YOUNG mum Lucy Iles thought her baby twins would be born well in time for them to celebrate Christmas but after a hospital had a big influx of urgent cases her little girls were eventually born on December 25.

Mrs Iles, 23, and her soldier husband, Joe, 27, who live in Warminster, had been expecting the babies to be born on December 23 at Salisbury Hospital but she was told to go home as they were too full.

She said: “I went back on Christmas Eve but there was still no room at the inn so I was sent to the Royal United Hospital in Bath and the babies were born by Cesarean section at 11am on Christmas morning.”

Mrs Iles, who grew up in Trowbridge and works as a rehabilitation support worker at Melksham Hospital, had been suffering from pre-eclampsia and doctors wanted her babies delivered early.

She had been told the twins Ada and Edee would be small when they were born one day short of 35 weeks but everyone was surprised when Ada weighed in a 6lbs and 7ozs and Edde was 5lb 1oz.

The girls had problems suckling and so were fed by tube for the first few days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Mrs Iles was also kept in the RUH as she needed a blood transfusion to boost her iron count.

Mrs Iles and her husband, who is a private in the Yorkshire Regiment, were shocked when they originally found out they were expecting twins.

She said: “It was at my 12 week scan and the person examining me first said there is a heart beat and then a few seconds later she said there is a second one.

“It was a massive shock but we are so excited now to have them. I can hardly believe it.”

She said that although she is a Peaky Blinders fan Ada was not named after one of the stars of the show.

She said: “Lots of people think the name Ada must have come from the show but actually it is a family name and I have always just liked Edee.”

Back at their house on the army base in Warminster everything is ready for the girls to come home.

Two Moses baskets are waiting for them for the early weeks of their life and cots are also in place.

Mrs Iles is also aware that she will get through a huge number of nappies in the early days. She said: “I have been stockpiling them for some time.”

She also pleased that her extended family in Trowbridge will also be able around to land a hand.

Her sister Amy Bartlett was very proud to be a new auntie especially with the babies arriving on Christmas day. She said: “The babies are both in the neonatal intensive care unit doing really well. They are identical.”