Two sisters in Minneapolis went through pregnancy together during a pandemic and gave birth just 90 minutes apart.
Sisters Ashley and Brittany both found out they were pregnant in April, shortly after the state went into a pandemic lockdown.
They heard all of the jokes of a baby boom.
"Everybody was like 'you didn't do good at social distancing from your husband,'" said Ashley Carruth.
The two would weather nine months of pregnancy, sharing the same due date month, even the same doctor.
They relied on each other when their dad died from cancer in 2016. And they did it again this time through pregnancy in a pandemic.
"Even for the baby showers and things like that it's not normal and it's not what you expect in your head so it's so it's hard but having my sister going through it was just so comforting," said Brittany Schille.
As Brittany's induction date arrived, Ashley just didn't want to be left out.
"She had texted me at 2:30 in the morning saying I'm having contractions," Schille explained. "She goes, 'I might be meeting you at the hospital.' I'm like no way."
The women got side by side rooms at m health Fairview Ridges Hospital in Bunsville.
"We would text back and forth," Schille said. "'What are you dilated to? Have you gotten an epidural yet?'"
"I'd walk past the nurse station and even down the hall I could hear them talking about it," said John Carruth, Ashley's husband.
Their two healthy baby boys were born just 90 minutes apart.
Both sisters believe it was a wink from their dad, helping them stay together in a time of isolation. In a year that brought so many challenges, this family has two reasons to smile this holiday season.
"During a pandemic when you're not even allowed to have visitors or anything like that it was just such a ray of hope I feel like for our family," said Ashley.
The boys were named Cassius John and Zander Paul.
Paul is named after the sisters' late father.
