We spent Saturday afternoon at Bounce U for my nephew Owen’s birthday.  My sister Rebecca was not there, she was resting at home and had been having contractions all morning.  On Labor Day, she was having good, strong contractions and was a little disappointed when they stopped cold leaving her dilated at 3 for the past 2 weeks.  Rebecca’s son Shawn and husband Robi were with us at the birthday party yesterday.  Rebecca called me around 3:30 to say her contractions had been 10 minutes apart all morning… (sound familiar?)  But they had just jumped to 3 minutes apart and were getting stronger.  Her midwife was on the way.  I asked if she wanted her husband Robi and son, Shawn home.  She said, “Not yet.  I am just letting you all know.  It could take a while.”  I talked to Robi and he said he had just received a text from her too.  We kept playing and bouncing and went in for cake and ice cream.  

The party ended at 5.  I loaded Alex, Zak, Leah and Lucy in my car.  Robi stopped me and said, Rebecca had called and she felt like this labor was going much faster than Shawn’s.  He was heading straight home and he asked if Shawn could come with me.  I loaded Shawn in my car and finally loaded Lucy’s power wheelchair on the back.  We got to my house around 5:30.  The older kids unloaded and ran downstairs to play video games.  Lucy “babysat” Shawn, reading stories to him and letting him play the ukelele for her.  Around 6:30 Shawn, started saying, “Mommy!  Mommy? Mommy!”  I teasingly answered “Yes?”  Lucy told him, “My mommy is the only mommy here.”  We had just started watching the movie “Robots” and Shawn, looked at me and said, “The baby is crying!” This caught me off guard, then I realized the baby Robot had been put together and had started crying.  When he said, “The baby is crying,” I reached for my phone.  It was now 6:40 and I realized I didn’t have my phone on me, it was plugged in to the charger.  I ran down the hall (sound familiar) to my bedroom and saw that at 6:40 I had missed two calls from Robi!  I called him back and heard a baby crying in the background!   “Is that your baby?”  I asked in disbelief.  “Yeah,” he answered, “It’s a boy!”  I ran back to the TV room, “It’s a boy!  Rebecca had a boy!!”  Lucy was thrilled, Aaron was shocked and Shawn seemed confused.  I loaded Shawn in my car and we talked about the baby.  At first he just said, “No baby.”  I explained again, that now his family was mom, dad, Shawn and baby.  To which he insisted, “No baby.  Baby cries!”  He had seen Asher a few days earlier and did not like the whole crying part.  I told him, “Babies cry and babies sleep and babies nurse and babies poop and pee and that’s pretty much it.  Sometimes they cry and sometimes they are quiet.  Let’s go to your house and see your mom and dad.”  “And baby!” Shawn reminded me.  

Rebecca looked beautiful and relieved, she said her hips no longer ached, she felt great.  When we came in she was already nursing her 9 lbs 8 oz baby boy.  He takes the title for the heaviest baby born into our family so far.  He is 21.75 inches long.  Rebecca had her second successful water birth at home.

Shawn meets baby brother

Brand New Baby Boy