Happy Birthday to these Jersey Shore leap day babies! Your next won't be until 2028

TOMS RIVER - Zoey Mcilvain was nine months pregnant when doctors at Community Medical Center decided to induce labor and offered her a couple of times that were available on Feb. 28.

She thought about it and opted for 9 p.m., thinking her delivery would surely take longer than three hours and her baby would arrive on Feb. 29, a leap day that would make him unique from the very start.

"Not a lot of people have that birthday," said Mcilvain, 27, of Brick. "I don't know anybody born on Feb. 29."

She and her partner Ryan Murrin do now. Their son Lukas was born Thursday at 7:17 a.m., weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces, and coming into the world with blond hair, blue eyes and a fairly long wait for his true birthday to roll around again.

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Lukas joined a tiny fraternity and sorority at the Shore of leap year babies. And they no doubt will need a sense of humor as they make their way in life. With their actual birthdays arriving every four years, they will get their driver's license not when they are 17, but when they are 4. They will get their first legal drink when they are 5. They will turn 40 when they are 10.

Michelle and Richard Barbarino of Jackson had their first child on Thursday at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold Township, a son named Giovanni, who was delivered by C-section at 6:47 a.m., weighing 8 pounds and 12 ounces.

Their baby was originally due on Feb. 22, but as the months went by and they looked at the calendar, they became increasingly convinced he would arrive on Feb. 29, prompting Michelle to begin to worry about when they would celebrate his birthday.

But it had been a long week. Michelle, induced on Monday, was resting Thursday as Giovanni cried in the background. With time to think about it, she decided a leap day baby was a blessing.

"Now that he's here, it just feels so unique and so special," she said.

At Jersey Shore University Medical Center in Neptune, Chelsea and Matt Corrado, both 31, of Tinton Falls, had their first child on Thursday, son Oliver Grayson, who was born shortly after 2 a.m. He had lots of dark brown hair and weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces.

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With Oliver's original due date on Feb. 25, the Corrados always thought there was a chance for a leap day baby. Matt Corrado said he was quietly hoping for it; one of his co-workers has a daughter who was born on Feb. 29, and he thought the idea was unique.

"I thought it was a very cool, unique thing," he said. "I'm actually very happy."

"I was a little bit indifferent about the idea of a leap day (birthday)," Chelsea Corrado said. "I was kind of thinking, 'OK, he only has a real birthday every four years, but regardless, I'm just happy he's here and I can't believe he was the first baby born on leap day."

The Corrados plan to celebrate Oliver's birthday on Feb. 28, noting he has a cousin who has a birthday on March 1.

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The odds of a Feb. 29 birthday — 1 in 1,461 — are low, but not impossible.

The day is an adjustment that's needed for the days and months of the calendar to stay in sync with the Earth's orbit. The calendar has 365 days a year. The Earth takes 365 days 5 hours, 48 minutes and 56 seconds to orbit the sun. Without a leap year, the calendar would be off by 24 days in 100 years.

It means people born on Feb. 29 understand better than most the need to sacrifice for something larger than themselves. In this case, their birthdays for a rational calendar that helps the world keep track of time.

Leap day babies are part of a small group. Indiana Pacers' guard Tyrese Haliburton was born on that day. He turned 24 on Thursday, or, for sticklers like his employer, who apparently demand birthdays be celebrated on the actual day of their employees' birth, he turned 6.

"The best 6-year-old in the NBA," the Pacers said Thursday on X, the social platform formerly known as Twitter. It was hard to argue with them; Halliburton was an All-Star this year.

The day provided hospital employees with some extra cheer. Doctors and nurses at Community Medical Center deliver some 2,200 babies a year, including two as of 3 p.m. on Thursday. But Mcilvain and Murrin said the members of their health care team all remarked on the special occasion with an enthusiasm normally reserved for New Year's babies.

“Our physicians and nurses were excited to play a small part in this family's very special birth experience," said Patrick Ahearn, chief executive officer of Community Medical Center. "We wish them all good health and a happy future."

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Lukas Murrin heads home to Brick with his two older brothers. And his parents said they plan to celebrate his birthday on Feb. 28, which at least is in the same month as his actual birthday.

Lukas' father Ryan said he had no qualms about the distinctive birthday, "as long as he's healthy."

A few months ago, one of Mcilvain's friends told her that, knowing Mcilvain's luck, the baby would be born on Feb. 29. Did her friend mean good luck or bad luck?

"Good luck," Mcilvain said.

Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter who has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry for 24 years — or six if he had started on leap day. He can be reached at mdiamond@gannettnj.com.

This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: Newborn leap day babies at the Jersey Shore; next birthday in 2028