— Two brothers, who live 80 miles apart, are both enjoying their time as new fathers, but they never imagined they would welcome their babies into the world at the exact same time.

Brooke Thayer, of Fayetteville, and her sister-in-law Fawn Thayer, of Morrisville, defied the odds and gave birth at the same time Sunday evening. Their husbands, Matt and Steve, respectively, are brothers.

Matt and Brooke were the first to the hospital Sunday morning.

Older brother Steve and his wife Fawn were with their two boys seeing the Easter bunny that morning when their time came. They headed to Duke Hospital.

"We got in at 4:30," Steve Thayer Jr. said. "I didn't think it would be until the next day."

At the same time, Brooke Thayer had been in labor at Moore Regional Hospital in Pinehurst. Matt's parents were with them, tracking text messages.

A message arrived: a picture of Cassidy, daughter of Matt and Brooke. She had arrived Sunday at 6:53 p.m.

"It says, ‘OK, she's here," said Steve Thayer Sr. "Then I get another text, and I look at the new text, and it is a baby naked. I looked down and went, wait a minute, that's a boy."

Benjamin Thayer, son of Steve and Fawn, was also born Sunday at 6:53 p.m.

Brooke said they all joked together about the babies arriving on the same day, but they never thought it would become a reality.

Staff at both hospitals thought it was staggering.

"When we were talking about it the nurses were like, 'Oh my gosh!'" said Matt Thayer. "One nurse, who had been working for 40 years, said she had never heard of it."

"It is brotherly competition," said Steve. "I think it was a race to see who could come in first, and it ended in a tie."

Benjamin and Cassidy have not yet met, but the families say they plan to get together on Easter for what the family says is sure to be a close relationship.