Here SHE is

Well, after only 18 hours of total labor and only 6 hours of active labor and only 8 minutes of pushing, Anna Grace Browne is here. Home births allow you a lot of priviledges and we took big time advantage of one of them this time. That's the birthing pool. Wow. What a blessing that was. A big, high sided inflatable pool (far from a jacuzzi but about the same idea sans the jets) set up right in the middle area of our bathroom allowed Traci to rest in warm water through out and even give birth to Anna in the water. From water to water. Kinda neat. After watching four of these births "live and up close" I'm still in shock as to how the whole thing comes off.



Home births also allow you to live on no one's time schedule but God's and the baby's (those two normally work together really well) while letting the Mom dictate the where's and how's of the whole affair. That has always been a huge plus of this whole thing to us. Traci was as comfy as she could be and that made all the difference in the world.

Having 3 little boys in the other room waiting, wondering, listening beside the door...





...literally, added a new demension to this whole thing too. Seeing Aidan as a big brother is just as amazing as realizing I finally have a daughter. From baby of the family to big boy in a matter of hours.



Nate with two younger sibs now has been freed from being "the" middle child (really a horrible choice of words as Nate never seemed to have an issue with being "the" middle child) and now has two under him to lead, protect, and love on. Nate's gentle heart and kind spirit were very evident when he came into the bathroom/birthroom just about 1 minute after Anna was born. He kinda wanted to cry, kinda wanted to laugh, and kinda didn't know what to do. I hear ya Nate!



And Benja...oh Benja. He and Traci have always had this really special connection. 26 hours of hard, active labor will do that to you I guess. Anyway, Benja came in to see Traci one more time about 3 hours before Anna was born. He broke down. Mom broke down. They just held and loved on each other for a few minutes before another contraction finally pulled them apart. Benja is an amazing kid and the perfect biggest brother in this family we know as the Brownes.



As for the name...Anna (meaning gracious or merciful) is a name we've had picked out for our girl since before Benja was born. As we never find out until they show us themselves what the gender of the baby is we always have or try to have a boy and girl name picked out. We've had Anna for about 8 1/2 years now. That was a no brainer. The challenge on this one was a boy's name. We'd still not come up with anything and had decided about a week ago to wait and get a look at him before naming him. This way that stress never had to be dealt with. Anna is also a very popular name in Russia which bodes well for her future life. She's the only one of us that has a name that works like she's from either place though Benjamin is an old Jewish name that we have seen two Russians named as over the years. Anna is also the name of more than a few dear friends in Russia including Anna Shorina (main strategic partner of WWYC and a great friend to the Browne family for almost 7 years now). Grace was the name of my late father's mother. Maw Maw, as I knew her, was a strong and as dear a woman as I have ever known. I am honored to have children now that carry my father's name, my father's father's name, my father's father's father's name, my mother's father's name, my father-in-law's name, my father-in-law's father's name and now my father's mother's name as well. Anna Grace Browne. Welcome to the world!

Obviously...more pictures and random musings of a dad with things to say still to come...










(Hours later) More musings continued...




In a home birth you do most of the same have-to's that you do in a hospital. The weighing of the baby is always something we enjoy. All 4 of ours have been weighed the same way in the same sling actually. The baby lies in the sling and a scale hooks on to the end. All of our kids have been totally still and quiet during this. It apparently reenacts the feel of the womb pretty accurately. From there you get 8 lbs 8 oz. Maybe a picture is the best way to describe it:









Papa Tim and Mimi are proud to have their 6th grandchild and 2nd grand daughter...












Now...a word about midwives. Debi Thomas (the blonde on the left of the picture) has delivered all 4 our kids. Debi is an awesome woman of God, amazing mom (5 kids) and grandmother (6 grandkids). We met Debi when Traci was 7 months pregnant with Benja. She is a woman of strong conviction but not of any personal agenda. We were almost sold on the home birth thing at this point but meeting her and hearing her share stories of the nearly 500 births she had assisted in pretty much sold us on the spot. She is a dear, dear friend of ours now and our boys have a unique connection to her that's hard for me explain without getting teary eyed. She's had a different assistant on each of our four births as she is constantly mentoring younger midwives in the art, science, and ministry of midwifery. We've been blessed to share her with a number of friends who have investigated home births and most of them have chosen to let Debi assist them in theirs. I just can't say enough about Debi and midwifery in general. They are such servants...so submissive to the mom and desiring to let God, the mom's body, and the baby rule the day. No hurry, no outside concerns, no nothing other than focusing on loving and serving the mom and baby. I could go on and on. Anyway...here's another traditional picture we love...the after glow!




(Sorry for my hair)











Nan also is pretty pumped. 7 grandchildren in less than 8.5 years. 5 boys, 2 girls, 1 more due in October and 1 in heaven with Jesus hanging out with my Dad.






The world's longest blog post will be continued a bit later...