DENVER — Members of the 9NEWS team welcomed eight new babies in just over a year -- including six in four months.
These babies -- including Riyaan, Keir (9 months), Connor (8 months), Pippa (8 months), Thomas (7 months), Summer (5 months) and Owen (2 months) -- are all equally perfect, perplexing and proof to a group of 9NEWSers that parenting is a lifelong search for answers.
Babies of 9NEWS
At the height of the baby boom, some of the first-time parents-to-be started a group text as a means to find community, advice and support in a situation none of them had experienced before. They shared product links, photos and milestones.
"It's just judgment-free," Keir's mom, executive producer Jen Soules, said. "'Here's what worked for me.' 'I'll send you an Amazon link.' 'I'll send you a picture.'"
The squad of sleep-deprived mommies and daddies worries about naps and diapers and matters of the heart.
"At first I was a little worried I didn't love him enough," Thomas's mom, reporter Katie Eastman, said. "But now as he's grown, I've just -- that love has grown in me. And I just didn't know that would happen, and that's been the most beautiful part of raising him for me."
"I just was like, what did I do?," Riyaan's mom, anchor and reporter Anusha Roy, said. "Like I just don't have a handle on anything, you know? It was so overwhelming. But then I just -- I don't know, like one day he woke up and had this little personality, and he started saying 'mama.' He looks at us like we're just his whole word, and he's my whole world."
"My favorite part is the first thing in the morning when she's in her crib, coming up from a nap or coming up from sleep. And just like, she'll stare at you," Pippa's dad, political reporter Marshall Zelinger, said. "And until she smiles, I'm like 'she's still sleeping. She's sleeping with her eyes open.' And when she smiles, it's like 'there it is.'"
> We tried to get six of the babies together for a photo...
"This is our world, and now work that once was our world for so many of us -- not having families here, this is our number one -- has now been put to number two," Summer's mom, meteorologist Danielle Grant, said. "And it's the best thing ever. I mean, I love my job, but I love her more."
Now, these new parents are embracing the chaos, treasuring moments and making room every day for their hearts to grow a little more.
"It is just the most pure innocence, and it's so sweet," Connor's mom, digital producer Erin Powell, said. "I don't know. It's just magic. It's so magical. It's really freaking hard, but it's magical."
> 9NEWS journalists share how their perspectives have changed since they became parents
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