Grateful Parents Talk About Their Leap Day Twins

Posted on Mar 4, 2016

Ryan and Summer Erickson, of Oakland, are the proud parents of twin boys with one born on Leap Day.

Ryan and Summer Erickson, of Oakland, are proud parents of premature twins Miles, born Feb. 28; and Walter, born Leap Day, Feb. 29; at Alta Bates Summit.

“We are so very grateful to the entire care team that has taken such great care of us,” Summer says. “As scary and overwhelming as the whole experience has been, we’ve had a lot of calming moments because we know Walter and Miles are in the best of hands.”

Because of the higher risks involving twin pregnancies, she said the family was “very deliberate” in choosing a hospital and picked the Alta Bates campus in Berkeley for what she called its “top-level” newborn intensive care unit.

Summer Erickson holds Miles, who was born at 11:58 p.m. Feb. 28 at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center. His twin brother Walter was born minutes later on Leap Day at 12:09 a.m. Feb. 29.

The twins were born premature at 26 weeks, with Miles weighing 2 pounds, 2.6 ounces and Walter weighing 2 pounds, 4.7 ounces, and will likely stay at the hospital for the next few months.

Summer said her husband is already party planning in his mind about how we’re going to manage the birthdays, with a tentative plan to celebrate them both on Feb. 28 during non-leap years and have “a multi-day blowout bash” every four years.

“Obviously we just want them to grow big and strong, and healthy enough that we can take them home,” she says.

Summer says her 4-year-old son Bruce met his new little brothers for the first time on Monday and then went back to school the next day and “instantly started telling everyone he’s a big brother … he’s very proud.”