Raul Perera wanted his newborn, Lorelei, to be a leapling.

"I think it would be pretty neat. A pretty unique thing," the Warren
resident said of having a child with a birth date that comes every
four years.

But his wife, Tabitha, wasn't jumping for joy at the prospect of their
daughter being born today, leap year day.

"For a little kid, not to have a birthday" every "year would be kind of
devastating," she said.

Lorelei wasn't due until April, but was delivered Wednesday.

Though the chance of being born on leap year day is about 1 in 1,500,
there are about 4 million leapers worldwide, including many in metro
Detroit.

Being a leaper, as adults are called, brings with it the novelty of staying
young because the person's birth date occurs once every four years.

But it also brings some frustration -- from trouble registering for services
online with computer programs that don't recognize Feb. 29 as a valid
date, to getting arrested for having a driver's license where the birth date
and expiration date don't match.

Raenell Dawn, cofounder of the Honor Society of Leap Year Day Babies,
an online birthday club, is a leaper who is an activist and educator.

Dawn supports leaper birth certificates bearing the Feb. 29 date. She also
supports driver's licenses having a Feb. 29 expiration date because that's
the date on which they were born.

In Michigan, leapers' licenses expire March 1. Dawn, who turns 48 -- or
12 -- today, said she would like calendar companies to mark the extra
day in the year on their products.

A special day to enjoy

Despite a few frustrations with their actual birth date, area leapers say
they enjoy their quadrennial event.

"I will be 13," Cindy Gorecki of Davisburg said proudly when she was
asked her age. But the preschool teacher has lived for 52 years.

Growing up, Gorecki said her mother picked the day that was most convenient for her to celebrate Gorecki's birthday during a non-leap
year. Now, Gorecki makes her husband celebrate two days -- Feb. 28
and March 1.

"That's only fair," she said with a laugh.

And she's not the only one reveling in her youth.

Deirdre Thompson, born leap year 1944, is celebrating her Sweet 16
with a bash complete with dance and hula hoop contests and lots of
decorative frogs.

As a child, she didn't fully comprehend why her birthday was not on the calendar. Now, the 64-year-old retired teacher from Detroit gets few
presents Feb. 28, mostly from her husband. Even her mom sends her
gifts late.

But when Feb. 29 rolls around, "I get cards from people I haven't heard
from in years. ... I get a lot of phone calls."

Not everyone's top pick

Those who probably won't be getting a lot of calls today are doctors,
nurses and midwives who deliver babies.

Obstetricians and gynecologists in metro Detroit said most parents-to-be who have some choice on the day their child will be born -- such as a scheduled cesarean section -- elect not to have the baby on leap year
day.

But there are a few who jump at the chance.

"We have two patients who are doing everything in their heavenly,
womanly power to deliver that day," said Dr. Mark Dykowski of
Generations OB-GYN Centers in Birmingham.

One woman is pulling from folklore and a baker's dozen list of things
to do or eat to go into labor. The lists include walking, eating spicy
food and being on bumpy roads. Dykowski said he thought she was
trying "any and all of those things."

He and other doctors said they would not do something medically
unsafe to ensure a woman delivers on a specific date. But requests
to strive for or avoid certain days do come.

Being a leaper has been fun for bus driver Randy Hendrix, 48, despite
being teased as a child by classmates because he technically was
younger than them.

Later in life, the Holly man and his three children always joked about
how they were older than him.

Karen Tinkis, 60, of Clarkston wants others to join the Feb. 29 birthday
club.

She was to be born March 1, but arrived a day early during a leap year.

"Everybody thinks you're special ... because it's something out of the
ordinary," the retired business owner said.

Contact CHRISTINA HALL at 586-469-4683 or chall@freepress.com.
Staff writer Georgea Kovanis contributed to this report.