted to.
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“When they were born there was a 35 percent growth difference between the two of them, which is massive and they [the staff] realized they’d been conceived four weeks apart.
“Darcy was a 32-week baby and Holly was a 36-week baby. I said it couldn’t be right, I’d never heard of it. I didn’t know how it happened.”
She says although the tots are twins, they couldn’t be more different: girly-girl Holly still weighs 6lbs more than tomboy Darcy.
The mum says she likes to confuse strangers in the street who stop to ask how many minutes are between the girls. Many don’t believe her when she says they’re twins.
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“I say Darcy is two minutes older and four weeks younger, while Holly was born two minutes after but is four weeks older.
“They don’t even look like sisters, you wouldn’t even know,” said Sophie. “Holly has blonde hair, big beautiful blue eyes and wants to be a princess or a jockey.
“Darcy’s hair is a mousey brown hair, she’s a tomboy and wants to be a train driver.
“They’ve started nursery (school) and they’re very confident. It was so difficult but they’re absolutely thriving.”
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