Minnesota couple celebrates twins born in different decades

COLOGNE, Minn. (AP) - A Minnesota couple is celebrating the birth of twins born in different decades.

Melissa and Ben Mase became parents to George and Remi on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, respectively, the Star Tribune reported Saturday. George was born at 11:44 p.m. on Tuesday, while Remi arrived at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.

“There was quite a bit of hooting and hollering going on in (the delivery room),” said Ben Mase, 43. The doctors and nurses wore “Happy New Year” party hats and served the couple mocktails after the second birth.

The couple, from the town of Cologne, west of Minneapolis, weren’t expecting the twins for another five weeks. Melissa Mase, 42, had just seen her doctor on Monday and showed no signs of going into early labor.

But Melissa Mase, assistant principal at Cologne Academy, a K-8 charter school, began experiencing contractions the next day as she tried to finish some work before winter break ended. They intensified when she arrived at Ridgeview Medical Center in Waconia.

The Mases, who have been married nearly 15 years and have three other children - ages 11, 9 and 2 - joked as the clock in the delivery room inched closer to midnight about how funny it would be if the twins entered the world in two different decades. The babies cooperated.

George weighed 5 pounds, 1 ounce, while Remi weighed 5 pounds even. They are healthy and in the hospital’s neonatal care unit, spokeswoman Lisa Steinbauer said.

Melissa Mase is healthy, her husband said, and has her hands full with the newest members of the family.

“It was pretty wild,” he said. “We’re thankful that everything went as well as it did.”