Celine's Baby: The PEOPLE Report

By Stephen M. Silverman

05/29/1998 at 12:00 AM EDT

After years of publicly wishing for a child -- and enduring an intensive round of in vitro fertilization treatments to conceive -- Celine Dion, 32, and her husband-manager, René Angélil, 59, welcomed 6-lb. 8-oz. René-Charles on Jan. 25, three weeks before his Valentine's Day due date. Tracking the cesarean section delivery (in which the pop diva endured 18 hours of labor), PEOPLE reports in its latest cover story that after proud papa Angélil helped cut the cord, René-Charles was placed in his tearful mother's arms before being washed and wrapped in a hospital-issue outfit. The next morning, reports the magazine, Dion took to the phone ("I had a boy!" she announced to Manhattan fertility specialist Dr. Zev Rosenwaks, who had administered her IVF treatment back in May) and made a careful inventory of her new baby's features. "He has René's little feet, René's toes and the little ears of René," she told her mother, Thérèse Dion, 73. "He has my chin, though, and my hair color." And as for dad's role in all this, "He was up for every feeding during the night," maternity nurse Helene Schilian told PEOPLE, "making sure the baby got fed every three hours." And yes, Schilian added, "He changed diapers."