Wed, Jan 27, 2016 at 04:00 PM

Two sisters, two babies, two hours apart at Marshall North

Talk about coincidences – Two sisters having two babies two hours apart. Grandma will never be the same.

“This is God’s way of giving her twins and sparing us,” says sister Samantha Reeves of her mother. “She always wanted twins.”

Grandmother Tammy Parsley couldn’t be more thrilled. “It’s a miracle,” she says.

Younger sister Kristen Gillen delivered first, giving birth to Graham Lee on Wednesday, Jan. 6. Her sister was there visiting      when her doctor – Dr. Lance Justice, the same doctor as her sister – sent her to a room for observation. The next thing they know, here they go again. “As soon as Graham was cleaned up and ready for us to see, the whole thing starts all over again,” Parsley says. “It’s going to be fun.”

About two hours after Graham, Audrey Elizabeth was born to Will and Samantha Reeves. The sisters were in delivery rooms next door to each other. They did their best to stay in touch through everything. They sent videos on their cell phones back and forth when they could no longer move around.

“I yelled, ‘We did it, Sam,’ through the wall,” Kristen says.

The baby cousins’ weight was just three ounces different – Graham is heavier – and both are 20 inches long.

The sisters had their own coincidence when they were born. Samantha, who is 29, was born on June 9. Four years later, Kristen was born on June 10. Their birthdays are just one day apart.

The babies are part of a recent boom at Marshall Medical North. Head OB Nurse Betsy Washington said 26 babies have been delivered since Dec. 28. And two more are expected to arrive any time. “We’ve really had a boom here lately,” said Washington.

Kristen and husband Denton Gillen live in Guntersville. She is a nurse for Marshall County Pediatrics. Graham is their first child. Samantha and Will also live in Guntersville. She is a dental hygienist for Dr. John Rutland. They have a three-year-old son Joe, who was watched by all the relatives in the waiting room while the babies were being delivered. Grandma Tammy also lives in Guntersville where she sells real estate.

Ironically, the girls recall that it was on Mother’s Day weekend they found out they were expecting babies. “We laughed at this possibly happening,” Parsley remembers. The newborns’ dads agreed that no one could ever have planned it to work out like it did.

Both families plan to go home Friday. “The whole herd,” says Samantha.