Wesley Bonner and his wife, Sara, cradle their new baby girl, Piper Ellen, who was born on leap day at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. Piper weighs 5 pounds 8 ounces and is 18 inches long.

The chances are one in about 1,500, but on Friday three baby girls joined the special population of people born on leap day, Feb. 29.

It was a long-anticipated day for a Lawrence couple who welcomed their baby and Lawrence’s first 2008 leap day baby at 8:19 a.m. at Lawrence Memorial Hospital.

Piper Ellen Bonner, 5 pounds 8 ounces, has been presented with a novel birthday, one that won’t happen every year. She will share the day with James and Casey Hensley’s Baldwin City girl and Enoch and Terri Etter’s Eudora girl, both born a minute apart at 10:11 p.m. and 10:12 p.m. respectively.

The odds aside, the Bonners were just grateful to have a healthy baby.

“I don’t know that it’s any less or more special, but it’s definitely unique,” said Sara Bonner, music teacher at Deerfield School.

Bonner, a mother of three, isn’t exactly a stranger to “unique” births. Her first son, Josh Wedel, was born during a 1990 tornado in Hesston.

“This is much calmer,” she said.

Leap year, which has 366 days instead of 365, was designed to keep the Gregorian, or standard calendar, working in conjunction with the earth’s seasonal rotation. Leap year occurs every four years unless the year ends in 00. In that case, if the year is divisible by 400 it is a leap year.

“We hope she’s not disappointed when she looks at the calendar and it doesn’t have the 29th on it,” Bonner said. “But I’m sure we’ll have lots of ways to explain that to her.”

Not to mention a bigger cause for celebration. Leap year babies can choose to celebrate their birthdays on Feb. 28 or March 1, or all month long if Grandma has her way, Bonner said.

It may be awkward for Piper growing up, Bonner said, because she won’t have an actual birthday every year like her peers. But not everyone can say they are 13 when they are actually 52.

“She’ll thank us when she’s older,” Bonner said.