NORWAY – Ashley Nicole Bell was just holding out.

At least, that’s what her mom, Valachia Rodrick, said.

“She wanted to be born on this special day,” Rodrick, 28, said Monday after giving birth to Ashley on Feb. 29.

Dad, Andrew Bell, 26, mused that Ashley could very possibly be the youngest and oldest of any of her siblings.

Hmmm.

Rodrick said Ashley came a week later than scheduled and after 23 hours of labor she was given the option of having a cesarean section delivery.

“It was long enough,” Rodrick said. “I said, ‘Let’s go.'”

Ashley was born at 5:31 p.m. at Stephens Memorial Hospital.

She became the only baby to be born on Feb. 29 in the Oxford Hills area.

The Oxford couple agreed that they would not be stingy with their daughter’s birthdays. Bell offered that they would just celebrate it on the closest weekend day to the actual date.

Ashley could fare worse.

The leap year babies born in 1884 had no birthday during their entire teenage years because there was no leap year in 1900.

In 1896, they were actually 12 years old on their third birthday. Their next birthday was in 1904, when they were 20 on their fifth birthday.

Ashley did defy the odds. According to the Honor Society of Leap Year Babies, there is only one day per 1,461 on which they could be born. There are only 684 people celebrating their birthdays per 1 million on leap year and there are about 200,000 people in the United States with leap year birthdays.

“She’s special,” Rodrick said. “But I think one is going to be enough.”

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