Three Generations Share a New Year’s Birthday
A Jan. 1 baby is always a joyous way to start the new year, and when Drake London was born on Friday, his family had an extra reason to celebrate: Drake, who arrived one week ahead of his due date, is the third generation of London men to enter the world on New Year’s Day.
“I was hoping to have a kid near my birthday because my father and I share a birthday and we are very close,” Drake’s father, Eric Drake London, tells Yahoo Parenting. Eric also has a Jan. 1 birthday, as does his father, Larry London. All three were born in Santa Monica, Calif.
“Sharing a birthday with my dad made me feel really special,” says Eric. “We always had a family dinner with two birthday cakes — chocolate for me and something tart like a lemon meringue pie for Dad. I loved being able to celebrate the day with my hero, my father, my best friend.”
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Eric and his wife, Fernanda London, were aware of the timeline when they decided to start a family. “You can’t plan the birth of your child when it’s a natural birth,” says Eric, “but we counted 40 weeks back from Jan. 1 and we decided, ‘Let’s try to get pregnant the first week of April.’”
Jan. 8 was their due date, which was pretty close to the goal, but the couple figured they would miss the mark. Little did they expect Fernanda’s well-timed water break shortly after midnight on Jan. 1. Eric called his father from the hospital. “That was a very teary-eyed, touching moment, holding my wife’s hand and talking to my dad on the phone on our birthday,” says the new father.
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“I thought it was really sort of fantastic,” Larry, Eric’s dad, told People. “It’s been great fun sharing a birthday with Eric… We think a lot alike, we do a lot of similar things, our personalities, our likes and dislikes are all a lot alike.” Fernanda confirmed that assessment: “Their personalities are completely the same. The way they act, the way they interact with family, everything.”
Fernanda’s labor lasted 21 hours, so Drake arrived at 10:12pm, just a couple of hours before the date changed, cementing a family tradition. Eric told People, “I was joking with Fernanda after she gave birth and I said, ‘You know who has the most pressure now? Drake’s future wife!’ If it hits four generations that would just be crazy, but it would be a lot of fun.”
(Top photo: Courtesy of Eric London)
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