I know you've all had this moment … this is love at first sight.

It was a black and white photo of Iris and their baby girl just after she was born. The baby was looking up at her mother and Iris had her hand over her own mouth and tears streaming down her cheeks as she stared down at her precious baby. He thought it was perfect, it captured a moment he would never forget as long as he lived. Iris was crying and in shock and he thought she had never looked more beautiful. It captured that first moment of Iris as a mother, that pure moment of true love and a moment that, at times they never thought they'd get.

That's all he sent initially and his phone started ringing but he ignored them all for a bit, he wanted them to be as amazed by that photo as he was. Just a few moments later he sent another message.

My beautiful and incredible Iris gave birth to our little baby girl early yesterday morning. Born at 547am after almost ten hours of labour, Iris was amazing and our beautiful daughter is healthy, 7lbs 6ozs of absolute perfection and we are surprised at how much she has complete control of our hearts already. She is all that we hoped for and so much more. I love you Bug, you have been incredible every day of this long journey we've been on, I am glad I am travelling this road with you. Thank you for being my everything. Thank you for being the mother of my daughter. Your dreams have come true. My dreams have come true. Our dream life is with our beautiful little human.

Iris made him send a photo of him with his daughter. She was in his arms, one tiny hand wrapped around his finger and Colton was just staring at her, the newborn matching his intense gaze. Iris had taken it and added a caption. 'Hello Daddy.'

He called his parents and Iris talked with everyone in her own family. They was a little bit of shock that they had kept her a secret for a day, particularly Colton's mother, she was upset that she had been a grandmother for more than twenty-four hours already. She figured it was Iris's decision. "No, it was our decision. We wanted to spend a bit of time getting to know her and Iris was exhausted and a little bit emotional."

"About what? I thought she'd be happy?"

"She was happy Mom, she is happy but it was still tough for her."

"I guess her family knew yesterday."

"Oh for fuck's sake." Colton snapped. "You all found out at the same time." He had enough and he hated that his mother was ruining this moment for him. "Don't ruin this for us. If you want to come meet her, we are at home now." He hung up.

They sent videos and photos of their little girl, now that everyone knew about her they wanted to show her off. They had one perfect photo of her, wide eyed, serene, perfect rosebud mouth, dark hair and her little hands clenched under her chin and captioned it. 'We didn't know love like this existed.'

Everyone understood why the spent the day alone with their baby. It had been a long and painful journey for them, they deserved to celebrate their daughter in any way they saw fit.

Colton had lifted the carrier out of the car, his most precious cargo was safely home. It was painstakingly slow and nervous drive home and Iris teased him mercilessly, even though she was sitting the back so she could keep an eye on her. Setting it down on the coffee table he watched Iris lift her out. Her arms and legs scrunched up tight as she squirmed and let out a sudden cry. Iris cradled her to her chest and covered her with that soft white blanket that had bought all of them home. "Welcome home baby girl. This is where the magic happens." She whispered. Iris had taken to motherhood like a duck to water so far and nothing was going to rain on her parade. She had lots of practice with her nieces and nephews but this was so much better.

"Can I get you anything?"

"We would love a hug from Daddy." Iris held out her hand and she welcomed his arms around both of them.

Colton touched the soft downy hair of his daughter; this was their new heaven. "How good is this?"

"I still can't believe that she's here. It feels a little surreal. When I woke up this morning I thought for just a moment that I was dreaming." Iris rested her head on Colton's shoulder. "Then I saw her, sleeping beside us… she's so perfect Colt. I think we were meant to wait for her."

As much as they wanted to just stay in their little bubble it was time to share.

Colton's mother was the first to meet her granddaughter. They couldn't keep her away, Colton had neglected to tell Iris that she had been disappointed that they had kept her arrival a secret for a 'whole day.' There was no love lost between them and he had given up trying. He just ignored her snide comments now. The only reason Colton still maintained any sort of relationship with his mother was because Iris made him.

Iris amazed him, how she just put up with it all because she just wanted her mother in her life. Part of her had hoped that Marchella would fill that void a little, like Mae's mother-in-law had embraced Mae and Lola's had as well when she was alive. Quinn's parents adored Alfie and Iris was left with a mother-in-law who made things hard every step of the way, although his father and step-mom were wonderful.

Iris had answered the door, much to the surprise of Marchella. Colton was just changing a diaper after the little girl had woken for a feed. She was crying wildly, getting undressed was something that they had learnt that she didn't particularly like. Colton was trying to help Iris as much as he could and get involved. Right now when she was just feeding and sleeping his only chance was changing her and bringing her to Iris for a feed and fussing over Iris.

Iris did love listening to Colton with his daughter already. He was always talking to her, telling her what he was doing, apologising for not doing it very well yet and promising to get better and how much he loved her.

Marchella could barely contain her excitement, not for seeing Iris but to see her granddaughter, although she knew that Iris held the keys to the relationship with her grandchild. "Iris, you look wonderful. Congratulations dear, I am so happy for you." Marchella smiled sweetly, although her gaze was way over Iris's shoulder.

