Leap Day Babies Arrive in Connecticut, Including One in Farmington

Parents all over Connecticut welcomed leap day babies on Feb. 29, a date that makes an appearance every four years. According to the Telegraph, the chance of being born on leap day is one in 1,461.

So who were the lucky leap day babies in Connecticut?

At 6 a.m., a leap day baby was born at UConn John Dempsey Hospital in Farmington. Shivu Modi of Unionville gave birth to Yuvraj, who arrived eight days early. Yuvray is 6 lbs. 4 oz., and is 20 inches long.

“But I hope the baby won’t blame me for only having a birthday every four years,” Modi said in a press release. “I am thinking once every four years we will definitely have to do something very grand for his birthday celebration.”

Modi along with her husband Nish and 5-year-old daughter Jahnvi are overjoyed with the arrival.

St. Francis Hospital in Hartford said three leap day babies were born Monday. One of those parents were Kelley and Matthew Bilodeau, of East Hartford. Mason James Bilodeau was due March 12 but Kelley was induced on Sunday, Feb. 28.

Mason was born at 7 lbs, 9 oz., and 20 1/2 inches tall. They will celebrate Mason’s birthday on February 28 as he was born in February, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

At Bristol Hospital, Gavin Paul Haynes was born Monday after his mother Maria Longo-Haynes went into labor last Friday, NBC Connecticut reports.

“I was like please God let’s not have him on Leap Year,” Longo-Haynes told NBC. “ I didn’t want to do that to him but now I’m figuring you know what - a special day, a special birthday, a special little kid.”

As Forbes explains, the leap day is a combination of three things; rotation, revolution and precession. The earth takes a little less than 24 hours to complete a rotation and only needs to revolve slightly less than 360 degrees around the sun to complete a tropical year. The disparity in the revolution creates a tropical year 20 minutes shorter than an astronomical year, a difference known as precession. So, it takes the earth 365.242188931 days to make a tropical year, adding in a leap year brings us closer to this figure giving us 365.25 days in a year. According to Forbes, without a leap our calendar would be off by a month every century.

Another fun fact about the leap day is that it does not technically occur every four years.

“There’s a leap year every year that is divisible by four, except for years that are both divisible by 100 and not divisible by 400,” according to the Telegraph.

Images courtesy UConn Health and St. Francis Hospital

Image One: Leap year baby Yuvraj and family

Image Two: Mason James Bilodeau and family being interviewed by the media