A mum has told how she got pregnant while she was already pregnant, after conceiving her two daughters five days apart.
Odalis and Antonio Martinez were over the moon when they discovered they were expecting a baby in November 2020, given the heartbreak they experienced after a miscarriage a few months previously.
Soon after, the 25-year-old discovered during her first scan that she was actually expecting two babies that had been conceived at different times in the same week.
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Watch Odalis' video below:
How did this happen, you ask? The incredibly rare phenomenon is referred to as superfetation. It happens when a second, new pregnancy occurs during an initial pregnancy and this an occur days or weeks after the first one.
The full-time-mum said it felt like a 'miracle' to have daughters Lilo and Imelda Martinez-Atoyac arrive but admits that the pair look so similar that her and Antonio have mistaken them for one another.
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They are so adorable!
Odalis, of San Pablo, California, US, said: "I got pregnant while I was already pregnant.
"I just say that they're twins but after reading a lot of articles I know that they're technically not twins but it's just confusing for people so I just tell them like 'yeah, they're twins.'
"They're technically not even identical but everyone thinks that they are. They definitely look a lot alike.
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"Sometimes me and my husband, well more my husband, will get them mixed up with each other.
Odalis and Antonio, who currently works as a counsellor, married in early 2020 and dreamed of starting their own family.
When she became pregnant a second time, she went into her first ultrasound for the pregnancy alone as 31-year-old Antonio had to wait outside due to covid regulations.
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The mum-of-two said: "I was just so scared that they were going to tell me 'oh, there's no heartbeat' so I was so anxious the whole time I was texting Antonio like 'I'm so scared'.
"The doctor comes in and I'm trying to mentally prepare myself for anything and when she found the first baby and the heartbeat I was crying with so much happiness.
"And then she started going back and forth and I was wondering why - my mind just went to the worst-case scenario because of the traumatic experience that we had.
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"That's when she told me that she had found another baby that also had a heartbeat.
"I was just crying with happiness. I felt like the first baby that we had lost was in the room with me and saying it was going to be ok.
"When you go to the first ultrasound they check everything and around the day that you actually conceived the baby and that's when she told me that they were conceived five days apart, which I didn't even know could happen."
The mum-of-two said her due date was set in the middle - two days after one baby would have been 40 weeks and two days before the other one would have been 40 weeks.
The babies were born on August 10 2021 and Lilio, who was conceived first was also born first weighing 6lbs 12oz. Imelda then followed, weighing 7lbs 3oz.
"When I held them and knew that they were ok, I can't even explain the feeling," she said. "I love my family and my husband, but I had just never experienced a love and happiness like that."
For baby loss support contact Tommy's www.tommys.org and to learn more about miscarriage visit www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk
Gregory Robinson