Elene Cowan had never been one to believe in miracles. That is, until her twin boys were born earlier this year -- both premature and delivered 39 days apart.
On Jan. 20, the 30-year-old emergency room nurse from Kansas City, Mo., gave birth to her son Carl at 24 weeks. He weighed just 1.4 pounds at birth and was so small that his mother was able to slip her engagement ring around his wrist.
Thirty-nine days later, on March 28, Carl's twin, David, was born at nearly 30 weeks.
ABC News reports that the younger twin's birth was purposefully delayed by Cowan's doctors, who used medication and other treatments to stall labor in the hope that David would have a better chance of survival.
"I thought that I was going to lose both of them," Cowan told ABC.
But today, the two boys are not only alive but "thriving," Today.com writes. They each weigh more than 9 pounds, and doctors expect them to grow up into "perfectly healthy normal boys."
“I didn’t think miracles happen but I know they did,” Cowan told the news outlet. “When your ring can fit around your son’s arm and now you’re holding him and feeding him and playing with him on the floor, that can only be a miracle.”
Cowan's obstetrician agreed the boys "[beat] the odds" to survive.
Though the birth of twins several weeks apart is unusual, the phenomenon is not unheard of. In fact, earlier this month, a Boston mom made headlines for giving birth to twin boys, Alexandre and Ronaldo, 24 days apart.
Like Cowan, Lindalva Pinheiro da Silva delivered the first twin, Alexandre, at 24 weeks. The child weighed around 1 pound, 10 ounces at birth, ABC's "Good Morning America" reports.
“They’re my miracle babies,” da Silva told the news outlets of her sons. “Ronaldo because he stayed inside, and Alexandre because he’s a survivor.”
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