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Happy Birthday, Leap Year Babies!

MAHONING TOWNSHIP–Today is Leap Day. It is an extra day added to keep the calendar in alignment with the earth’s revolution around the sun. So you m...

MAHONING TOWNSHIP--Today is Leap Day. It is an extra day added to keep the calendar in alignment with the earth's revolution around the sun. So you might say anyone who is born today has a special birthday.

Meet Violet Amelia Fernando. At eight pounds, nine ounces, she is a healthy baby born at Geisinger Medical Center near Danville. Violet is a leap year baby!

"Words can't explain it, I'm just happy to see him," Daniel Fernando said.

According to Violet's parents, Daniel and Jennifer Fernando of Carbondale, she was not supposed to be a leap year baby.

"I was in labor yesterday from 10:30 a.m. til they decided that we needed an emergency c-section at 12," Jennifer Fernando said.

The Fernandos planned to have their baby closer to their home in Lackawanna County. But because of a blood disorder, they were sent to Geisinger Medical Center. That's when they joked about having a leap year baby.

"I was just saying it sarcastically like knowing my luck, knowing our luck, but it happened," Jennifer said.

"When she first told me that joke and I thought it's our luck. I thought you never know it might happen, and it happened," Daniel said.

The couple calls Violet their blessing because a few years ago they had a miscarriage and on the anniversary of that date they found out they were pregnant with Violet.

"The same doctor told us we're not having a kid because of complications. Going back to the same hospital, I was thinking I didn't like this doctor but he said you're having a baby girl," Daniel said.

So what's going to happen when Violet gets older and wants to know why she does not technically have a birthday every year? The Fernandos say they will cross that bridge when it comes. In non-leap years, the couple plans to celebrate Violet's birthday on February 28th.

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