Conjoined twins discharged from hospital, headed back to Idaho
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Lacey Darrow, KIVI
BLACKFOOT — Callie and Carter Torres were born into the world on January 30th to proud parents Nick and Chelsea, as well as big brother Jaysin.
But they are not just ordinary twins, they are conjoined.
“They share about the sternum down and then once you get from the belly button it’s just one person,” said Chelsea.
While they do share a lot, their parents said they have already noticed a distinct difference between the two girls.
“We actually noticed their different personalities the first week that they were born. Carter is more attentive and she likes to interact with people a lot more whereas Callie doesn’t like to be touched and kind of keeps to herself and wants to sleep all of the time,” explained Chelsea.
The odds of having twins like Callie and Carter is just one in every 200,000 births.
While the family said they knew there would be challenges, those challenges have come in unexpected ways, like the fact that the twins were healthy enough to head home weeks ago, but they couldn’t be discharged because they didn’t have the proper gear.
“We were waiting on a manufacturer to make a custom car seat for us,” said Chelsea.
The car seat is just the beginning. Chelsea said clothes are hard to find, they’ve had to make their own stroller, the girls have separate stomachs so they want to eat at the same time, but it’s things as simple as holding their children that they never had to put much thought in with their older son.
“We have to make sure they are both supported. Holding them is something that you have to put effort into and think out before you just grab and put them on your shoulder,” explained Chelsea.
While they said before they did consider separating them, for now, they are just happy they are alive and healthy.
“We’re more living in the moment. Everything works and they don’t need to intervene so they are saying why break apart two things that are working and make them not work,” explained Chelsea.
While they were in Texas, Nick was working at the Dollar Store to make funds to support the family.
For now, they said they are living off funds in their savings account, but the do have a GoFundMe page set up for those who would like to assist.
This article was originally published at fellow CNN affiliate KIVI. It is used here with permission.