Leap Day babies are rare enough, but a Michigan family just had their second Leap Day daughter. Melissa Croff of Columbus, Michigan, gave birth to her second daughter, Evelyn Joy Croff, on February 29, 2016. This in itself is a rare event, but Evelyn’s older sister, Eliana Adaya Croff, was born February 29, 2012. Chad and Melissa Croff are delighted by the addition to the family and, according to the Detroit News, consider having two Leap Day babies a blessing.
Chad and Melissa Croff live in southeastern Michigan. Their daughter Evelyn was born at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township early Monday morning at 3:06 a.m. Mrs. Croff was not induced to have her younger daughter’s birthday match Eliana’s birthday, despite the fact she was 10 days past her predicted due date. Evelyn was born naturally, not by C-section. She was six pounds, nine ounces.
Nurse-midwife Maureen Heinz assisted at Evelyn’s birth.
“I haven’t ever delivered a baby on the same date as an older sibling; it’s quite the miracle.”
Family's 2 daughters both born on leap days https://t.co/j4sUbGeyce #leapdaybaby pic.twitter.com/fg3hIMMKFI
— Detroit Free Press (@freep) March 1, 2016
Both Chad and Melissa Croff were surprised when Evelyn decided it was time to arrive, although they had joked about the baby “picking on her sister and try to take her birthday.”
“I didn’t expect the possibility of them being born on the same day, let alone on Leap Day, until I went into labor yesterday at church.”
Eliana is pleased and proud to be a big sister. The Times-Herald has a picture of her holding her little sister. Her parents say she is too young to understand that sharing a birthday with her sister is anything unusual.
The Croff sisters were born four years and a few minutes apart, according to the Clinton Township Patch. Eliana Adaya Croff was born at 3:33 a.m. on February 29, 2012, at Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital in West Bloomfield Township. Evelyn Joy Croff was born at 3:06 a.m. on February 29, 2016, at Henry Ford Macomb Hospital in Clinton Township.
Having more than one Leap Day baby in the same family is rare but not unknown. At least three families welcomed a second Leap Day baby this week: the Croffs of Michigan, with Eliana and Evelyn, the Ellisons of North Dakota, with Annabelle and Abigail, and the Ginns of Colorado, with Giovanni and Antonio. The Inquisitr told of the Estes family, who have three Leap Day babies, the Shekoufeh family, where father and son share the same rare birthday, and Birnbaum family, where the mother has the same Leap Day birthday as her daughter.
David and Louise Estes of Payson, Utah, have three Leap Day babies. Xavier Estes was born February 29, 2004, by pure chance. Younger brother Remington Estes and baby sister Jade Estes were born February 29, 2008, and February 29, 2012, respectively, as the “result of careful family planning.” Their other two children do not have Leap Day birthdays. According to KSL, this is the first time Louise Estes wasn’t in labor on February 29 since she got married.
Fred and Eric Shekoufeh, a father and son in La Mesa, California, in San Diego County, were both born on February 29, one in 1956 and one in 1996. This means that while the father is 60-years-old and the son is 20-years-old, one is celebrating his 15th birthday and the other his fifth birthday.
Michelle and Rose Birnbaum of Saddle River, New Jersey, also share a Leap Day birthday. Michelle Birnbaum went into labor with her daughter on February 28, 2008, but did not deliver Rose until February 29, 2008. According to Time, the odds of a parent and child both having Leap Day as a birthday are roughly one in two million. Rose is now 8-years-old but has just celebrated her second birthday.
Leap Day, or the bissextus, occurs once every four years. The odds of a baby being born on Leap Day are one in 1,461, according to the Daily Herald, not one in 366.
[Image via Shutterstock]