Kindergarten Graduate

 (June 2018)

Oh sweet boy!

I cannot believe kindergarten is over.

He has grown so much this year.

He is quite the reader and enjoys math.

Miles received the "Beyond the Limits" award.

He and four others in his class were given this award.

It was given to those who showed huge strides and worked really hard.

It was so fun to have grandma in town who was able to see Miles on his last day of school too.

After the awards assembly we went home to let Miles nap for a couple of hours.

 (He wasnt feeling good- he was barfing all day the day before and had a fever. Poor buddy! 

But you CANT miss the last day of kindergarten!!!)

After his nap and some toast we back to his school for his individual class performance and awards.

OH.MY.WORD. 

It was darling.

 

They sang the sweetest songs,

with the sweetest hand gestures !

 

They read their poems about why they are important...

...nd recieved a classroom award.

Miles was voted and awarded

First Class Friend by his class.

Well take that over class clown any day.

We hugged his teacher Mrs Marion goodbye.

We loved her so.

She pushed Miles out of his comfort zone constantly and we really appreciated that about her.

He leaves Kindergarten at a mid first grade reading level.

We are so proud of Miles.

After his class program we came home where he fell asleep again for HOURS

(well all of us crashed...have I mentioned how tired we are with a new baby!??!?!)

but woke up the next day feeling so much better and ready for summer to start!

Lots and Lots of cuddles

(May 2018)

We are so tired, and are trying to stay afloat.

Why are babies exhausting yet they sleep almost thee entire day?

School is almost over and were just trying to get through the end of the year.

We are paper plating, mircowaving and trying to make life as simple as possible.

We may ALL be tired but there is one thing we still have energy to do...

and that is cuddle and love on our baby brother!!

Miles is obsessed with Lane.

He wants to hold him all the time.

He is fast to get his pacifier for him.

He sings to him.

He calls him "little buddy"

 

I have been surprised how well Andie has been doing with the shift from little sister to big sister.

She asked to hold him a hand full of times and has been a good little helper.

She is quick to get diapers, and burp clothes for us and we appreciate how fast her legs go!

These two kids have welcomed their baby brother into their tribe with open arms!

 

We are all very excited to have Lane in our family.

I really do cherish these little moments.

I know they go by fast.

We are all so in love around here

(have I mentioned how tired we all are?)

Delivery Day Part III

The lawyer came to our room the night of the birth and needed a name for all the legal paperwork.

We still weren't ready to decide.

We had him go see Christy to do all her paperwork first while we hashed it out.

We kept going back and forth between two names and 

just blurted out LANE when the lawyer came back.

So....

Lane Benson he shall be.

 

 We finally had a name!

AND we finally texted our family and friends a picture and introduced our caboose.

The hospital was awesome!

They were very aware of the surrogacy situation and already had a room for Romney and I that the hospital comps for all intended parents.

It was so nice.

We got to experience sleeping in an uncomfortable bed, have endless food service and have the nurses who come in every hour to check vitals in the middle of the night.

We even had the pleasant opportunity of having a nurse who turned on the lights at 3:00am and wanted to chat about her upbringing in Southern California.

 Oui, that was rough.

BUT, honestly it was such a treat to be in the hospital and experience all these firsts with our baby.

We were so tired...physically and emotionally.

It had been a LONG 24 hours.

But we were oh so grateful.

goodbye and hello

When we left the hospital we went straight to Christy and Gabes where I got to shower and Christy snuggled Lane.

We sat together and had a good cry over our journey.

We both experienced things together and separately that no one will fully understand.

We were so sad to say goodbye.

This huge chapter in our lives was closing and we were sad to let that go.

We exchanged a long hug with lots of tears and we left for our hotel.

Romney and I were so thankful for all the alone time we had with Lane.

Yes, we missed our family and friends and could NOT wait for all to meet him

but it was pretty special to be just us for a minute.

We didn't have a crib at the hotel, so we made him one out of the dresser drawer.

We were more than ready to get home and see our babies!

Lane did great on the plane and even the flight attendant gave Lane a shout out over the intercom as being the youngest passenger she'd ever flown with!

