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Fargo, N.D. (AP) ― The parents of twin girls born connected at the chest are finding new ways to handle such tasks as changing diapers and bottle feeding while they await surgery to separate their babies.

Doctors have told Amy and Jesse Carlsen that they want to run more tests and let the girls get bigger, before scheduling the operation for twins Abbigail and Isabelle.

The girls were born in late November at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis, and the Carlsens brought them home about three weeks ago. If all goes well, doctors say the girls will be headed for surgery in a few months at Children's Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis.

Conjoined twins are rare. Worldwide, only about 250 conjoined twins have been successfully separated, according to the American Pediatric Surgical Association. The Carlsens have been told their daughters are in the group with the highest survival rate.

The girls are joined at the breastbone, liver and part of their intestines, but they have separate hearts and other vital organs, according to preliminary studies. The parents say the liver is one of the few organs that can regenerate itself once divided.

"So everything looks promising," said Jesse Carlsen, 28, a highway engineer.

In the meantime, the Carlsens, high school sweethearts who married in 2002, are having to getting a crash course in caring for the twins, who are face to face.

"People say, 'How do you dress them?"' said Amy, 25, who is on leave from her job as a nurse. "I buy two of the same outfit and snap them together."

Only one baby can drink her bottle at a time, and nursing was impossible. So while one drinks, the other often has a pacifier in her mouth. After five minutes, they switch.

Changing diapers is practically a two-person job.

Jesse says he counts hands and feet every time he picks the girls up or puts them down, "because I've had them bend in ways that legs shouldn't bend."

One baby's stretched arm plows straight into the other's face. One may be wailing as the other sleeps. "They lick whatever you put in their mouth -- her sister's nose, hand," Jesse said.

But already, their parents can see distinct personalities. "Abby likes to be held more," said Amy, while Isabelle is less fussy.

After surgery, Amy suspects, "they're going to miss each other. I know they are."

At first, the operation was scheduled for early February, when the twins will be 2 months old. But surgeons asked for more time to study just how the babies are linked.

It will be the third time a team at Children's has separated conjoined twins. The first was in 1991, and the second in 2001, said Allison Sandve, a hospital spokeswoman.

The operation will probably take "many hours," Sandve said, and "a minimum of two surgeons" for each baby, along with separate anesthesia teams. She could not estimate a cost, though Jesse Carlsen said it may be a half million dollars or more.

The Carlsens have been overwhelmed with the generosity of friends and strangers. Someone dropped off more than 2,000 diapers at their home. Members of their church, St. John's Lutheran in Fargo, have brought dinner every night.

On Sunday, the church is sponsoring a pancake breakfast fundraiser to help them with expenses.

Brenda Bauer, a nurse who is organizing the fundraiser, said the Carlsens are taking it one step at a time.

"I think they're handling it very well as parents," said Brenda Bauer, a nurse and church member who is organizing the fundraiser. "They keep a real sense of hope."

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According to the Mayo Clinic, conjoined twins are extremely rare, occurring once in every 200,000 births.

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