Meet the Favela, Barston, and Smolinski Families. Although their young children are all at different stages in life, these three families have a lot in common—never-ending love, patience, and laughs.
[00:00]
[GRAPHIC OPEN]
BELLA: OK. Oh. Oh.
RENE: Oh.
OFF SCREEN: Congratulations.
BELLA: Take pictures.
RENEE: It was kind of like everything was running in fast motion.
AARON: It was, like, in slow-motion.
SUZIE: It was not what I had pictured it was going to be.
STEVE: It's like a dream that you can really remember, though.
RENE: As soon as we got in front of the emergency room, she opened the door and flew out. I was going to walk around and open the door.
BELLA: I'll see you upstairs.
RENE: She's screaming "Go park the car."
AARON: The baby's heart rate dropped really low, so the, all the nurses came in, and our family was in there.
LAUREN: It was, like, panic.
AARON: And she wasn't dilating.
[01:00]
STEVE: Meanwhile, I'm holding a leg, and the doctor is sitting in the chair.
AARON: If things don't progress in the next hour, we're going to have to come in and give you a C-section.
BELLA: All you see is, like, silence.
AARON: The lights were off, and we had the birth music on.
LAUREN: I'm, like, sleeping.
AARON: It's nice, she checks, she goes "All right, you ready?" We're like, "What? Whoa. What do you mean?"
LAUREN: We're like, "What happened?" She's like, "Something good happened."
AARON: We're going.
BELLA: Is her head out yet?
NURSE: Not yet.
RENE: She asked, is the baby's head out yet? I looked over, I'm like, "Oh boy." Not even a pinky is out yet, and she's asking if the baby's head is out yet.
LAUREN: Yeah, honey, look, you want to see? It's so cool. And he's like, down there, and into it, and everything.
BELLA: I was focused. I was like, OK, I'm going to have this baby, I'm going to be OK. I had no meds, no epidural.
BELLA: Ahh.
SUZIE: We were laughing, and everything was normal, and then all of a sudden, bam, your whole life changes.
STEVE: Yeah, here comes this crying baby.
AARON: It's etched into my brain. That was the first time I was scared for the rest of my life. You know, if that makes sense.
BELLA: At that very moment, I was becoming that mother that I had anticipated being for such a long time.
[02:00]
STEVE: So Leo popped out, and I immediately felt like a father.
SUZIE: There's this element of surprise, of what he looked like.
LAUREN: I just looked at him, and I was like, that's us.
BELLA: It was like we were a family, and it just felt so real. Like, it felt so good to, like, know that I had my family. We were complete.
[THE SMOLINSKI FAMILY]
AARON: Where?
LOGAN: Up there, on the lemon.
AARON: Right on the lemon?
LOGAN: Yeah, right there.
AARON: Let's see. Can you see him up there?
LOGAN: Wow, right there.
AARON: Right there?
LAUREN: We weren't even married yet, and I went through a year of chemotherapy and radiation. I had Hodgkin's lymphoma. He showed me how strong he is, of a person, and was my rock. If two people can make it through that - You know, we can do anything. Pretty much. Anything that life gives us.
[03:00]
AARON: She would have made it through that without me.
LAUREN: No. I wouldn't have.
[THE BARSTON FAMILY]
STEVE: Hey. Go get Mommy.
SUZIE: Come here. Look at that little monster.
SUZIE: The reason I wanted to have a baby with Steve, he was sort of known as the baby-whisperer among our friends, and he just seemed like the guy who would be a perfect dad.
STEVE: She?s so creative and dramatic. I thought she would, uh, which we, we have a, a little drama baby.
SUZIE: Yes, we do.
STEVE: A little theatrical boy.
[THE FAVELA FAMILY]
[03:58]
BELLA: For a whole lifetime now, I always envisioned the day I would have a baby. Um, and it made it that much more special because it was with my husband Rene. He's been my childhood sweetheart, you know, we've been together for such a long time, over twenty years from the time we dated to the time we actually have now been married.
RENE: She's an amazing mother, and I knew this back when we were dating. And this is exactly the reason why I wanted to be here at this moment with her.
BELLA: As a new parent, I have a million concerns on whether I'm doing things right or wrong.
[LEO SCREAMS]
SUZIE: We have sleep issues, we have food issues.
AARON: We're trying to potty train. I'm worried that we're not doing it right.
BELLA: Am I feeding her enough? Is she eating the right way?
SUZIE: Safety is always a concern.
STEVE: He can reach the top of the stove.
RENE: I don't want to see her sick. I don't want to see her with a rash, I don't want to see her with an earache.
LAUREN: And now with the baby on the way, things are going to get harder.
SUZIE: You know, a lot of it's instinctual, but a lot of it's not, I think, for, at least for us, it wasn't.
LAUREN: You know, every child is different. Every child?s going to have their own issues.
[05:00]
SUZIE: At every stage, there's new things you have to deal with, so every time you think you've mastered a challenge, a new challenge comes along.
[THE GROUP]
LAUREN: Having a group to discuss parenting issues is brilliant. I mean, I think that that's the best way, sometimes, to help resolve a lot of problems.
SUZIE: I think it?s nice to learn from someone else?s experience-
STEVE: Yeah.
SUZIE: And sort of have that older-sibling kind of thing.
STEVE: Look, Leo.
LAUREN: Hi.
BELLA: It?ll be interesting to, to learn more about them as parents, and seeing how we can learn from that.
[TITLE, LOGO, SPACE FOR TRAILERS]
[05:49]
[END OF EPISODE]
