Jill Justiniani and Erin Cheplak are identical twin sisters living in Yorba Linda, California. The sisters have been doing everything together all their lives, but maybe even they wouldn’t have thought they could experience motherhood together and give birth to their children just a few hours apart, so the boys can be not only cousins and playmates almost themselves.
Justiniani and Cheplak’s son Oliver and Silas were born on the same day in the same hospital, just 5 hours apart, plus they both weigh exactly the same weight, 3.2 pounds.
Erin’s husband, Zach, also has a twin sister – though they’re twins. Erin and Zach were married at the time of the ᴘᴀɴᴅᴇᴍɪᴄ, so they only celebrated with a smaller ceremony then, and in August 2021, a larger reception was held.
Jill got pregnant for the first time, marrying her partner, Ian, in 2019. In August 2021, just the morning of Erin and Zach’s wedding reception, she shared the joyful news with her twin brother.
“I screamed with joy and woke my husband. It was such an exciting moment,” Erin said. A week later, while they were spending their honeymoon in the Maldives, the Cheplakes also realized they were expecting a baby and immediately called the family to tell them the good news.
“I took the pregnancy test and saw the two lines, but they were very faint. I questioned if I could really see the result, I talked to Jill on FaceTime about the Maldives, and she said, “Yeah, that’s it. That’s it,” Erin said.
The twin sisters were close to each other all their lives, anxiously waiting to experience motherhood together, and they said it was even easier to face their fears as they had someone to discuss their experiences with.
Their husbands often joked with her that they would give birth the same day, but in fact there was very little chance of that. Jill was registered for C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ on May 5, but Erin’s baby was not supposed to be born until May 15th.
But on the morning of May 5, Erin woke up with cramps, and although at first she thought she was only nervous about her sister’s C-sᴇᴄᴛɪᴏɴ, it soon became apparent that she had started childbirth as well. She called her husband and quickly went to the hospital.
Jill later said she didn’t even want to believe it was happening because the chances were very slim. “We were so close and we were so inseparable that it all made sense in a very strange way,” she said.
Jill and Ian’s young son, Oliver, was born at 6:39 p.m., and shortly after 23:30, Erin and Zach’s son, Silas, arrived, just in time to share a birthday with his cousin!
The sisters, who live close to each other, are now enjoying raising their special little boys together.