Welcoming Henry

The weeks before welcoming Henry were filled with a long to-do list, and though we were all excited to meet our newest addition, and I was beginning to feel the "come-labor-or-high-water" end-of-pregnancy feelings, I had so much to accomplish.  But by the weekend, I finally felt like our little one could come now.  We were ready enough!

 Monday came and I went to my first-ever 39-week check up, looking forward to running errands alone :).  I found myself buying not only toilet paper at Target, but birthday and even Christmas presents.  I stocked up on essentials at the grocery store without really thinking about it.  I got home and determined that everyone needed clean sheets and made beds and spotless rooms and matching comforters.  In response to Lily's questions, I shared the definition of "nesting".  And then, about 4:00, my water broke at home.  This was not how I envisioned it happening.  I pictured it happening as it always has: in the middle of the night or wee morning hours, older children sleeping, waking our stand-by with a phone call, and not fielding questions from older-sibling on-lookers.  Oh well, it was handy to have them there to run and get daddy who was mowing the lawn :).

We called Shandy's aunt and she said she'd come right away.  Then she called back and said they had just discovered head lice the day prior and did we really want her to come (with her daughter)?  Well, not only did we not really have a choice, but we had also recently suffered through the Great Headlice Epidemic of 2014, so told her to come on over.  I was beginning to worry, with the phone tag and the not-hurrying-ness of my husband, that we were wasting precious time since my babies have all come quickly.  Intense car rides are not up there on my favorite list :).

As it turned out, we actually could have stayed at home for 2 1/2 more hours.  We arrived and nothing happened.  And nothing happened.  And nothing happened until about 7:00.  And nothing too intense happened until about 7:30.

 

And we welcomed Henry Jacob at 8:14pm on a perfect evening in August.  He weighed 8lb, 4oz, and was 21 1/2 inches long.  Perfect.  I was convinced we were having a girl (though I really did hope it was a boy - even teams!), so it was thrilling to hear the doctor announce that we were welcoming a boy!  And daddy - the only one to predict a boy - got to be right :).

Not long after he was born, we used FaceTime to tell the big kids, who were now at grandma and grandpa's house.  We offered them a chance for one last guess, and they responded with a chorus of "girl!".  To preface this, Mason had been holding out for a boy.  But about a month prior to Henry's arrival, he realized that if he never had a brother, then he would not have to share his toys.  So he changed his guess (but I think, like me, he secretly still really wanted a brother).  Upon our announcement that they had a baby brother, Nora loudly exclaimed,"Nooo!  We wanted a sister!"  We all laughed and reminded her that God had given us just what we needed.  Everyone was excited and wanted to come meet him that night, but we decided to wait until morning for that. 

Welcome, sweet baby Henry.  We love you so very, very much!