Sweet baby Abby!

Most people that know me, know who my friend Sara is. Her husband Ben was Randy's roommate at the Riv and they quickly became best friends. Inseparable. Ben is English but was raised in Boston and now his parents live back in London. His accent is amusing. :) After he got home from his mission and was waiting to go back to BYU he met Sara (in London). We got engaged the same weekend Ben and Sara did. I had only met her once because she was living in London but I immediately liked her. We got married 5 months before they did because y'know... we weren't dealing with the whole "one of us lives on another continent" issue. I only saw Sara the once when they got engaged and then I actually didn't see her again until they had been married for 4 months. They got married in England and the plan was to honeymoon and then come back to Provo so Ben could go to school. Well, things got messed up with Sara's green card and she had to wait in London for 4 MONTHS before she could make the permanent move to the US. Can you imagine? During that time Sara was living with Ben's parents and Ben was living in their apartment in Provo... by himself. It was hard for Ben and we had him over a LOT during that time. He actually even came to our ward for a while since he didn't want to start going to his new married ward and explain why his new wife wasn't there. Haha!

Anyway. A couple of months after Ben and Sara got married we found out we were pregnant. I remember Ben was still in England because Randy texted him and said "Dear Ben. DaNae is pregnant, please come home." HAHAHA. He's lucky I have a sense of humor (even when pregnant). I actually thought it was pretty hilarious, myself. Well after Ben had been in the States for a month he found out that Sara was expecting as well. In London. And she was very sick. Poor Ben had a hard time thinking about his newly pregnant wife and not being able to be there for her. Well you can imagine these feelings were magnified when he got the news that Sara was miscarrying. She was 12 weeks. They were devastated. I was devastated. I was still pregnant with Macey and wasn't sure how it would be for her to see me when she was finally able to move here. I really think Sara is a Saint. She was SO excited for me and Randy, even though I knew she must have been hurting terribly. She was so involved with my pregnancy and when Macey was born. She was genuinely happy for us and still has such a special relationship with Macey.

A year or so after Macey was born Sara had another miscarriage. It was heartbreaking, especially because the specialists were telling her that she would need to have 3 miscarriages before she could be seen. They made it sound like well, all you have to do is get pregnant again. Easy peasy. Sadly, easier said than done for a LOT of people. When I was about 12 weeks pregnant with Collin, Sara told me she was pregnant again. I was the one that actually forced her to take the test. :) We were all hoping and praying that it would stick, but sadly, it didn't. She miscarried at 13 weeks. Again, I was so scared of how she would handle watching me be pregnant and deliver a healthy child. Again, she was so enthusiastic and involved. I really don't know how she does it.

When Collin was 9 months old Sara confided in me that she was pregnant again. But this time the doctors were involved and had her on lots of pills, hoping that they would do the trick. We were all extremely nervous as the time went on, especially once she hit that 12 week mark because that is when she usually miscarried. But she kept going strong. The baby's heartbeat was always really strong and everything seemed to be going great. Her whole pregnancy I think we were all holding our breath. It was so surreal, Sara was finally pregnant and it was sticking! At 20 weeks she found out it was a girl... secretly I knew that she was hoping for a girl. :) The time flew by and before we knew it, Sara had her sweet baby girl Abby Sophia! She was a week overdue and absolutely miserable. Her Mom had flown in from London a week prior. She went in to be induced and ended up in a scary situation where an emergency c-section was needed because the baby's heart rate kept plummeting (cord was wrapped around her neck). Abby had a hard time breathing at first so spent a couple of hours in the NICU but is now just fine and SO PERFECT!! I cried when I saw her at the hospital. I have spent 5 years with Sara talking and planning and decorating for their first baby.

Here is sweet Abby Sophia, 6 lbs 13 oz and 19 inches long and proud "mum" Sara!

  

Baby feet are one of my favorite things! Poor Miss Abby was getting mad at me because I kept holding her feet!

 Macey has been looking forward to this day for a long time as well. She asked Sara if she could be Abby's babysitter. :)

Wow, that was a really long post! Sara is not a whiner or complainer. Most people didn't even know she was struggling with infertility and had so many miscarriages, so, since I am a whiner... I thought I would tell her story for her. :P Love you Sara!