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Rochester, Minn. (WCCO) ― Mayo Clinic doctors successfully separated once-conjoined twins Abbigail and Isabelle Carlsen on Friday after more than seven hours of surgery.

The girls spent their first seconds apart at about 4:28 p.m. Friday, as doctors cut the last remaining shared tissue, and moved Isabelle to another operating room table. According to Mayo Clinic doctors, the girls are in stable condition and now resting.

Lead surgeon Dr. Christopher Moir said he expects the girls to have a smooth night, but they are critically ill and are expected to stay that way for the next 24 to 48 hours. He said the girls can hopefully come off a ventilator and perhaps begin waking up after that.

The parents of the 5-month-old twins, Amy and Jesse Carlsen, walked their girls into surgery in the morning and planned to spend the day working on the family Web site and scrapbooking. After surgery was completed, Jesse Carlsen said their prayers had been answered.

"If any of you looked outside today, you noticed it was cloudy and rainy and the sun was nowhere to be seen," said Jesse Carlsen. "I think that's because it was in that operating room, with our girls and this team. And today all of our prayers have been answered, and I can't thank you enough for helping our girls."

Since their livers were once fused, doctors considered that to be most difficult portion of the surgery. Once completed, applause broke out in the operating room, and doctors then continued to construct a biliary structure for Abbigail.

Once separated, Isabelle needed her abdomen reconstructed, Mayo Clinic spokeswoman Lee Aase said.

The twins were born Nov. 29 joined at the chest and the abdomen. They shared a liver and parts of their intestines. The girls' also once shared a common bile duct. They also were joined at the diaphragm and the pancreas, and they shared part of an intestine.

Doctors did not know exactly how some of the internal organs would be connected to the girls until they entered their chests. The girls were found with two separate hearts. Medical imaging done in the weeks before the surgery showed Isabelle's heart was tipped into her sister's body and would have to be moved.

Doctors also learned that the girls had enough intestines for both of them, a detail they could not tell from pre-surgical scans.

A team of 30 medical personnel, including 18 surgeons, began the surgery early Friday morning. By 8:10 a.m., the girls had been given anesthesia and IV lines were being placed.

The first incision was made at 9:44 a.m. By 11:50 a.m., doctors had separated the girls' chest walls and confirmed there were two separate hearts. Doctors later moved Isabelle's heart into her chest wall cavity. Her blood pressure remained stable as that was done, the Mayo Clinic said.

The second part of the surgery was underway at noon, as doctors worked to separate the diaphragms and liver. Doctors removed the twins' gall bladders as planned on Friday.

As of 1:50 p.m., doctors had started separating the liver, Aase said. The girls have remained stable throughout the surgery.

At about 4 p.m., the clinic said the girls' pancreases were separated and doctors had completed bowel reconstruction for Isabelle.

Prior to surgery, doctors estimated a 90 to 95 percent chance that both girls would survive.

(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)