This year is a leap year, and statistics show that one out of 1,500 people in the United States are born in a leap year.
Two babies were born Monday, Feb. 29, at Minden Medical Center – one of them was little Isaac Ray Holman. He was born at approximately 5 p.m. that day, weighed seven pounds, nine ounces and was 19 and a half inches long.
Baby Isaac Ray Holman was born Monday, Feb. 29, making him one of two babies born at Minden Medical Center on Leap Day. Little Isaac is pictured with his parents, Scotty and Sonya Holman. Michelle Bates/Press-Herald
“I woke up Sunday morning and my blood pressure was high, so I called the doctor and he told me to come in,” she said. “They kept me overnight, and I got up Monday morning and they told me they were going to take him at 4 p.m. I didn’t even think about it at the time. I just knew he was coming.”
Sonya Holman has an 11-year-old son, and her husband, Scotty, also has an 11-year-old son, and little Isaac was a welcome addition to their blended family.
“It was a surprise,” Scotty Holman said, “but we were ready for him to get here.”
Sonya Holman says they will more than likely celebrate their baby’s birthday on Feb. 28 the three years in between leap years.
The Holmans make their home in Coushatta.
Leap years, which have 366 days in the year instead of 365, were added to the calendar to keep in time with the solar year.
A solar year is the time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun, but the actual time is about one-quarter of a day longer than our calendar year. So, to make up for the lost time, an extra day was added to our calendar year every four years.
The Gregorian Calendar, the calendar used today, also stipulates that centuries can only fall on a leap year if it is divisible by 400. The years 1700, 1800 and 1900 were not leap years, but 1600, 2000 and 2400 have been and will be leap years.