PORT ANGELES — Named for luck and happiness, a new Sequim baby already has had the luck of a charmed birth date — leap day — and brought his parents happiness.
Asher Brant Schaafsma was born Monday at Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles to Kelin Schaafsma, 27, and Ryan Schaafsma, 36, a Sequim couple who had anticipated the possibility of a leap day birth for at least six months.
“Asher means happiness and luck,” Ryan Schaafsma said from the hospital room where his wife was resting Tuesday afternoon.
Asher is the couple’s only child and the only grandchild of Tom and Jacque Schaafsma.
Next birth date: 2020
The newest member of the Schaafsma family won’t get to celebrate a birthday on his birth date until the year 2020.
“We’re open to options. For three years of every four, we’ll let him pick a day,” the new father said.
The new little “leapling” — the term for a person born on leap day — was born at 3:16 p.m. Monday; weighed 8 pounds, 9 ounces; and was 203/4 inches long.
He was due Saturday, Ryan said, but the day passed with no sign of when Asher would make an appearance.
Ryan said that when Saturday passed, many members of the family told the couple that first babies were usually a week late.
Kelin began going into labor Sunday.
“We started to get excited,” Ryan said, noting that his great-grandmother was always associated with leap day in family lore.
He said Ava Bahnub was born in 1900 — a year that skipped leap day to balance the calendar against the actual Earth’s orbit — so her birth on the day after Feb. 28 fell instead on March 1.
“She just missed it,” he said.
He said friend of the family Jack Tatom also has a leap day birthday.
“For the last six months, there was friendly banter. He’s been holding out for us to hold off for Feb. 29,” Ryan said.
The couple had not yet heard from Tatom but said they expected to introduce the pair of leaplings next week.
An extra day is added to February every four years to catch up with the Gregorian calendar, which has 365 days in a year, with the actual time it takes the Earth to orbit the sun, 365.2422 days each year.
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Reporter Arwyn Rice can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56250, or at arice@peninsuladailynews.com.
