Introducing... (Archer's Birth Story)

Archer James Leishman
8 pounds 4 ounces

March 20th 2018

He is here!  This little boy has been much anticipated by mom, dad, and big brother.  This pregnancy was not that easy for me.  I was tired, sick, and extremely uncomfortable the entire time.  I also had heart problems in the beginning which led to me wearing a heart monitor for a while, and had a few trips to the hospital before the birth.
But, the day arrived that baby boy was to finally be in our arms.  The labor was an experience, but our nurse was so fun and nice.  This was her first baby delivery back since she had her own baby so it was fun to talk about new babies and it was easy to connect with her.  Things were pretty relaxed through the early labor, excpet lot of doctors were in and out, apparently there weren't a lot of babies born that day so people were bored.
My epidural was really scary!  Epidurals have always freaked me out, but not as much as a natural birth.  So I asked for an epidural as soon as we got checked into our room.  It was really bizarre because there were three people who came in for my epidural and I'm pretty sure the person who actually did it was a student.  While he was doing the procedure the other two doctors were observing and making comments like 'Woah woah, slowly' and 'I wouldn't do it like that', so you know, super comforting.  Well, the 'doctor' finally finished and one of the other doctors told me 'we are going to do an adrenaline test just to make sure that he got the needle into the right spot and not into your blood stream.  Don't worry, this almost never happens but if he got it in the wrong spot you will start to feel your heart racing and like you want to jump up and run around.  Again this almost never happens."  Guess what folks!?  He got it in the wrong spot and I started feeling light headed and my heart racing.  So, lucky me got to have the epidural redone.  Second time he got it in the right spot but it didn't numb me completely, but I was done!  I was on oxygen for a little bit to calm down and at this point I didn't know what scared me more, having them readjust the epidural or just feeling some pain during birth.
I had my epidural in and I was progressing well.  At one point Luke was on the phone with my mom, who had flown in that day to watch Truman, and I felt like I peed myself so I called in the nurse and they said that my water had broke.  They broke it all the way and soon it was finally time to push and meet my sweet little angel!  Labor was amazing, eight minutes of pushing and there was my little boy, my miracle baby.  That moment when your baby enters the world is so magical, time freezes to welcome that sweet little spirit.  The time didn't stop for long enough, though, before everything was in fast forward.  I held my sweet baby for about 30 seconds before he was taken from me.  He was grunting which is a sign that he isn't getting enough oxygen.  They took him to the little incubator in the room and soon the room was full.  The magic was gone.  I lay there completely helpless, in the most vulnerable position possible as more than 13 people came in to examine my baby.  MY baby who I haven't even had a chance to hold properly.  They decided to take him to the NICU, Luke asked me what to do and I told him not to leave my baby's side.  I just laid there in bed being sewn up feeling helpless.  Soon, the room that was full of love and excitement, then worry and people was then empty.  I laid there alone.  In a dark room all by myself.  I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know how my baby was doing or when I would be able to see him again.  I was told by my doctor that he was where he needed to be and that he would be taken care of, but all I wanted was to hold him.  It's a horrible feeling spending nine months waiting and dreaming about this moment and then suddenly you are alone.
Finally I got an update from Luke, they had taken Archer to the NICU and put him on oxygen and I would be able to see him soon.  Once I was cleared to leave Labor&Delivery I was wheeled down to meet my little guy.  Luke said all the nurses in the NICU kept calling him 'the fat baby' because even though he was tiny to us he was out weighing all of the other babies by a good 6 pounds.  He was also strong, they would try to put the oxygen tube in his nose and he would pick up his head and turn it away.  Even though meeting my baby for the first time was not the fairy tale I had imagined I was so grateful that he was so strong, that he was full term and 'the fat baby', sitting a room with all of those buzzers, alarms, beeps and all of those little babies who were truly fighting really put everything into perspective.  We did have a healthy baby, he just needed a little extra help getting the oxygen he needed.  He had to stay in the NICU for 24 hours to monitor his oxygen levels, and I was only able to see him every so often and every time I held him they had to rearrange cords and tubes. After his stay he was transfered to the transition nursery for abut 6 hours to make sure he could sustain his oxygen levels on his own, that's where his proud big brother got to see him for the first time, through a window. Archer was finally released and we were reunited to cuddle and love on him as much as we wanted without any cords or tubes or wires.  He looked pretty beat up since they kept trying to get an IV into him at different parts of his body and failed and he had big remarks where they took off the stickers that held in his oxygen tube, but still he was beautiful, he was perfect, and he was mine.

Truman finally got to meet his brother, properly.  I don't know who was more excited for Archer to get here, us parents or Truman.  The entire pregnancy Truman talked about his baby, he would hug and kiss my growing belly, he would tell random people about his baby in Mama's tummy and he would constantly ask 'is the baby coming out' whenever we would go to a doctors appointment.
The name Archer James came from Luke.  As we were throwing around names he kept suggesting Archie.  I did not like the name Archie, I still don't.  Finally he suggested Archer and I kind of liked it.  We kept suggesting other names but we kept coming back to Archer whenever we were referring to the baby, so it just eventually stuck.  James is Luke's middle name.  We also liked the nickname AJ.  It has some special meaning because my mom often goes by AJ.
Luke is my hero.  He fought for his baby from second one.  He spent all his spare time watching over his little boy, gathering as much information as possible, reporting back to me every detail about Archer and wheeling me to and from my baby at all hours.  We fought for this baby, we struggled for this baby, we waited and waited for years for this baby and he was finally here and nothing was going to stop us from being with him.
So welcome to this world our sweet Archer James, you sure gave us a run for our money but you are so totally worth it.