Minnesota woman gives birth to second Leap Day child, almost had 3

Image 1 of 3

What are the odds of having two children on Leap Day and another just 10 hours before Leap Day? That’s a question one Minnesota mom is trying to wrap her head around.

“I spend leap days in the hospital having babies. Three leap days in a row now,” Meagan Erickson, of Brooklyn Park, said.

On Leap Day in 2008, Meagan gave birth to her daughter Alyssa. Four years later, she had her daughter Janessa just 10 hours before Leap Day 2012. And on Monday, she woke up her 8-year-old birthday girl at 3 a.m. to tell her that her wish had come true, and the family was headed to the hospital to deliver her sister.

“It was 3 a.m. and I thought well, Alyssa is getting her wish,” dad Chris Erickson said. “And she says to me, ‘Daddy, that means I’m going to get my wish!'"

Alyssa, born on Leap Day 2008, now has a younger sister to share her rare February 29th birthday with, and another sibling with a birthday just 10 hours before theirs.

“It’s definitely a topic of conversation,” Meagan said. “We get a lot of questions like, how does it work? What’s her real birthday? Well, it’s 2/29, that’s what her driver’s license will say. That’s what her birth certificate says, we just can’t always celebrate it on that day.”

On non-leap years, Meagan and Chris said they celebrate their daughters' birthdays on the 28th and 1st. The couple now has four kids total, including a son. But Meagan says after this one, they’re done having more.

“Father’s Day seems to be a good day at home for us,” Chris laughed. “I never thought we’d have one, let alone two, almost three on the same day.”

When Chris was asked what he hopes to be doing in four years on the next Leap Day, he said “settling down from a big birthday party and taking a nap!”

Meagan and Chris said their other kids will help them choose a name, but they will most likely name their healthy newborn daughter Victoria after the Minnesota Vikings.