The Meeting

She's Still Here

When we arrived at hospital, the baby was whisked away for checks, standard checks that we knew would have to happen. Leah was exhausted, her body slumped on the bed but the smile on her face hadn't disappeared. I sat on the chair beside her and gently stroked her hair, reminding her how proud I was, how much I loved her and promising to call her Mum once she had gotten some sleep. She drifted off mid sentence and I took the opportunity to call Amanda.

"Alex, it's 7am. What's wrong?" Amanda said, her voice echoing concern through the speaker of my phone.
"Nothing is wrong, is 7am too early to tell you that you have a granddaughter?" I said, smiling into my phone.

I was met with a few seconds of silence followed by an extremely emotional Amanda.

"A baby girl, a little baby girl. Are they both healthy?" She cried.
"Both absolutely fine. Leah is exhausted and baby is getting checked over. Thank you Amanda, thank you for letting me spend my life with Leah." I said, now getting emotional too.
"No, Alex. It's me who should be thanking you, you have given Leah a life that I don't think any of us thought existed outside of movies." She responded, still trying to talk through her happy tears.
"You better go tell David and Jacob, get yourselves up here." I said.
"We will be there as soon as we can. I love you." Amanda ended the call.

I began to call my Dad just as Leah rustled in the bed and said a groggy hello. She made grabby motions with her hands towards me. I sat on the edge of the bed as Leah wrapped her arms around my waist and placed her head on my side, checking the phone to see who I was calling and smiling when she saw 'dad'.

"Good morning daughter." My Dad said, clearly already up for work.
"Morning Dad, you ok?" I asked, laughing at how clueless he was.
"I'm good, you, Leah and bump ok?" My Dad asked.
"You can't call her bump anymore!" Leah excitedly shouted down the phone.
"Oh have you picked a - wait - is - does? She? Oh my god, I can't speak." My Dad said, his voice quivering.
"7lb 2oz, cries loudly and looks just like Alex." Leah said proudly.
"My beautiful girls. When can I come?" My Dad cried, unable to process anymore words.
"First flight, Peter. Get the first flight you can. She needs to meet her Granda." Leah said, tightly squeezing my waist as tears rolled down my cheeks.
"I'll book it now, I'm so proud of you both. Thank you Leah, thank you for making her happy." My dad spoke before ending the call.

I turned to peck Leah's lips, just as we were interrupted by the doctors wheeling our little girl into the room. They showed us how to do the typical things, feeding, nappy changes and winding. She was so tiny but had taken up so much space in my heart already. The doctors left us to have some family time, knowing this room would soon be busy with visitors who all wanted a glimpse of the little girl Leah and I had created.

— — — —

Once we managed to break away from the cuddles we were giving her, Leah and I FaceTimed Ellie and Lydia, their reactions were priceless as they answered the calls to see a tiny little baby on the other end. Ellie cried, a lot. Next up was Holly and Ben, who both argued over whether the baby looked like them or not. Dad had somehow managed to get a flight that was just an hour after our call, meaning that he got here just after Amanda, Jacob and David had arrived. They all took turns passing her around, placing small kisses on her head and introducing themselves. Jacob got emotional as he told her how he was her uncle and he would always be her best friend, making Leah even more emotional than she already was.

"We can't just keep calling her baby, are you two going to think of a name anytime soon?" Amanda asked.
"We only picked boys names, we were convinced she was a boy. I'll leave it up to Leah, as long as she's healthy." I said, genuinely meaning it that I didn't mind what we called her.
"Well I do have a name in mind but I don't know if you will think it's a silly idea, Al." Leah spoke, sounding a little reserved.
"I love all your ideas." I said, placing my hand into hers.
"Aoife. Aoife Williamson." Leah said, smiling at me.

I didn't say anything, I simply froze and felt a mountain of tears appear behind my eyes. As they began to roll down my cheeks, I saw my dad wiping his away too.

"My mum's name, Le? Are you sure?" I cried, my heart expanding once again with love for my wife.
"I hoped it would be a girl, I hoped we would be able to honour the woman that brought you into the world when we brought our little girl into our world." Leah smiled, stroking my thumb with hers.
"Aoife. It's been a long time since I've been able to say I love you Aoife to someone that isn't in the sky." My Dad cried out from the corner as he gazed down at the baby in his arms.
"She's still here, Dad. Both our Aoife's are." I spoke.

Everyone in the room began to laugh gently as we realised that there was not one of us that hadn't been crying. We spent the rest of the day in the comfort of each other. Amanda taught Leah and I some tricks she had picked up as we struggled with nappy changes, those things are the devil. After a few hours, it was back to just Leah, Aoife and I and as Aoife fell into a sleep, Leah patted the bed beside her softly. I climbed into her arms and rested my head on her shoulder.

"I love you, Le." I whispered.
"I love you too, Al. This is everything I ever dreamt of." Leah whispered back as she placed a delicate kiss on my head.
"I think I just fell even more in love with you, I didn't even know it was possible." I laughed.
"Seeing you hold her will forever be my favourite memory. I think I might possibly have torn the muscles in my cheeks from smiling." Leah laughed back.

I knew I would have to go soon, Leah had to stay for another night for observation but in this moment, no one could take the smile off my face. I lay on Leah's chest, tiredness overcoming my body but unable to fall asleep because my eyes were fixated on the perfect little bundle of joy that was asleep beside us.