Ohio couple with same birthday give birth to twins — on their birthday

No excuses for belated birthday wishes with this family..

An Ohio couple with the same birthday got a once-in-a-blue moon gift on their special day this year — a set of newborn twins.

Scierra Blair, 31, and José Ervin, 32 — who both celebrate Aug. 18 birthdays — welcomed a son and a daughter just five minutes after midnight a little over a week ago at Cleveland Clinic Hillcrest Hospital — on Aug. 18.

“It’s a blessing,” Ervin told PEOPLE. “Best birthday present ever.”

The odds of a baby sharing a birthday with both parents are extremely rare — about 1 in every 133,000 births, the Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children estimated when a similar birth happened last year.

Coupled with the rate of twin delivery — about 31 in every 1,000 successful births — the couple had a better chance of being hit by lightning than delivering newborns on their own birthday.

The extraordinary occurrence almost didn’t happen. Ervin had to convince his fiancé to endure a few hours of extra discomfort to hit the delivery date.

The babies’ due date was initially expected Aug. 28. But when the couple went in for a checkup Aug. 17, doctors found one of the babies was positioned feet-down in the womb — and advised a delivery by caesarian that day to avoid complications.

That was about 4:30 p.m., and Ervin said he realized if they hung on just a few more hours, the family would all share the same birthday.

Since Blair and the babies were healthy and doctors said it would be fine to wait if they preferred, Ervin tried to convince his tired-and-hungry fiancé to hang on.

“Since she was in good health and wasn’t stressed, and the kids were in good health and weren’t stressed, I thought, ‘Why not wait?’” he said.

“I said our kids being born on our birthday, that’s unique. All of us celebrating together, that’s beautiful.”

“I was hangry and just wanted it to be over,” Blair recounted. 

“He said, ‘It’s only a few hours and it will go by real fast.’ And I just looked at him and said, ‘Easy for you to say. I’m starving.’”

Ervin eventually won Blair over, but not without some compromise.

“I agreed, but I told them they owed me a week of potato salad,” Blair said.

Shortly after the calendar turned to Aug. 18, doctors delivered José Ervin III. Ar’ria Lannette Ervin was born a minute later.

“They were my birthday present and I’m good with that,” Ervin told PEOPLE. “I’m so stoked. I kiss them like 30,000 times a day.”