Eastern teacher's twins are Howard Regional's firsts of 2010

It's one feat to have a hospital's first baby of not only the new year, but the new decade.

It's another to have the second baby as well.

Arriving as the first birth for 2010 at Howard Regional Health System was Owen Michael Snyder at 12:27 a.m. Saturday, with his fraternal twin brother, Clay Allen, coming 19 minutes later.

Having the first babies of the year wasn't the foremost thing on parents Heather and Jon's minds Monday. The first-time parents have two same-aged boys to raise.

"I've done a lot of reading about [twins]," Heather Snyder, an Eastern Elementary School teacher, said. "It's a whole different set of rules it seems."

The babies were originally expected to come in February, the Clinton County couple said. But because they were twins, they came earlier.

The date was a lucky guess for Jon Snyder, when he jokingly said the twins would come on New Year's Day. About 8 a.m. that day, Heather went into labor.

"That was just a guess, because everything else was kind of crazy," he said. "We thought we were going to have a baby, then we had two."

Although twins aren't common in either parent's immediate family, some friends with experience with the 1- to 2-percent chance phenomenon have jokingly told them about the "horrors" they'll face raising two sons, Jon said.

"I'm not worried," Heather said. "It'll be interesting though. I'll have to learn about boys. I just had a sister."