Archer Griffin Iverson

When Jenn woke me up at 5 a.m. telling me that she was having contractions and that we should get ready to go to the hospital, I did not believe her.  "Are you sure?  We're still more than two weeks before the due date!  And we've still got so much to do before this baby comes!"  Surprisingly, none of these arguments worked to convince her that she should not have this baby yet.

So, we packed up our things, took Henry and Ellis to a friend's house close to their school, dropped Sam off with the Seversons, and headed to the hospital.

From there, things moved pretty darn quickly:  We checked into the hospital around 8:00, they got us a room with a birthing ball (Jenn's favorite!) and we starting working on our mindful birthing techniques.  And when I say "we," I mean Jenn.  Just like when Sam was born, Jenn did this all natural, and she was totally amazing.  This time we didn't have a midwife with us full time, as they left us alone for about an hour.  By the end of the hour, it was pretty clear to me that things were progressing pretty quickly, so I ran out to grab someone.  They had a hard time tracking down the midwife who was supposed to do this delivery, so another one that was on duty came in, and within 10 minutes Archer was born!

This is now the second time that we've had a spectacular experience with natural birth, and I can't say how much I admire Jenn's bravery and ability to manage the pain and appreciate the process.  It was a beautiful birth.

Here are the key stats:

Due Date: 17 September 2015
Born: 2 September 2015 (15 days early) at 10:08am
Weight: 7 lbs. 8 oz.
Total time in labor: 6 hours
Total time at hospital before being born: 2 hours
Amount of pain medication Jenn took: None!
Health of baby: Perfect
Health of mother: Perfect
Hair: Dark, fine hair, just like Henry and Ellis had.  It will soon fall out to make way for the blonde!
First-name Namesake: By the time you have four boys, namesakes are hard to come by.  But we hope he will be straight and true like an arrow.

Middle-name Namesake: Griffin is Jenn's maiden name, and we wanted to name Archer after Jenn's dear Grandma Griffin who passed away earlier in the summer.  We hope Archer picks up some of her sweet nature.
What we will call him: Archer, Arch, Archie, Archibald, Baldy, Archer-roo, and pretty much any other permutation you can come up with.  But mostly just Archer.

And now, some hospital pictures:

Man, that's quite a family!

Henry, the old pro, showing his brothers how to hold the baby.

Sam, taking his turn for the first time!

Ellis and Archer

  

Time to leave the hospital and play with the Seversons!