Newborns enjoy unusual Leap Year birthday

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Monday is Leap Day and the 29th of February only happens every four years.

So, anyone born on this day will have an unusual birthday. Babies born Monday have to wait four years to celebrate their actual first birthday. When the parents of Amaris Jimenez found out the due date of March 4 for their first child, they knew it was around Leap Day but thought the chances of giving birth on February 29 were slim. "But I never thought that she would be born that day, but I mean she's something special so," mother Elizabeth Espinoza said.

"There's no chance," father Cesar Jimenez said. "They're just going to send us back home. She's going to be born on March 4, but, you know, it happened and it is really exciting."

Baby Jimenez is 1 of 5 babies born so far at Saint Agnes Medical Center in northeast Fresno. She checked in a 6 pounds 6 ounces. Just a few miles away at Kaiser Permanente, Alshaya Banks gave birth this afternoon to a healthy baby girl weighing in at 6 pounds 10 ounces.

Banks says she wasn't due until March 17 and didn't even realize that Monday was Leap Day until a nurse told her after she gave birth. New mom says baby Banks will celebrate her birthday on February 28 of every year.

But the parents of baby Jimenez say they made the decision on what day to celebrate her birthday based on family history. "If it were up to him, he would have it every four years," Elizabeth Espinoza said. "You know, that's his little girl, but I don't know I think I'm going to give it to my aunt maybe on March 1."

That's right, new mom Elizabeth has an aunt who is also a Leap Year baby. She celebrates on March 1 every year.