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'Sugar bag' babies are 21 on Xmas Day
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| Charlotte, left, and Louise with parents Claire and Darren |
Meet miracle twins Charlotte and
Louise Seaward - the "sugar bag
babies" born on Christmas day, 21
years ago.
Charlotte and Louise were born three
months early and weighed just over 2lb each
when they were delivered on December 25,
1986.
The identical sisters, who doctors feared
would not pull through, were so small they
wore dolls clothes for the first six months of
their lives.
Mother Claire Seaward, 47, from Small
Dole, co-owner of Brooklands Glass Centre
in Lancing, with her husband Darren, also
47, said: "I was 26 at the time and was
desperately trying to get everything ready
for Christmas as normal.
"I was six months pregnant - my due date
was around March 14 - but all I could think
about was that we had 14 people coming for
Christmas dinner.
"I was cooking food and decorating the
house and then at about 5pm the day before
Christmas eve I started to get stomach pains.
"I carried on doing what I was doing for
about half an hour and then they got so bad
Darren called an ambulance to get me to
hospital and followed in the car.
"I thought I was having a miscarriage.
The twins weren't due for another 12 weeks.
"I couldn't believe it when the doctors
said they thought I was going to give birth.
"They tried hard to delay it for as long as
possible until a bed and all the equipment
was prepared.
"I spent Christmas eve making sure the
dinner had been rearranged at someone
else's house, then at 12 and 13 minutes past
midnight on Christmas day, they were born.
"Charlotte was first and Louise was
second."
"Because we weren't expecting them we
didn't have names for them so we just called
them Twin One and Twin Two."
Christmas at the Seawards was cancelled
but members of the festive dining party visited the new mum in hospital with
presents, flowers and a token Christmas
dinner.
"No one gave baby clothes or anything
because no one was sure they would
make it and didn't want to tempt fate,"
said Claire.
After more than a month in a specialist
baby ward, unable to be held by their
parents, the twins' condition stabilised
and they left hospital on February 16.
"It was such a relief. We'd had to stand
outside the incubator and watch them.
There were so many pipes and tubes and
it felt really strange not to be able to pick
them up and give them a cuddle. By the
time we got them home Christmas had
been and gone."
They were the first twins to be born at
The Royal Sussex County Hospital on
Christmas Day for six years.
The twins went to North Lancing
Primary School and Steyning Grammar
before getting a job at the same
hairdressers, Anthony Michael in
Goring. They have identical long
blonde hair and work the same
shifts, with the same day off every
week.
Claire said: "They beg to
differ but they're very
similar in lots of ways.
"They will go out shopping
separately and come
back with the same things
and they still say the same
thing at the same time."
Louise said: "People
who come in to have their
hair cut think we're the
same person so half
way through the cut
they will tell the other
one what they want
doing next.
"Sometimes people
in cars practically
grind to a halt because
they're staring at us.
We get really cross because we don't
realise how strange it seems to people. In
our minds, we look really different."
This year the twins plan to celebrate
Christmas day together but go out with
separate friends for a meal the week
afterwards.
Charlotte said: "It's hard to organise a
birthday at Christmas because all our
friends are with their families.
"We have completely different sets of
friends.
"It's nice to share things but we want
people to see us as individuals.
"I don't even tell some of my friends I
have a twin and don't know if they would
figure it out if they saw Louise in the
street."
When they were younger Claire and
Darren organised the twins birthday the
day before Christmas. Claire said: "We
wanted them to know both events were
special and their birthday wouldn't get
lost among the Christmas celebrations.
"But now they're older and presents
are things like car insurance or money
for holidays, we just combine the two.
"We always try to get them quite different
things and we never call them the
twins' any more. I think it's really important
that they know we see them as two
very different and independent people."
The twins plan to have their own -
very separate - hairdressing businesses.
10:04am Monday 24th December 2007
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CommentPosted by: Mnairb, Hove on 1:24pm Wed 26 Dec 07
Good for them, nice looking girls. All the best for the future.
Good for them, nice looking girls. All the best for the future.
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