WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Call it a labor of love.

A set of twins delivered at a North Carolina hospital Tuesday is the heaviest set ever born in the state and possibly the second-heaviest set born in the United States during the last 100 years, reported WXII-TV.

Officials at Forsyth Medical Center in Winston-Salem said twins Sean William Maynard and Abigail Rose Maynard were born to parents Joey and Erin Maynard, of Winston-Salem, via Caesarean section.

Sean William weighed 10 pounds, 14 ounces, and Abigail Rose weighed 12 pounds, 3 ounces -- for a combined total of 23 pounds, 1 ounce.

The twins were delivered just two minutes apart and are in excellent condition, the hospital said.

The infants slept quietly during their first public appearance Friday with their parents.

"They're big and healthy and quiet, except when they're hungry -- which is often," Erin Maynard said jokingly.

A set of twins born to a Wilson, N.C., couple in 1997 weighed in at 18 pounds, 10 ounces.

"We weren't ready for how big she was," Maynard said. "Not Abby. She definitely surprised all of us."

Both parents, who also have a 2 1/2-year-old who was 10 pounds, 7 ounces at birth, are in great shape, the hospital said.

The twins' combined weight is about four pounds less than the combined weight of twins born in Arkansas in 1927.