Mary Durning recalled her obstetrician's reaction in June 1999 after consulting a chart that calculates a pregnant woman's delivery date.
"She said, `Wow, your baby is due on Feb. 29.' So I asked, `What's the big deal?' She answered it was just that my child wouldn't have an actual birthday most years if I were to deliver on Leap Day," said the Ellicott City resident.
Eight years ago today, Durning did just that. She and her husband, Ben Burnet, welcomed Ani into their lives at Howard County General Hospital about 3 a.m. on her due date, just as predicted.
Four expectant mothers are scheduled to deliver today at the hospital, three by induction and the fourth by Caesarean section, said a representative. Five babies were born there on Leap Day 2000, according to hospital records.
Ani Burnet's appearance that Feb. 29 was the only predictable event in Durning's day.
Pia Lind-Collins, the wife of Durning's longtime friend Bob Collins, had been expecting at the same time and was due March 13. Five hours after Ani was born, the Collinses, also of Ellicott City, were holding newborn Linnea at Harbor Hospital in Baltimore. A mutual friend found himself on the phone hearing both couples' news at the same time and marveling at the coincidence of their having Leap Day babies.
"It's cool and really awesome" to have a Leap Day birthday, said Linnea. Sharing a Feb. 29 birthday with your best friend is "even cooler," Ani said.
The odds of being born on Leap Day are 1 in 1,461. About 200,000 Americans have a birthday Feb. 29, according to the 2000 U.S. Census. Leap Day is added nearly every four years to keep the 365-day calendar on track by balancing the nearly six extra hours each year that it takes Earth to revolve around the sun.
"When we don't have our real birthday, we just celebrate on the last day of February," Ani said.
She and Linnea agreed that it didn't matter that Feb. 29 isn't on the calendar three-fourths of the time.
Wearing specially made T-shirts to mark the occasion, the second-graders at Hollifield Station Elementary School held a joint party Saturday with a leapfrog theme. Guests guessed at frog riddles, played musical lily pads and drank punch laden with raisin flies and green gummy frog candies. Later, partygoers played a competitive game of High School Musical trivia and sang loudly with a karaoke machine.
