Mum beats odds to welcome baby on Leap Day not once but twice

The odds of being born on Leap Day are one in 1,461 or 0.07 per cent, but on Saturday the Demchak family couldn’t believe their luck when they welcomed their second baby born on Feb 29.

Back in 2016, Lindsay and Dane Demchak’s son Omri was born on Feb 29. Now, four years later their daughter Scout came into the world on Feb 29, 2020. Neither birth was induced.

“My wife was like, ‘What’s your [due date] guess’? And I said, ‘I guarantee she’ll come on Omri’s birthday,’” Dane Demchak tells Yahoo Lifestyle. But he admits he never actually believed it would happen.

“But then she woke me up about midnight on Feb 29 and she was having contractions,” Dane says. By morning Scout was born, in Brooklyn, NY, four days ahead of schedule.

Saturday was meant to be a birthday party for their son, who was celebrating his 4th birthday and the first to actually fall on Feb 29, but Scout had other plans.

“We told him, ‘You’re getting a very special gift for your birthday,’” Dane says, adding the first thing they will do when leaving hospital is to get Omri his much-deserved birthday cake.

Leaplings, as those born on Feb 29 are called, share their birthday with roughly five million other people. People born on any other day of the year share their birthday with nearly 21 million others.

The proud dad says that, going forward, Omri will celebrate his birthday on Feb 28, “because he’s older” and Scout on March 1. Then every four years they’ll host a huge party to celebrate both children.

“We hope sharing a birthday is something that keeps them together for the rest of their lives, something that will always keep them close,” Dane says.

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