Melissa and Jason Geist at home in Slippery Rock Township hold their new baby Raelynn, who was born on Christmas Day, the same as her mother.

SLIPPERY ROCK TWP — Ron and Jackie Arblaster of Slippery Rock Township have been the proud parents of a Christmas Day baby for 29 years. But after the arrival of their third grandchild three weeks ago, they'll be celebrating more than one birthday on Dec. 25 this year.

Melissa Geist, 29, gave birth to her third daughter, Raelynn, at 1:01 p.m. Dec. 25 at Butler Memorial Hospital — a date made all the more special because Raelynn and her mother now share the same birthday.

Geist was born at 3:25 a.m. Dec. 25, 1987, at Butler Memorial.

Geist said she never believed Raelynn would arrive on Christmas Day, despite teasing from her family and pronouncements from her parents that sharing a holiday birthday with her third child was a foregone conclusion.

Geist's mother, Jackie, and father, Ron, were convinced it was in the cards. Ron wished his daughter good night on Christmas Eve with a prescient send off.

“I told her 'see you at six in the morning when you're in labor,'” he said.

In fact it was a bit earlier, Geist said, maybe 5:30 on Christmas morning, when she woke with pain. Still, the expectant mother and birthday girl didn't believe she would welcome the family's newest member into the world that day.

Geist's due date was Jan. 1, and she was scheduled to be induced into labor on Dec. 27 to prevent Raelynn from growing too large before delivery.

The family decided to try to kick off a normal Christmas morning. But by the time Geist's two daughters, 8-year-old Riley and 4-year-old Raine, began opening presents, she was in too much pain to focus on the festivities. It was time to go to the hospital.

Raelynn would be delivered in Butler that afternoon, and immediately flown to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh because of complications which threatened her ability to breathe outside the womb.

Geist and her husband, Jason, would spend the rest of Christmas weekend in the hospital with their newborn while Melissa's parents cared for Riley and Raine. Raelynn was sent home that following Monday.

The family called the care they received at both hospitals a priceless gift in itself.

“Everybody was so nice. We couldn't ask for better people to take care of her,” Geist said.

Now Raelynn, who Geist called a relaxed and attentive child, is the stuff of amazement among family members still in shock that the tongue-in-cheek predictions actually came to pass.

“I just think it's crazy,” said Jason, who is a chemical operator at BASF. “Everyone was teasing you (Melissa) that you were going to have her on Christmas — and it actually happened.”

Geist said she still can't believe her parents were right.

“She (my mother) just kept telling me I was going to have (Raelynn) on Christmas,” Geist said. “I didn't think it would be possible. I didn't think it would actually be real.”

Arblaster never wavered about Raelynn's birthday date after learning that Melissa's due date lined up with the one she was given in 1987.

“I just had a feeling,” she said. “I was due New Year's (day) and so was she. I didn't really know, but I had a feeling.”

Family members say they don't shy away from celebrating Melissa's holiday birthday, and plan to shower Raelynn with cake and songs just like they do with her mother.

Geist, now a mother of three, said holiday birthdays have become a sort of family tradition she'd love to see carried on by her youngest daughter, when the time comes for her to start her own family.

“I think it'd be kind of cool if she had a baby on Christmas too,” Geist said.