Hannah commented that I was permitted a lapse in posting, as long as I don't fail to give proper notice when our little girl arrives in a few weeks. I'm sure that won't be a problem - in the ecstatic glow after birth, I generally write up several pages of a birth story, and this time probably won't be any different. But in the meantime, I also thought I shouldn't fail to give homage to another birth, in which my sister Mary K. produced a snugglekins of a little girl just last week.

Welcome to the world, Lucca!

(That's her dad's chest, by the way!)

She was born at home, arriving well after her due date and weighing in at 9 pounds, both factors which would have had doctors itching to induce, and thus likely robbing my sister of the peaceful birth I believe she experienced. So it's primarily for that reason I am so glad she was able to be at home. But really more than that, I am thrilled that Mary K. had the opportunity to become educated about birth before having her first baby, so that when the time came, she was able to know what she wanted and to make her own choices, and I'm proud of her for having the confidence to trust in those choices, wherever she might have chosen to have her baby. Not many of us are able to do that at the very beginning of our mothering experiences; most of us have had to learn things the hard way. My own journey has been a long winding one over ten years, covering a variety of birth experiences as it has led me to where I am now on the birth spectrum. Despite the fact that there were things I would have done differently for those births early in the journey, I do value being able to relate to moms and their different birth experiences, as well as being able to look at my sister and her delicious pink bundle and feeling so relieved for her that both of them were spared those effects of medically managed birth that I really do regret. (Episiotomy - need I say more???)

But I do not mean to wax too philosophical here. We are just so happy to have this new niece and cousin, and the kids, who prayed faithfully for her safe arrival, were very excited to meet her the very same day she was born.

Here's the oldest and the youngest of my parent's grandchildren, girls nearly ten years apart.

And the boys waiting their turn....

And Amita enjoying a snuggle (I am NEVER called Aunt Anne). Did I mention this baby is snuggly?