Born March 4, 2010, we welcome Jesse Wallace Dowd as the 7th member of our family.  Born at 7:20 pm, he weighed in at 8 pounds and 3 ounces.  Stacy went into labor at 5:10 am when her water broke. 

She woke me to assist.  It had already been a long day, since I had been up late working, and awoke in the middle of the night to take care of Ruby, (almost 4) who comes to our bed in the middle of the night.  By my best groggy estimations, I had about 3 and a half hours of sleep.  The day unfolded as follows (exerpts cut from my facebook page):

5:50 am - begin filling birth tub, Mid Wife and crew en-route. (am I really facebooking all of this? man, times have changed over the last 4 years)

6:15 am - birth tub is assembled, and filling. Its nice to have an assistant with these kinds of things, Thanks Bryan for being a big kid!

6:57 am - Stacy is brewing the after birth herbal bath... cloves and other herbs. She has also been on the phone with several folks... chatty catty! All the kids are awake and Ruby thinks that we might be having a boy or a girl... not very happy that I suggested the possibility of a spider monkey or a puppy.

7:25 am - Midwife arrives. gear loaded in from her jeep. I think she bought a 4 X 4 just so she could make it up the mountain just in case there was a snow storm. :)

8:20 am - everything is ready. Bryan is on phone duty, alerting people everywhere that Stacy is in labor. Birth tub has drained the hot water heater... so we are letting that charge up again.

8:39 am - Bryan is baking cookies (most of which, I will eat :) ) The midwife (Hannah) has left to run some errands, but will return.

12:55 pm - progress has slowed... very few contractions. We have napped, to conserve strength and recover rest lost from waking so early. I will keep posting as things unfold

1:53 pm - while she made home made pizza in the kitchen, and swept up a bit... I crashed on the couch. sounds pretty bad, I know. She took a picture... I am sure you will all see it. I think I was up too late, got up too early, and had to get up some time in the middle to take Ruby to the bathroom. I am working on very little sleep today :) Plus, I may have sugar crashed from a large dose of chocolate chip cookies that Bryan made this morning. Home births are pretty cool!

4:17 pm - third big contraction has hit just after I returned from the store. Contractions are still spread out, but starting to get stronger.

4:48 pm - two more contractions since the 4:17 contraction... looking like about every 10 minutes now.

5:09 pm - 2 more contractions... maintaining about a 10 minute span... they are intense... and yes, we are calm about it. It is our 5th time through this, after all. :)

5:46 pm - midwife and assistant have returned / arrived. Stacy is in high spirits... following each contraction with a "YAY!!!" Expect some photos soon...

6:34 pm - Contractions are stronger... closer together. a third assistant has arrived. Hannah, Katrina and Giedra (sp) are the midwives. Stacy is preparing to enter the birth tub... here we go!

6:40 pm - 5 or 5.5 cm dialated and 100% effaced.

7:20 pm - Jesse Wallace Dowd is born.

The Boy is flawless as far as I can see.  He bares the name Jesse, (which was my birth name, changed to Jeffrey when I was adopted by by father), and Wallace, which is Stacy's maiden name, a descendent of William Wallace.  I am proud of Stacy for her deliberate engaging of the birth.  She never thought that she couldn't do it, She welcomed every contraction as a step closer to the birth, and she welcomed Jesse with the usual hollar of pain and elation. 

Jesse has 2 older brothers and 2 older sisters, making him the gender tie breaker in the house.  Boys win!

Special thanks to the well wishes from all of our friends and family, you should all know that mother and child are doing splendidly, and we are all basking in the glow of yesterday's miricle.  God Bless!