Twin Girls Born 87 Days Apart- Guinness World Record: Maria Jones-Elliott, Mother, Calls The Girls 'Our Little Miracles'

Maria Jones-Elliott, of Waterford, Ireland, had two beautiful twin baby girls... 87 days apart, a new world record.

Jones-Elliot and her husband, Chris, originally didn't know if their twin daughters were going to survive because her water broke only 23 weeks into her pregnancy, according to the Huffington Post.

"The doctors told me there was very little hope of them surviving as they were so premature," Jones-Elliot told the Mirror. "I thank God Chris was by my side. I was sobbing and in shock but I refused to give up. I kept saying, 'This is not going to happen - I'm not going to lose them.'  I willed my babies to fight for life. I prayed to God, day and night, asking him for a miracle."

After two long weeks of labor the first twin, Amy, was born.  She was very small, only about 1 lb and 3 oz, the Mirror reports.  The other twin was not yet born, so Jones-Elliott prepared to focus on the second twin.  "I was exhausted but it wasn't over - there was another child and so I had to focus," she said.

However, her contractions stopped after she gave birth to Amy.  "They stopped dead - it was like I'd never even given birth.  The doctors said they had never seen anything like it," Jones-Elliott told the Mirror.  "It should have been a joyful time but it was horrific. I had one baby in intensive care and one inside me, clinging to life."

"Generally when a woman begins delivering twins, the uterus contracts and expels both babies within an hour. But Maria's uterus stopped contracting and Katie was left in the womb," said Dr. Eddie O'Donnell, who was in charge of the delivery team at Waterford Regional Hospital.

The doctors tried to induce her the next day but nothing worked, Jones-Elliott told the Mirror.  Eventually they decided to leave it up to nature.

Jones-Elliott was able to go see Amy after four days and was amazing at how tiny and helpless she looked, the Mirror reports.  She visited the baby in intensive care every day and prayed that her unborn child would be able to survive inside of her.  "I touched my bump and made the vow I would get Katie out safe and well and the girls would be together," she said.

Jones-Elliot told the Mirror that once she was able to hold Amy, her unborn child would react to her sister's presence on the outside.  Amy too, moved in a way that she would be closer to her unborn twin sister.

"The doctors said we just had to wait but every day was a bonus. I viewed it as a mission to take the pregnancy on as far as I possibly could. There was no room for negative thoughts. And as the weeks passed the tiny life growing inside me got stronger," Jones-Elliott said.

At 36 weeks and 3 days into her pregnancy, the doctors decided it was safe for Jones-Elliott to be induced again, the Mirror reports.  After only an hour, she finally gave birth two Katie, the second twin.  "When they put Katie in my arms she smiled at me and the nurse said 'she's fine.'  We both cried," Jone-Elliot said.

She told the Mirror that two hours later they were about the reunite the twins with Amy still in her incubator and Katie in a cot beside it.  "The nurse took Katie and put her in the incubator, facing her sister as they slept and Amy immediately smiled.  There was no doubt that they recognized each other," she said.

When they babies' father, Chris, tried to register their births it caused a stir because they were twins that were being registered to have been born a whole 87 days apart, the Mirror reports.

"I never lost hope even in the darkest moments," Chris told the Mirror.  "The medical team did an incredible job." 

"For a baby delivered at 23 weeks to survive is a huge achievement from everyone's point of view," said Dr. Sam Coulter Smith, chief of Dublin's Rotunda Hospital and an expert in obstetrics and gynecology, according to the Huffington Post. "For a 23-week twin to survive is even bigger because twins often behave more prematurely than singleton babies. That really is right at the absolute border of viability."

"I call the girls our little miracles," Jones-Elliott said, according to the Mirror.

Katie was able to come home five days after her birth and Amy was able to come home seven weeks later, the Mirror reports.  The two girls join their new family with Maria, Chris and their other two children Olivia, 13, and Jack, 11.  "For us all to be here, could I be any luckier?" Jone-Elliott said to the Mirror.

Damian Field, Guinness World Records spokesman said he could "confirm that Maria Jones-Elliott and her husband Chris Elliot have been in contact with Guinness World Records," according to an e-mail he sent the Huffington Post.  "If their claim of 87 days between the birth of their twins is substantiated then they will break the Guinness World Record title for Longest interval between birth of twins. We currently await their evidence."

The current record holder is Peggy Lynn of Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, according to Field, the Huffington Post reports.  Lynn gave birth to her twin girl and boy, Hanna and Eric, 84 days apart between they years of 1995 and 1996.