Having a baby is an exciting but stressful time and one Jeffersonville mother knows what that's like all too well.
Tiffany Sauls gave birth to twin girls in September, but they aren't just ordinary sisters.
They're called mono mono twins or Monoamniotic twins. That means the girls shared the same placenta during Tiffany's pregnancy.
Claire Davis spent the afternoon with the family to learn more about her new and rare baby girls.
Tiffany Sauls found out she was going to be a mother in January of 2015.
"'You're gonna have twins.' I said 'what?' she said. "They said 'yep, they're mono mono twins' and that's when they told me they were in the same sac and the same placenta and everything. And I didn't know what to think."
Mono mono twins, or mono amniotic twins, occurs in one of 10,000 pregnancies. That's according to the US National Library of Medicine's website.
"I was gonna have a high risk pregnancy," she said. "I didn't know if they were gonna live or they were gonna die."
Since they share the same placenta, mono mono twins have a greater chance of getting tangled in their umbilical cords, which could lead to a loss of oxygen and blood supply. Sauls said it was an emotional roller coaster. At one point, doctors could only hear one heartbeat. She spent three months at Medical Center Navicent Health on bed rest.
"I had to stay in that room," she said. "I could not do nothing. I couldn't go outside or nothing."
But she says the wait was well worth it.
Ava and Sophia were born on September 4, three weeks earlier than expected. Sauls says the girls only weighed about three lbs.
"I didn't know what to think," she said. "When they was so itty bitty, they just fit right in my hand."
Sophia and Ava spent another month in the hospital after they were born, but finally came home in early October. Now the twins are three-months-old. They're healthy and even wearing diapers that fit a one year-old.
"I have to buy two of everything," Sauls said.
Sauls said she goes through more than 100 diapers every week, but says she's grateful for her twin girls, their health and her two other children.
