‘You’re just meant to be extra special’: At least 20 Spokane-area families welcome 2024 leap year babies

Leap year was never a big deal for the Williams family.

“I’ve never really noticed leap years,” Marketa Williams said during a Friday morning interview. Then her son Ben was born at 3:43 a.m. Feb. 29, the first leap day baby born at MultiCare Deaconess Hospital this year.

“Now they’re special,” she said.

Ben was one of four leaplings – babies born on leap day – at Deaconess this year. There were 11 leap day births at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Holy Family Hospital, one at MultiCare Valley Hospital and four at Kootenai Health.

When Williams checked in early Tuesday morning, she wasn’t expecting to have to wait until Thursday to meet her newborn.

“I was shooting to avoid leap day. We missed,” she said. “Thank goodness he was first on the leap year; I probably would’ve lost my resolve.”

Still, the Williamses are happy to have a leapling in the family, even if they won’t technically get the chance to celebrate for another four years.

“Everybody is pretty excited,” Williams said.

Williams and her husband, Ian Williams, are planning to have special birthday parties for Ben on leap years but aren’t sure what that would look like yet.

“This is still surprising and new,” Marketa Williams said.

Less than a mile away, at Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center, one of Ben Williams’ birthday buddies, Raven Blackwolf, was being doted on by her parents, Stephanie and Gabriel Vandagriff.

“You’re just meant to be extra special,” Stephanie Vandagriff cooed to her baby Thursday afternoon. Raven, her head full of dark brown hair, sneezed a few times into her tiny fists.

Raven was born a few hours after Ben, at 6:19 a.m.

The day before, the Vandagriffs didn’t realize it was a leap year until Stephanie Vandagriff talked to her aunt.

“I called my aunt when we got admitted. She was like, ‘Do you think you’ll have her on the leap year?’ ” Stephanie Vandagriff said.

Her aunt then sent periodic texts of “30 minutes” and “15 minutes,” counting down with the couple to the leap day. Then midnight passed.

“Then she was like ‘K, you can have her whenever you want,’ ” Stephanie Vandagriff said.

Raven had yet to meet her sister and two brothers Thursday, and her siblings had yet to learn about her special “vanishing birthday.” Their mother planned to explain it to them when they were introduced.

“I think it would be a really good educational lesson for them,” she said.

Raven’s sister, Raya, was especially eager for her arrival, Stephanie Vandagriff said.

When she picked Raya up from school one day, “she said ‘Mom, I almost fainted in the parking lot,’ ” Stephanie Vandagriff recounted. When she asked why, Raya said, “I’m so excited about having a sister, I almost fainted.”

The Vandagriffs planned to celebrate Raven’s birthday on March 1 on off years, as Stephanie Vandagriff has a cousin with a March 1 birthday.

“She was like, ‘If you have her on the leap year, can you celebrate her birthday on mine and we can be twins?’ ” Stephanie Vandagriff said of her cousin.

The Williamses planned on Feb. 28 since it, like Feb. 29, is the last day in February.

“Feb. 28 seems like the right answer,” Marketa Williams said.

Danielle Pedroza, 28, has had seven leap day birthdays. She said she usually celebrates on Feb. 28.

Predroza said there are pros and cons to having a leap day birthday.

“Growing up it was really special,” she said.

One year, Pedroza’s mom rented a limo for the day. Another year, her mom sent a green gorilla mascot to visit Pedroza’s middle school during lunch time – yes, she was embarrassed, but it was fun.

“Growing up, leap day birthdays were pretty special,” she said. And in the small town of Prosser, Washington, “I was always in the news on my leap year birthdays.”

But Pedroza still finds herself the involuntary object of leap year jokes.

“They’d make all the jokes, ‘You’re not supposed to drive yet’ or ‘Your daughter is older than you,’ ” Pedroza said.

She had some advice for Spokane’s newest leaplings: “Just enjoy it. Enjoy the uniqueness and don’t worry about the criticism or the cons of the day, just worry about the positives.”