Einstein Montgomery Hospital Celebrates 'Leap Day' Baby

EAST NORRITON, PA — A local hospital in Montgomery County celebrated a very unique arrival earlier this week when the calendar turned to the erstwhile phenomenon of the leap day.

Baby boy Elias Robertson was born just nine minutes after the clock struck midnight on Thursday, Feb. 29, meaning that some years, his calendar birth date won't exist at all.

Baby Elias, the child of parents An Wang and Ian Robertson of Collegeville, seems just fine with the arrangement. He came in weighing 5 pounds and 14 ounces, and measuring 19 inches in length.

Robertson was one of several babies born at various Jefferson-owned hospitals around the region. He is one of two in Montgomery County, the hospital told Patch, after baby Lester Cruz was born at Jefferson Abington some six hours after Elias.

Leap days are built into the calendar to accommodate for the fact that the earth's rotation is not quite exactly 365 days long. They function as a "correction" which allows the calendar to still match up with certain seasonal and precise timebound dates, like solstices. The leap year of 2024, then, is actually 366 days long.