Two of a kind

By Emma Sun
THEY say identical twins are connected somehow – and there is no better explanation for twin mothers giving birth at almost the same time, twice!
Casey Hospital’s maternity ward doctors and nurses must have thought they were seeing double when Jade Bucknall Cox had baby Cooper on 6 October, and her twin Dana Smith had Jai a week later on 14 October.
It’s even harder to believe that when Jade and Dana first had children two years ago, they gave birth only 10 weeks apart.
But believe it or not, the timing for the four bundles of joy was not planned at all.
“It just happened that way, you can’t really plan these things,” Dana said.
“We couldn’t believe it the first time, when we were only 10 weeks apart and it was even more overwhelming when we ended up six days apart this time,” Jade said.
“We thought it was a bit of a twin thing.”
And a twin thing it sure was. Jade said she and Dana have always been close, and it’s not unusual for them to be doing the same thing at the same time.
They both live in Cranbourne North and are pretty much neighbours.
“We were both looking for a house in the south eastern suburbs and ended up finding one in the same suburb around the corner from each other,” Jade said.
“We bought our houses the same weekend – it was very coincidental.”
Fortunately for the sisters, the families get along very well and their children get to spend a lot of time together.
“My husband Brendan said it’s lucky that the text messages and phone calls are free for Dana and I because we’re always on the phone to each other,” Jade said.
“Ethan and Lily are like little twins, they’re like brother and sister because they see each other most days.
“Cooper and Jai have met each other briefly but usually one’s asleep when the other is awake so they really haven’t spent a lot of time together just yet.
“There will be lots of time in the future!”