Henry Carter Gilson--well worth the wait!

IT'S A BOY!!!

Only 12 days late, he's finally here and was definitely worth the wait. He weighed in at 9 lbs. 3 oz. and was 21 in long

First here's the pictures and then if you want to read the birth story you can scroll on down.

The smiles before the "fun" begins.

Smiling because the hard part is over.

The best daddy in the world.

Our little Henry.

Big brother Calvin.

Big brother Andrew.

Just chillin'.

Many of you know that the waiting game was drawn out very well with this little guy. Not due til Jan. 1st, we kept hoping for a 2009 baby but wanted things to unfold on their own without intervention. On Christmas morning, I woke up around 1 or so with light contractions hopeful but wanting things to wait until after our family Christmas dinner. By 4:30, I was finally able to fall asleep and unfortunately the contractions disappeared completely.

I had a dr.'s appt. on New Years' Eve where they could've induced, but we decided to let things hopefully take their course. A week later (Thurs., Jan. 7th) at my dr. appt., I had an ultrasound to make sure everything was looking o.k. and we had the dr. strip my membranes in hopes something would happen before our scheduled induction that Sat. My in-laws got to our house the day before and they were as ready as we were for this baby to come. Unfortunately, on the way home from my dr. appt., Glen started to not feel well and came down with a 101.7 fever that evening. Andrew had the same thing the day before which only lasted 24 hours so we figured we'd still be good to go on Sat. Mid-Friday afternoon when his fever was still hanging around, I sadly made the phone call to say that we'd have to delay our Sat. induction. My dr. told me to call on Mon. to schedule for sometime between Tues.-Thurs. Luckily nothing happened before then because Glen ended up being so sick that it wouldn't have been ethical for him to enter the hospital and he wouldn't have been able to even stand up to help during the delivery. I was ready to have my mother-in-law escort and keep me company if need be. So, Sat., Sun., and then Mon. I made the phone call expecting to go in on Tues. Nope, my dr.'s schedule was too full so we'd have to wait til Wed. So Wed. FINALLY came around and 6:30 a.m. we headed to the hospital. It still didn't feel real due to all the previous disappointments. Not until they had me hooked up did I feel like we were really going to have a baby.

7 a.m. we started the check-in process, inserting the iv (not hooked to anything so I could walk around during contractions), etc. 8:30, Dr. Hechtman came and broke my water (the only inducing my body apparently needed.) Glen and I took a walk around the hospital and around 9:00 the contractions started to come. We headed back to the room where the contractions picked up. That's when history repeated itself and 2 hours later and after 2 pushes at 11:04 a.m., a beautiful little boy entered this world. Of course we had a girl's name picked out, but were still undecided on a boy's name. (All of our children we chose to keep the gender a surprise til the birth but we usually had names ready to go.) So now that we new our baby was a boy, time to narrow down the choices. Sebastian, Logan, Henry and Ammon were among the ending contenders. Henry Carter was a big possibility, but we weren't sure it was fitting. So that night I called to ask the kids what they thought. Andrew was already sleeping so I asked Izzy if she liked the name Henry or Ammon. She quickly said Henry. Then I asked Alex (who was in the room) and I think that since she heard Izzy, she was quick to say Henry as well. All night I kept trying on the two different names. Glen ended up going home in the middle of the night due to a headache and the uncomfortable couch at the hospital so he heard his mom asking Andrew the next morning what his opinion was. Andrew was quick to say Henry as well. Later that morning, Alex saw Glen and said, "Daddy, where's Henry?" When Glen told me that story on the phone, that was the clincher. The kids had already decided so Henry Carter it is. It fits the royalty theme we've been sticking with for names (except Calvin but that's still a pretty fun name.) And that's your story little man. Welcome to our family Henry.