Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Twice as nice
Identical twins give birth hours apart
SILOAM SPRINGS — Identical twins Alissa Barnes of Maysville and Shiane Barnes of Gentry gave birth to healthy babies just hours apart March 14 at Siloam Springs Regional Hospital.
Alissa and her boyfriend Traey Burge’s son, Kenneth Ray, was born at 9:20 p.m., and Shiane and her boyfriend Kyle Clark’s daughter, Gypsy River, was born at 11:41 p.m., according to the twin’s mom Shanon Barnes.
The 23-year-old twins were born five minutes apart and even though the sisters have completely different personalities, they have been doing most things in sync ever since, Shanon said.
“They are twins,” she said. “They have to do everything at the same time.”
The sisters couldn’t have timed the pregnancies and births if they tried.
Shiane was the first to realize she was pregnant and shared the news with her family July 4. A few weeks later, Alissa, who already had two children, realized she also was pregnant. At first, Alissa, didn’t want to share the news because she didn’t want to take the attention away from her sister’s first pregnancy, she said.
The sisters grew closer during their pregnancies and even took pregnancy photos in matching outfits, something they hadn’t done in years, Shanon said.
Shiane’s original due date was March 13 and Alissa’s was March 22, Shanon said.
Alissa had some health complications and on March 14 she went to the hospital early in the morning to have labor induced.
Shiane was hoping her daughter would be born March 17 — a St. Patrick’s Day baby — but a few hours later her water broke at home and she called Alissa to ask what contractions feel like. After consulting with her sister, Shiane realized she was having contractions about five minutes apart and she came to the hospital, where she was admitted in the room next door to Alissa.
Even though the sisters weren’t far apart, they weren’t allowed to see each other or share visitors because of the hospital’s one visitor per person policy, enacted due to coronavirus concerns.
Because each of the fathers counted as the one visitor, Shanon also had to stay home during the experience. After the babies were born, the sisters also weren’t allowed to see their niece and nephew.
The twins used FaceTime to stay connected throughout their labor, they said.
“All our mom could do at home is pace the floor,” Alissa said. “I know she wanted to be there … and with technology we were still able to pull up video and show off the babies at a distance.”
Once Shiane heard Alissa’s baby had been born, the race was on to make sure the two cousins had a birthday on the same day. Gypsy was born with 19 minutes to spare before midnight.
“I wanted their birthdays to be as close as they could,” Shiane said.
Alissa and Shiane haven’t always been close, but the pregnancy and birth has been a bonding experience, they said.
Shanon described her daughters’ personalities as “night and day.” Alissa has always been more artsy while Shiane was a cheerleader and manager of the wrestling team in high school, she said.
“I feel like we have always been kind of competitive, mom has always said ‘like night and day,’” Shiane said. “I think this will make us closer.”
Shiane said it has been a relief to have someone who has already gone through pregnancy twice, go through it again with her.
Alissa had a miscarriage last year and went through a period of depression, which also caused her to pull away from her family, she said.
“It was nice for her to call me, not only to ask me if everything is normal or if I’m doing OK,” Alissa said. “It was nice not to go through it by myself.”
As identical twins, the sisters share the same DNA, so both babies already look more alike and will share more traits than the average cousins, Shanon said. The two sisters are looking forward to raising their babies together, with a lifetime of shared birthday parties to look forward to.
“Their birthdays are forever together,” Shiane said.