Bouncing baby Bailey is Backus’ first arrival of 2018
Norwich — Bailey Eve Archuleta was scheduled to greet the world next week, but parents Amanda and Mark were at Backus Hospital at 5:30 Monday morning to meet their daughter, who arrived on New Year’s Day.
The Archuletas, who moved to Groton in October, said Amanda had pre-eclampsia with their son Jameson, now 16 months, and she had high blood pressure during this pregnancy. Her doctors had scheduled a caesarian section birth the second week of January but rescheduled for Monday morning and brought Bailey into the world at 9:08 a.m., and she measured 20 inches and weighed 7 pounds, 14 ounces.
WFSB reported the first Connecticut baby of 2018 was born just after midnight at Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital, and another was born at the Hospital of Central Connecticut at 12:04 a.m.
Amanda Archuleta said Bailey and Jameson looked nearly identical at birth, as Mark found their son’s birth photo in his phone for a comparison. Bailey’s eyes are gray, unlike Jameson’s brown hue, but Amanda said his eyes had changed color, so hers might too.
“We showed [the photo of Jameson] to my mom when she was here earlier and she was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good picture of her,’” she said. “I said, ‘That’s not her.’”
Before she got to meet her brother later Monday evening, Bailey had to get her shots and a bath, which Mark said she was not happy about. After that, though, he said she had been quiet, sleeping in her mother’s arms wearing a pink hat knitted by hospital volunteers.
“She’s a very happy baby,” Amanda said.