Mono Mono Twins Born Holding Hands Celebrate First Birthday

The mono mono twins born holding hands are celebrating their first birthday. The Ohio baby girls, Jenna and Jillian Thistlewaite, became an overnight sensation when photos of the babies holding hands were shared online. Mono mono twins are extremely rare. Monoamnioitic twins occur in about one in every 10,000 births. Such twins share the same amniotic sac and placenta, and place a pregnancy in extremely high risk.

Jenna and Jillian Thistlewaite are small for their age but are thriving and still persistently want to stay by each others side. Proud daddy, Bill Thistlewaite, said it was only recently that his twin daughters stopped constantly grabbing for each other. The mono mono twins were born on May 9 at Akron General Medical Center.

“Up until three months ago, they would just lay there and they would grab each others hands,” Bill Thistlewaite said.

Sarah Thistlewaite spent 56 days in the hospital after giving birth to the mono mono twins. The middle school math teacher noted how grateful she was that friends and neighbors pitched in to help care for the couple’s 15-month-old son, Jaxon, while she and her husband tended to their tiny twins.

“Three kids was what I had always said, absolutely. I wasn’t planning on having them this quickly but once it happened I couldn’t picture it any other way,” Sarah said after the twins arrived via a C-section birth.

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As the Ohio mom prepares to celebrate the mono mono twins first birthday, she is reflecting on their birth and the massive amount of media attention that followed after the photo of the babies holding hands was shared online.

“Really, I can’t believe how big it was. I look back and I’m like, ‘Wow, that’s us. That’s us on TV.’ I had a lot of anxiety at the beginning, especially, when I found out they were mono mono twins – just whether or not they were going to survive.”

The mono mono twins spent about one month in the Akron hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit before they could travel to their Orville, Ohio home and get to spent a night in their own nursery. Jillian Thistlewaite currently weighs 16.5 pounds and Jenna Thistlewaite weighs 17.5 pounds. Both of the mono mono twins are very close to being able to take their first steps, their parents noted.

Monoamnioitic twins are the most rare type of twins, according to Dr. Dr. Melissa Mancuso, who delivered the Thistlewaite babies. The Akron doctor also said that the risk of birth defects and tangled umbilical cords is very common in mono mono twins.

[Image via: Screengrab]