It had been a long way back for Marchella and Colton and Iris had instigated it even before she fell pregnant. She had been hurt by Marchella but growing up without a mother she just couldn't let Colton cut her out of his life. They were never going to be close though. When he finally agreed to talk to her his one stipulation was that she treated Iris with respect. "She is the reason I am here right now so the least you could do was recognise that and give her the respect she has earned and deserves." He made it clear to his mother that wrong step and he would walk away so fast her head would spin.

It had taken Iris six months to convince Colton to speak to her again after the wedding when Iris had begged him to go see her for her birthday.

It was awkward for a while but they gradually repaired their relationship to a degree and when he told Marchella that Iris was four months pregnant she had wept with joy. Iris was always going to make sure she was involved in their child's life and Colton admitted that he wanted her to have a relationship with his child, how much he wasn't sure and it was yet to be seen if they could maintain it but he was willing to try. Knowing that all Iris would have wanted was her parents here had helped him come around, he was playing nice with his mother for Iris. He didn't understand exactly why Iris was so insistent but he would do anything to make her happy and she wanted their child to have a relationship with its remaining grandparents.

It was on shaky ground though and she had been a little too forthcoming with her opinions on the pregnancy, what she wanted to happen and what she thought Iris should and shouldn't be doing.

"Thank you, we are pretty excited. Come and meet her. She's perfect." Iris gushed. They were so happy that they had spent yesterday alone but now they were excited to show her off. "Colt is just getting her ready for a feed. As you can hear she doesn't love it." He was trying to hurry but the desperate cries also meant her arms and legs were thrashing and he struggled to get her dressed again.

It would only be a short cuddle for Marchella because the little girl was starving. "Oh, she's so beautiful." Marchella cried when Colton handed her over. "I forgot how small they are."

"She didn't feel small coming out." Iris was starting to feel the effects of giving birth. She was hobbling a little now that the adrenaline had worn off. "I can't believe she was actually in here." She patted her still large stomach, she looked like she was about seven months pregnant again.

"It's amazing isn't it? I remember when Sophie was born, I was kind of stunned that she started as this microscopic thing and then that comes out and you think 'holy crap'." Marchella was just staring at the little girl. Her dark hair was fluffy, her eyes tightly closed and her face was red as she started to ramp up her crying but she was still the most beautiful baby Marchella had seen, even more so than he own children apparently.

Colton made his mother a coffee while Iris settled in to feed, it took her a while to get comfortable while the baby was crying and still learning how to get her mouth open enough was a challenge for both of them so having her Mother-in-law hovering over her made her nervous. "Mom." He called her to come look at some of the photos they had taken. "Bug's still learning Mom, they both are. Just give her some space." He was worried his mother was going to overwhelm Iris with advice and smother her with 'motherly' attention, she wouldn't be able to help herself. Her crack several months ago about being their child's 'only grandmother' and that gave her special privileges had upset Iris. It was cruel and heartless at a time when Iris was emotional and struggling to deal with her pregnancy and missing not only her parents but her grandparents. Colton had told her as much. 'not only is it a horrible thing to say, it's not even true. I know you like to pretend Lucy doesn't exist but she does and she at least treats Iris like a human, not just an incubator.'

"Sorry. I just can't believe that you've had your baby. My little granddaughter."

"Neither can we. As soon as Bug has finished you can have another cuddle. We are still getting to know her too." He knew it would take a while, they were averaging about half an hour at least at the moment and she was feeding every couple of hours.

Colton took some photos of Marchella with her granddaughter once she was able to have another cuddle so she could show her friends. Iris knew how much this meant to his mother even if it was an uncomfortable truce. She would have done anything to have her mother around, she could imagine how excited she would be, if she was anything like MiMi was when Lola was pregnant and it hurt to think that MiMi never met Sam. She vowed to try and play nice and beg Colton to as well.

Even when Marchella commented on how Colton 'preferred to sleep on his belly and she might find that the baby would settle quicker that way.' Iris just smiled.

"She's doing fine on her back and that's how they prefer them to sleep when they are newborn." They breathed a sigh of relief when she left, they were glad it was out of the way and Iris could rest now until the mob arrived.

Marchella didn't love her name, that much was obvious. She smiled tightly. "Oh that's unusual, not what I was expecting. We had some beautiful family names. I thought you might have used one of those."

"Oh well, that's what we decided and liked." Colton just sighed. "We love it and think it suits her perfectly."

"It is a family name." Iris snapped. "Please don't."

"Sorry Iris, I was just…."

Colton glared at his mother and she swallowed the rest of the sentence and he was furious when Iris cried. She disappeared upstairs quickly so that Marchella didn't see it, she was either oblivious or just didn't give a fuck that he'd upset the brand new mother. Colt just stewed.

Iris slept most of the afternoon at the same time as the baby while Colton fussed around the house doing housework making sure everything was put away. He returned some calls and looked through the hundreds of photos they had taken already. They had invited Lola, Mae and Alfie over for dinner, along with all the assorted attachments but they had insisted on bringing take-out. Nobody needed to be cooking tonight.

