Happy Mother's Day & Further Details on Birth

Here's a shot of the family - Chelsea, Mom, Aimee, Zachary & Dad. Happy Mother's Day!

Some side-notes regarding our delivery:

Interestingly, Zach was born "in caul" or in his amniotic sac. When the amniotic sac has not ruptured during labour or pushing, the infant can be born with the membranes intact. This is referred to as "being born in the caul." It was really cool to see as the midwife basically brushed away the caul from Zach's face and the fluid just kind of poured out. He cried out within seconds clearing his lungs and ready to take on the world.

According to healthlink.mcw.edu, Dwight Cruikshank MD, Professor and Chairman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Medical College of Wisconsin states that being born with or in a caul is rare, probably occurring in fewer than 1 in 1000 births, and that he has seen fewer than 10 babies with a caul over the life of his career.

In medieval times the appearance of a caul on a newborn baby was seen as a sign of good luck. It was considered an omen that the child was destined for greatness. Other cultures state that a baby born in caul would never drown at sea, still others see such a baby as a healer. We, of course, are not so supersticious but recognize the uniqueness of the birth and are grateful for how healthy he is. I personally think he could be a wide receiver or maybe a running back.

When it comes down to it - any birth seems a miracle to us and we are thanking God for blessing us with our third child!

Also of interest, Zachary shares a birthday with his uncle Kyle and my aunt Betty Ann. We are hoping to connect with both Grandmas today and some family as well.

Regarding the names we have chosen - we actually had picked out Zachary Shane way back when Chelsea arrived into our family, and of course had it as an option when Aimee entered our world. You will of course notice the similar sounding ending but unique spelling of each - also very intentional.

If you want to find out the meaning behind your name check out this site: http://www.behindthename.com

Zachary is the English variant of the Hebrew name זְכַרְיָה (Zekaryah) which meant "YAHWEH remembers."

Shane is an English variant of John or Iohannes, which was the Latin form of the Greek name Ιωαννης (Ioannes), itself derived from the Hebrew name יוֹחָנָן (Yochanan) meaning "YAHWEH is gracious."

We just really liked how the names flowed and the meanings happen to connect as well.