Mom's 'twins with a twist' were born six months apart and 900 miles away from each other

Being born a few moments apart, twins usually share a special connection of togetherness. However, these twin brothers were not born on the same day. Surprisingly, they were not even born in the same month or place. Now, one might wonder how such a strange thing could take place. But Erin Clancy and her husband Brian's twin sons were born six months and 900 miles apart from each other. While one baby grew in Clancy's womb, the other was born to a surrogate mother, reports The Sun.

The twins Dylan and Declan are 12 and 6 months old, respectively. Although the babies are not twins biologically, their mom likes to call them "twins with a twist" due to their interesting birth story. It all started when 42-year-old Clancy, a construction company owner, met her 38-year-old husband Brian, an electrician, in 2016. The couple met on an online dating site. "Handsome and caring, he was just what I was looking for," she said. The couple got married after four years of dating in September 2020. "We started trying to get pregnant in January 2021, confident it would happen easily, which it didn't," Clancy expressed.

So, the couple started IVF treatment six months later. "The first round failed and although the second was initially successful, I miscarried at seven weeks. I was devastated, struggling to know what to do, especially as the medication for the cycles gave me horrible migraines," the mom shared her challenges. But the couple didn't lose hope and started looking at surrogacy. After research and waiting, the couple was finally matched with a surrogate in May 2022 who lived 900 miles away in Illinois. However, fate had different plans for the mom when she missed her period in August and found out she was pregnant.

When the mom started bleeding six weeks into her pregnancy, she wasn't sure if she would be able to carry the baby for the whole term. So, she decided to go ahead with the surrogacy as well. She talked to her surrogate and explained the situation to her. The surrogate agreed to carry on with the plan. "Surely, we thought, we'd never be so lucky that she would become pregnant on the first try and that I would have a healthy delivery?" The woman added, "Following both paths was our best chance for a baby and if we ended up with two, we'd be doubly delighted."

The couple met the surrogate for the first time in February 2023 and stood by her side as the embryo was planted. Luckily, the woman got pregnant a week later and sent the mom the photo of a positive pregnancy test. "Hands shaking, I called Brian. We had two babies on the way – we couldn't believe it," the mom revealed. The surrogate would send regular updates to the parents. "But it was strange to feel my baby kick and my bump grow while my other baby was doing the same in another woman's body," Clancy shared. 

"In May 2023, I gave birth to Dylan by C-section. It was a love I'd never felt before. It was crazy navigating new motherhood, knowing our second son would be born in a few months," she stated. "That November, we flew to be by our surrogate's side when she delivered our baby. Dylan was six months old when his brother Declan was born. I was the first person to hold him and couldn't believe it – from the darkness of infertility, I was now a mum of two healthy boys," the emotional mom recounted. Even though people online said it was a "scam," the mom doesn't pay attention to it and would share this story with her boys at the right times. She said, "I can't believe they're mine."