Cute twins Alfie and Charlie Lees are identical in almost every way - but they do not share the same birthday.
The sweet baby brothers were actually born a day apart.
Little Alfie came into the world on August 17 while his little sibling Charlie followed him the next day.
Ten-week-old twins Alfie, left, born a minute to midnight, and Charlie Lees, born at midnight meaning they share different birthdays
Proud mother Charlotte Cotton and dad Andy Lees said they may now have years of holding two birthday parties to celebrate the miracle tots.
Charlotte, 21, said: 'Alfie was born at 11.59 on August 17.
'Charlie was born at midnight exactly but we were told that has to count as the next day.'
Last year, 10,680 sets of twins were born in England and Wales, but it is believed to be very rare for them to be born on different days.
Mervi Jokinen of the Royal College of Midwives told MailOnline: 'In my 26 years as a midwife I have delivered thousands of babies and hundreds of twins but only four or five of those twins were born on different days.
'It's rare for this to happen, but not uncommon.'
Miss Cotton, a former fashion store assistant, and Andy, 23, who runs Sir Juiced, his own catering business, were expecting the babies to be born at 37 weeks, which is normal for twins.
But they were taken by surprise when Charlotte began to have contractions at just 34 weeks.
'I started to feel pains but wasn't sure if I was in labour,' she said.
'It went on over the Friday and the Saturday and then Andy's mum came round and said she really thought I should go into hospital.'
Although it was discovered on the Saturday night that Charlotte was 3cm dilated, hospital medical staff decided not to induce the births. |
