Yay! He’s out. Phew! I can sleep on my stomach again, which is clearly the most important point in this entire story. Want to see a picture (of the baby, not me sleeping on my stomach)? Meet our newest monkeyhead (as his Daddy has started calling him already), Henry George Shubin:

Henry was born yesterday evening (March 24th) at 5:26pm. This picture was taken this morning so he doesn’t look quite so much like he’s been in some sort of professional boxing match. If you’d like to see the rest of the pictures, they are here: Henry’s Birth Pics.

Henry’s a big boy! Did you see all the rolls he has in the birth pictures? Those are no lie. He weighed 9lbs 7 oz when he was born and is 22 inches long, all of which is much larger than our other kids (they were 7#5, 8#2, 8#9, 9#0, and 7#5).

Since I had been dilated to 3cm for at least a week before Henry was born and was pretty miserable, Patricia (the midwife) broke my water yesterday around 11am when she came over for my appointment. For the first couple hours not too much happened, which was pretty discouraging.

For the three nights prior, I had gotten very little sleep. I’d slept for about three hours, woken up and then couldn’t get back to sleep for the next three hours followed by maybe an hour and a half of maybe being able to sleep. So, after two hours of not-really-consistent contractions when I walked around that stopped when I sat down, I trudged upstairs to dejectedly take a nap for an hour.

This turned out to be a great idea! I had probably four contractions during nap and another four or five during the shower I took when I woke up. They were starting to get a bit harder (not really anything I’d classify as “hard labor” though) and closer together but still slowed down when I sat down to rest.

About four o’clock all the wishy washy contraction stuff was replaced by hmmm, I think I might be in transition contractions. Much more ouch, closer together, didn’t go away when I sat down ~ yep, time to get in the tub. An hour and a half in there and we had a baby. Yay!

Since we and the Shubins and a few other miscellaneous personnel had gone over to my parents’ house the night before for Easter, the kids had all been disbursed to grandparents’ houses. Everyone came back to meet the new baby and then took back off again to go back to where they came from. Faith and Kyra are still at George & Tanya’s (Hubby’s parents) until Thursday, and the older three kids came back home this afternoon. Having the little girls off is quite a relief and I think the older three are likely to be rather helpful.

I was just heading off for a nap when the big kids got home, and they were all thoroughly delighted to sit with Henry on the couch and watch a movie while I was upstairs. When I came back down, Trinity was holding him and looked quite content. When I left I had told them that if Henry fusses to run upstairs and tell Daddy and had reminded them that if they decided to hold him while they were on the couch to support his head. Trinity said that Henry fussed a bit so she picked him up and he settled right back down. I don’t think she particularly wanted to give him back when I came back downstairs.

Georgie, who has been asking for me to please have a baby brother for the last five years, managed to come down with a fever Sunday afternoon that continued through Monday morning. The midwife said he could come see the baby but shouldn’t hold him or breathe on him. We called Georgie before they came over from Grandma’s house and let him know so he wouldn’t be too disappointed, and I was so proud of how he handled himself! He didn’t complain or anything.

Today when he came home, he said that he had felt better all day today (which Grandma confirmed) and that he was kind of hoping he could maybe hold the baby today. Since when Trinity had the flu a week or two ago she had a fever one day, then nothing the next day, then a fever again the day after that, I was a bit concerned that Georgie might just be in between fever days. However, George and I discussed it and Georgie finally got to hold his new baby brother today. I don’t have the pics of that up yet, but I will in the next couple hours.

Here are a few more pictures for ya.
Note the rolls of chub (this was right after he was born):

And in case you were wondering how a 9lb 7oz baby possibly fits inside my belly (I’ve wondered that every time I look at my stomach in the last 24 hours), he smooshes up like this:

So who does Henry look like? His big brother, of course! Here he is next to the baby picture that they took of Georgie in the hospital right after he was born:

Rachel

CONGRATULATIONS!!! He’s SUPER cute! Lovin the chub rolls. Girl you amaze me with these big baby births! Can’t wait to hold him. I tried calling you but no one answered. I’ll try tonight or tomorrow morning when the natives are at school.

Hey Girl (and her hubby)!!
CONGRATULATIONS! Henry is a BIG boy! And he looks all Shubin! Well done!
Sleep well…..

Hugs, Teresa

Woo hoo!! Finally another boy! Congrats to all of you! It is fun to hear how things are going for you guys. I am glad he finally got here!

YIPPIE!! What a handsome Big Boy! Congratulations! Love the “how he fit” photo…. Cool!

Hey, wait… You did your make up for the birth!! SOOO smart!Looking Great!

Congrats!!! What a handsome son!! Great pictures of the birth. It was great to Patricia. She’s cut her hair since I saw her 6 years ago, nearly! I don’t think she was at Elizabeth’s birth but she was definitely at Stephen’s. She swaddaled him for me after he came out. She is a wonderful lady. Tell her hi from us. She might remember Maryl Smith more than she would remember my name. Blessings to you all!!!
Sleep well on that tummy of yours. Love, Pamela (and all us happy Hawkins for another Shubin baby boy!!)

Congratulations George & Rachel!!

He most certainly is a handsome little boy! the “how he fit” picture is adorable!

Blessings!

Hooray! So glad to know he is finally here! He is so cute, can’t wait to meet him! Congratulations!

Melanie

Thank you guys so much! Henry is doing great but is trying to mix up his days and nights on me. As soon as the milk shows up, we’ll have to straighten that back out (I think he’s getting impatient about that too, which doesn’t help either). I’m tired but have been sitting around doing virtually nothing like a good girl so recovery is going well. Have been eating more cookies than is really necessary…. (in addition to plenty of proper food).

Erica ~ looking forward to hearing from you. I was on the other line when you called before and the last couple days have been, well, life with a newborn. Call tomorrow, okay?

Lana ~ CoverGirl Outlast lipstick (lasts 12 hours), eyebrow pencil, and eyeliner make a really good makeup cheat that doesn’t all roll off your face when you’re in labor (like say, mascara) but somehow fools everyone into thinking you look great. Hehe.

Pam ~ I told Patricia hi for you guys and she remembers exactly who you are. She said she was there for Elizabeth too and was amused to see you in our wedding party photo we have on our wall.

Brenda ~ Congratulations on Arwen! I’m glad she wasn’t 9lb 13oz like the church email said. I was a bit worried when I saw that…

Rachel

Rachel … wrong Brenda … this is Aaron’s fiance … I guess i should have specified that to start with, sorry for the confusion …

WOW!! A handsome baby and a beautiful mom….how do you do it If I hadn’t seen you the day before I might have thought you just picked one up at the baby store. You should do a commercial for the make up company…”see how good you will look when you’ve just had a baby” You are amazing. Keep getting your rest and Congratulations
Blessings
Bev

Stevie and I send our congratulations! I love the picture of him folded up how he was inside of you. Doesn’t God have such a sense of humor to send our babies to us this way? All smooshed and wrinkly and slimy and cute!