Mae arrived first. They heard Poppy and Max before they saw them. "Oh Bug, she's just perfect." Mae cooed when she got her hands on her newest niece. "I'm so proud of you. Look George, isn't she perfect? She looks a little like Poppy."

George agreed as he leant over Mae's shoulder and stroked the little girl's hand. "Yes she is perfect and no you can't have one."

"I'm taking this one." She held her tightly in her arms. Poppy was mesmerized by the little girl and Max couldn't care less. He was waiting for Sam and Billy to arrive so he could play with 'the boys.'

As much as Mae tried to get a name out of them Iris insisted that they wait until everyone was here before they announced it. She had bitched a bit, with a smile on her face about them keeping everything a secret.

Lola was told the same thing as Mae; no she couldn't have another one. Olive was only seven months old and Riley thought they were quite happy with three. Olive was squealing in her Dad's arms, she was watching Max, Billy and Sam being silly and loved it. Sam and Billy were always up in her face and she loved her brothers. She always had a smile for them, she could be in the middle of a meltdown and either Sam and Billy would appear and suddenly she was smiling.

Addy was beside herself, she still loved babies. Olive was her favourite right now but even Olive was about to be shoved aside. Marlee was on Max's side of the fence, totally uninterested. "Oh Bug, she's so pretty." Addy was up beside her mother when Quinn was having her cuddle.

Once everyone had a hold Iris took her back and smiled at the sweet little thing. "We struggled a little to come up with a name that felt right. I've had so many amazing people in my life who helped me get to this moment. I was starting to worry I'd never be a mother and now here I am, a mom. I don't remember my mom, but I will always be grateful that I had you all to help me feel close to them both, I feel like they were part of my life." She looked at her sister's first, then she looked at Alfie. "Colton and I can't thank you all enough for your love and support over the past nine months and the three years before that. It's been a tough long road and it meant the world to us to have you all with us. Right now though, we kind of can't remember what it was like before she arrived, she's here and we are totally in love with her and our new life."

Iris looked at her family. "This is Primrose Abigail Hollister Webber and seeing as no one is ever called by their actual name, unless they are in trouble we like to call her Mimi."

"Oh…" Mae burst into tears. "…it's perfect." George slipped an arm around her shoulders and rubbed her arm tenderly. After all the years they had been together he was used to her crying. He loved that she wore her heart on her sleeve.

"MiMi and Pops would be so happy, Mom and Dad would be over the moon." Lola hugged both her sisters.

"I always liked that I was given the name of a flower, so that's where Primrose comes from, we liked that it could be shortened to Rose and then one day we realised that she could be Mimi. Abigail is for you Lola Bear, you've been so wonderful throughout this whole thing, right from the start and I guess a girl called Abigail started all this crazy chain of events." Iris couldn't say anymore. It was amazing that she held it together for so long.

"It's beautiful Bug." Alfie joined his sisters, he stroked Mimi's cheek. "Primrose Abigail Hollister Webber, welcome to the circus tent Mimi. The world is a better place already because you are in it."

They managed to get them all wrangled into one photo. Addy, of course had to hold Mimi and she was very protective. Telling everyone to 'settle down and not be silly' because "Mimi is a tiny baby."

"Marlee Moo." Addy screeched at her sister when she got too close to Mimi. "Stop being two."

They had to laugh, whenever Marlee did something to annoy her sister they told her that she was two and didn't understand sometimes that what she was doing was wrong, which according to Addy was a lot of things.

Everyone left early, Lola rounding them up when Iris was starting to look weary. She sat with Iris for a couple of minutes and cuddled little Primrose before they left, much to Olive's disgust. She didn't want her Dad at the moment, she wanted her Mom but if Lola fed her now she'd never get her into bed. "She's just perfect Iris, I am so happy and proud of you. You deserve this, you deserve her and all the happiness in the world. I am so happy for you and Colton."

It was strange spending their first night at home with their little girl. They didn't really know what to do. She had been fed and was sleeping and they just sat and looked at each other. "What do we do now?"

"I don't know." Iris laughed. "I guess go to bed. I am tired."

"Okay." Colton looked at his watch. "It's like eight?"

"I gave birth less than two days ago, I'll be up again in two or three hours."

"Welcome to our new life."

"You don't mind?"

"Nope. I don't want to sound like I am being pathetic and male because I know what you did was so much more intense than what I did, but fuck I am tired too."

"Let's go to bed Baby Daddy."

They felt they were barely in bed and asleep when Primrose woke, in reality it had been almost three hours and that felt like a good start.

Every two hours after that she was awake, and suddenly life was smacking them in the face in a big way and Colton found himself downstairs with Mimi at 6am making himself a coffee while Iris tried to sleep. "Mimi, this isn't a good start baby girl."

He wouldn't even sit down with her because he was paranoid about falling asleep and squashing her. Rocking her gently until she fell asleep he took her back upstairs and carefully put her into her bed and crawled into his own bed. Iris stirred briefly and muttered something and it felt like he barely shut his eyes and she was awake. "It's not going to be like this every day is it?" he muttered.

"I hope not."