After recently sharing her journey to motherhood and that she was expecting her first child at 44 via surrogate, veteran NBC News journalist Kristen Welker’s miracle baby is finally here.
As she revealed to Today, Welker and husband John Hughes welcomed daughter Margot Lane Welker Hughes on June 12. She was born at 2:12 a.m. and weighed 8 pounds and 6 ounces. The surrogate is reportedly doing great and was discharged from the hospital on Sunday, June 13.
Welker shared exclusive images of herself bonding with her newborn daughter in the hospital, which you can see on the Today website. She also revealed that the child’s names, Margot and Lane, were meant to honor the chief White House correspondent’s grandmother and her husband’s family as well.
The couple were active participant’s in Margot’s birth, with the journalist reportedly catching her baby and Hughes cutting the umbilical cord. They were quite literally there for the surrogate every step of the way.
“We stayed in rooms next to each other and visited throughout so that we and little Margot could thank her for bringing Margot into the world,” she said.
Welker first announced that she and Hughes were expecting in April, opening up about their struggle to conceive since tying the knot in 2017, including while undergoing IVF.
“All of the tears and the sadness and the setbacks were worth it because she’s worth it,” she said at the time. “I can not wait for that day when we can actually meet her and hug her and hold her.”
That special day came on Saturday, and the couple is beaming with joy after three years of holding on to the hope that they’d have their own child.
“Margot is truly the love of our lives,” she told Today after the baby’s birth. “Seeing her precious face and looking into her eyes had [sic] made every minute of our journey worth it.”