Conjoined Baby Girls Born In Kentucky

Twin girls are alive and doing well despite doctors giving their parents little hope before they were born.

Charla Cook gave birth to Lakelyn and Laylie on September 1 at Norton Hospital in Louisville. The two girls entered the world at 32 weeks and weighted 2 pounds, 13 ounces each.

The twins are "doing very well, all things considered," Cook told WLKY.

Lakelyn and Laylie are connected at the chest, but they each have their own hearts. They share a liver and other organs, which will make it difficult to separate the girls.

Before the twins were born, Cook found a team of surgeons in Florida who said they will try to separate the girls. The trip to Florida has been put on hold because the girls are so young and fragile.

"We can’t take the girls to Florida in their condition so only time will tell us how things will go. We are certainly praying for miracles," Cook said.

Cook and her husband Logan first thought they were going to have one daughter when Cook became pregnant for the fourth time. The parents found out that they were having conjoined twins during a routine ultrasound done 20 weeks into Cook's pregnancy.

Doctors told Cook that the babies' chances of survival were low and gave her the option to end the pregnancy, but the mom refused to give up on them.

"The girls have survived so far, so I know they're fighters," Cook said in August.

Now a week old, Lakelyn and Laylie have been allowed to go home for the first time. The family will continue to chronicle the girls' journey on a public Facebook page. They have also set up a GoFundMe for the babies' future medical care.