(he was 2 days old)

When we got home, we were greeted by two kids in the driveway with open arms!

We were bombarded with hugs, kisses and more hugs.

We came inside and the kids fell in love.

And here we all are, all FIVE of us

finally under one roof!

This was the plan for our family all along.

Each of our kids have come to us in the most miraculous way.

We have had to go great lengths to get them here.

Each of them have been worth it.

I would not trade any of it.

These are my people.

 My heart is full.

Delivery Day part II

 Within minutes of baby boys birth, he was put on my chest for skin to skin.

I whispered "thank you for letting Miles and Andie come first" to this special boy.

It was then I entered baby heaven. 

I just sat there and held this baby fresh from heaven for almost an hour.

We quickly facetimed our babies at home to show them their new baby brother.

It was perfect.

 After an hour of he and I cuddling we needed to get some stats.

He came in weighing in at 6 pounds 15 ounces 

He was a tiny thing.

Finally....

 Romney had his turn and just admired our handy work.

And got to feed him 

Both Christy and Gabe held him and loved on him.

 We couldn't stop starring at him.

We loved all his hair and tiny body.

 We loved his eyes.

It really was love at first sight.

 After everyone loved on him, I went and sat next to Christy and we both couldn't believe what just happened.

She asked us what we decided to name him and we answered with  "we don't know"

 We still needed a name but we didn't care.

Our 8 year old frozen embryo was here.

He was indeed a miracle.

Delivery Day Part I

We flew up to Idaho on the the 15th of May with the idea that Christy was going to be induced on the 16th.

That was the plan all along, BUT the hospital was packed and there was no room for us.

Talk about a huge let down.

So, to pass time, Christy and I went and got pedicures and Romney and Gabe (christys husband) went mountain biking.

The morning of the 17th Christy called the hospital and there was ONE room available. 

They said if we hurried, we could have that room and to hope no one went into labor before we got there.

So we hurried!

We dropped Christy off at the door to run in while we parked and gathered all of our bags.

Her doctor was waiting for her and took her straight back and skipped the check in process to ensure we got that room!!

We were all determined to have this baby!

They got her hooked up to the IV and the heart monitor.

The doctor checked her to get a base line of where we were starting.

And to all of our surprise she was dilated to a 4.

(she was only a 1 two days earlier)

The doctor came in every 1-2 hours checking in on her.

The second time he came in Christy hadn't made much progress, so, he broke her water and wanted her on the birthing ball.

Once the ball came into play, her contractions were coming on stronger.

When she was dilated to a 6 she was ready for an epidural.

Bless her heart.

The nurse came in around 12:00 saying that the doctor thought she'd be having the baby by 1:00.

 We were all kinda shocked because he hadn't checked Christy since she was at at 6, and how did he really know?

But just incase he was right, Gabe took everyones order and ran to chick-fil-a so we could hurry and eat before things got crazy.

Dr. West came in around 12:45 and looked at the heart monitor and said "usually when we see this heart rhythm, the baby is ready...is Gabe here? Does he want to be here?"

We said he was on a food run.

Dr. West then checked Christy and sure enough baby was SO ready!

He said "don't sneeze or cough"

Christy called Gabe, I was thrown a hospital gown-- it was go time.

When I came out of the bathroom wearing my very pink gown Christy pointed to a chair right next to her bed and said

"here's your chair"

I wasn't expecting to get front row!

It was really happening!

Baby boy was almost here but we had to wait for one more person.

 We waited for Gabe who was running through the hospital halls with chick-fil-a bags.

He literally rushed in, threw the food to the side and was ready to support his wife who was about to give birth one last time.

In one and a half contractions Baby Boy was born.

He was tiny.

He was perfect.

I had never witnessed a birth before.

It was a calm room full of love.

The first cry was the purest of sounds I had ever heard.

The umbilical cord was the most beautiful coloring of blue and silver I'd ever seen.

As soon as the umbilical cord was done pulsing and loosing its gorgeous coloring, Romney got the privilege of cutting it.

It was truly an honor to be in that room.