Curious case of twins born five years apart

Reuben Blake went back to school today ... but his twin sister will have to wait another five years until she is old enough. For although they are twins they were born five years apart.

He knows that she’s been in the freezer – he likes to say she has been in the freezer with the chips and the chicken –
Emma Hallett

In spite of the fact that the brother and sister were conceived from the same batch of embryos, Reuben popped into the world on December 9, 2006 ... and Floren waited until five years later to make her debut.

Proud parents Simon and Jody Blake had been trying to start a family without success and so in 20005 decided to start fertility treatment.

During the medical process, five embryos were created and two implanted in 38-year-old Mrs Blake. The remaining three embryos were frozen until the couple, from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, decided to try for another child last year.

Against the odds, Floren arrived on November 16, 2011 – two weeks before her due date – but five years after her twin brother.

“I tell everybody I can,” said 48-year-old Mr Blake.

“In kind of mundane settings where people take an interest in a newborn baby and with Reuben around as well, I find it very difficult to resist the temptation to say ‘Oh and by the way they are twins’.

“It’s almost just to see people’s response. They are really amazed and surprised.”

His wife, a programmes manager for the children’s charity WellChild, said: “It does feel quite surreal. I think people are really, really surprised and it almost takes people a few minutes to get their heads around it.

“We obviously had nine months to get it straight and to think ‘Gosh, we’re having Reuben’s twin’, but it’s incredibly special.

“When we had Floren, because I had her by Caesarean, we told the theatre team and they were all absolutely blown away and excited, ecstatic really.

“They were sort of saying ‘We’ve never had this before’ and they were just really, really excited for us, which just made the experience really special.”

Reuben, who had been a little unsure about having a sibling and admitted he had wanted a brother, has quickly settled into his role as older brother.

“Since the day Floren was born, he’s been really tender and loving with her,” said Mr Blake, a business and economics lecturer at University College Birmingham.

Reuben, who is in the reception class at Christchurch Primary School in Cheltenham, said he had been looking forward to going back after the Christmas break.

Mrs Blake said: “It’s nice that he is in a different phase. He’s started school, which he loves. He’s really happy there, he’s got lots of friends there and equally it’s nice for us to have lots of time with Floren when he is in class.

“He certainly likes to push her home from school in her pram and he also took her into school a few days after she was born and he was so excited to show all his friends, which is really, really nice.”

Even at his young age Reuben is aware of the special relationship he has with his seven-week-old sister, although his parents said it would be a while before he fully understands.

“He knows that she’s been in the freezer – he likes to say she has been in the freezer with the chips and the chicken – so he is sort of aware that she is his twin, but obviously he doesn’t really understand how it’s all worked really,” his mother said.

“They do look very similar. Reuben was just a bigger version of Floren when he was born, so certainly there are similarities physically. She does look like a mini version of him really.”

The history of twins through the years

Twins are generally born only a few minutes apart. If delivered by c-section, the interval between births is usually only a minute, maybe two. The interval is generally longer for vaginal deliveries, ranging from a few minutes to more than an hour. In modern times, if the time period extends much beyond that, doctors perform a c-section for the second baby, fearing distress or the risk of infection. However, some studies make a case against this practice.

Babies born days apart
• British twins Seth and Preston Campbell were born two days apart – and in two different counties, after the mother was whisked from Frimley Park Hospital in Surrey to London after a string of birth complications. But there are exceptions to the rule!

Babies born weeks apart
• Jennifer Renz of North Canton in Ohio gave birth to twins one week apart.
• Kenneth and Michael Abbott of Coto de Caza, were born three weeks apart.

Babies born in different years
• In 1991, Susan Goddeke went into labour on December 31. She gave birth to baby Katherine at 11.56 p.m., but baby Jessica wasn't born until 12.14 a.m. on January 1, 1992.
• As 2009 drew to a close, the Velasco family welcomed premature twins. Tiny Marcello was born in the last few seconds of 2009, then Stephano arrived just after midnight – in 2010. The decade-divided duo were born 10 weeks early .
• Aaron and Luke Hegenberger are only eight minutes apart, but they were born in proximity to the turn of the millenium in 2000. Aaron arrived on New Year's Eve, 1999, just a few minutes shy of midnight. And in the first few seconds of the year 2000, his twin brother took his first breath.