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Meet Arkansas's 2017 eclipse baby

Parker Layne Brown was born on Aug. 21, 2017, as the partial solar eclipse was passing through.

VAN BUREN, Ark. — Back in 2017, Erin and Joey Brown welcomed their baby girl Parker Layne Brown. The catch: she was born on August 21, 2017, at 1:21 p.m., right as the partial eclipse was passing through Van Buren. 

"She was born during an eclipse, but that had nothing to do with what just made her special to us," Erin said. "I just remember thinking 'everyone had been talking about that day for so much like the August 21 It's gonna be such a once in a lifetime thing.'"

Erin was scheduled to be induced the day after the eclipse, but the hospital asked them to come a day early. 

"We thought 'Oh, it's going to be quiet, we're gonna get to look at the eclipse through the window,'" Erin said. "Right before 1:00, it was about to be eclipse time, and they had checked me, and I was just dilated to a four."

20 minutes later, she had the baby. 

"All of a sudden, I was like, I think I'm gonna about to have the baby," Erin said. "The eclipse was happening, and we had the doctor in, and the nurses, and Joey, all barely made it, and she was born." 

"You hear all the time about like, full moons and stuff like that causing kids to act crazy," Erin added. "I thought something is going on with the with the earth." 

Seven years later, Parker is in kindergarten, loves to play dress up, and has three siblings. 

"She's the sweetest," Joey said. "She's funny, silly, quiet, and smart," Erin added. 

Both Erin and Joey were a little distracted when the eclipse came through in 2017, but this year it's a different story. They're planning to watch it with their family of six.

"We're going to keep them home from school and just get to sit out together and see what it looks like," Erin said. "We're super excited to get to see it for the first time."

Their 18-month-old daughter Autry also has a special birthday.

“It's funny because she's a Leap Day baby,” Erin said. “We talk about how for every fourth birthday we'll have a special birthday, so every solar eclipse we'll have to have a special birthday for Parker," Erin said back in 2017. 

Parker will definitely have the perfect fun fact to share. 

"We have some people that call her the moon baby or the eclipse baby," Erin said. "She didn't even know until recently that she was the eclipse baby."

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