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MINNEAPOLIS (CBS) ― When Amy Carlsen reached the 12th week in her pregnancy, she and her husband Jesse Carlsen went in for an ultrasound.

When the ultrasound technician wouldn't give them any details, they asked for the doctor. The news was bad -- their twins were conjoined, connected from their chest to the abdomen, reports WCCO-TV correspondent Jeanette Trompeter.

It's almost a year later now. The Carlsens' girls, Abbigail and Isabelle - Abby and Belle for short - were born Nov. 29 at Abbott Northwestern Hospital in Minneapolis. After spending a couple months at home in Fargo, N.D., the Carlsen family came to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Jesse and Amy are like most new parents. They pay close attention to how much the girls eat and what comes out. Figuring out how to diaper change conjoined twins has been a challenge, but otherwise parenting has come naturally.

Jesse and Amy find they love daughters more than they ever dreamed possible.

"Yeah, when they're sleeping or playing, you just think how much you love them, you know," said Jesse.

"They're the world to you," Amy added.

Abby and Belle are healthy. They're not on life support, oxygen or special medications.

"We just look at them as normal babies," said Jesse. "They're just two healthy babies that are sharing a liver."

"That they're connected, that's the only thing different about them," added Amy.

Dr. Chris Moir is the pediatric surgeon in charge of separating the sisters.

"The plan is for them to be absolutely normal," Moir said. "Crawling, walking, eating, be absolutely normal, that's the plan. I'm not going to settle for anything less."

Moir and 17 other surgeons will join forces to perform the 12-hour-long separation surgery.

"You have a cardiac team, a liver team, a bile/pancreas team, um, the plastic surgery teams and then double 'em because there's two patients," Moir said.

Before doctors could attempt separation, they needed to get the girls ready. In early March, doctors placed skin expanders inside the girls to grow the skin they'll need for Friday's surgery.

"You're essentially blowing a balloon up underneath the skin," said Moir. "And you go ahead and inflate that everyday with saline."

Jesse and Amy believe their girls are ready to be separated. Early on, the bumps and hits were accidental, but lately they've been intentional with Abby, the bigger, more rambunctious twin, getting in the most shots.

Sibling rivalry aside, their parents say Abby and Belle are happy babies. They spend time sitting in a special chair their Dad made for them. Like most infants, they like to go on walks.

"You go in the hallway with them, and anybody talks to them," said Amy. "They just giggle and coo and smile. They just love the attention, they get excited, their legs kicking, they love it."

From early morning to late night, the Carlsens spend most of their time with Belle and Abby. Fortunately, Jesse's coworkers at the North Dakota Department of Transportation donated vacation time, so he's not due back to work until July.

"There's no way I can ever repay them, but what they're giving me is the best gift I could ever have," said Jesse. "I'm just enjoying every minute that we get with them right now."

One week before the surgery, doctors, nurses and technicians pack into a conference room at Mayo Clinic. The team has been preparing for the 12-hour separation surgery for weeks. There will be 30 people in the operating room, including 18 surgeons.

Moir said the biggest risk involves the liver. If the blood supply and bile draining connections aren't made correctly, the livers could fail. Despite that risk, Moir believes the girls have a better than a 90 percent chance of survival.

As the meeting wrapped up, Moir thanked his colleagues saying, "This operation is going to going to go very well, and it's because of your expertise. Thank you very much, and we'll see you next week."

"The doctors seem to be pretty confident, but I'm pretty emotional," said Amy.

She and Jesse try not to dwell on the surgery.

"I'm thinking past it, that's kind of what gets me through," said Jesse. "Are we going to play in the yard, are we going to be taking vacations?"

Amy forces herself to be optimistic.

"There's still a little piece in the back of my head that scares me, but I try to make the best of it and just think happy thoughts," she said. "Thinking positive has gotten us this far, so why change it now?"

After getting their daughters ready for bed, Jesse and Amy lean over and kiss them. If everything goes as planned, the girls who've always shared one bed will go to sleep Friday night in two.

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