This Is What It's Like to Watch Someone Else Deliver Your Baby

Kim Overton is a very determined woman. In 2005, after she was diagnosed with fibroid tumors — abnormal growths that develop in or on the uterus — her doctors told the 34-year-old personal trainer that her window to have children was closing. She underwent a successful surgery removing 11 tumors and decided not to let the fact that she was single stop her from becoming a mother. Nearly five years later, she delivered her first child, a boy named Dillon, via C-section.

By this point, however, her window for another child was all but shut. After one too many negative pregnancy tests, she came to terms that she wouldn't be pregnant again. "I just needed a new uterus!" Overton said with a laugh to POPSUGAR.

And, miraculously, she found one. Overton had long confided in her cousin Ericka, a nurse, about her infertility experience, but one conversation turned to Ericka's 26-year-old daughter, Cydnee, a mother of two girls. Perhaps she would be her surrogate.

"I remember having a little fear of Cydnee saying, 'No, sorry, not interested,'" Overton said. "I was taking a risk. I'm not really one to ask for help, so I felt pretty vulnerable."

That night, she got a call from Cydnee saying she'd be happy to help.

From there, the surrogacy process was painfully slow. There was a year-and-a-half's worth of paperwork followed by two unsuccessful transfers of embryos from her eggs and one early miscarriage. In July 2015, when Cydnee became pregnant a second time, Overton was "cautiously optimistic." Thankfully, this one was viable.

Of Cydnee's pregnancy, Overton admitted that "oddly enough," it felt very normal. "I took her grocery shopping and bought her what I would eat if I were pregnant," she told us. "I was able to see her during family functions, and I went to every appointment. I never once felt disconnected, like this is not as good as it could be. It was."

When Cydnee went into labor, Overton — along with her husband, Jason, whom she met and married after beginning her surrogacy journey — was by her side in the delivery room. "I was giddy, and Cydnee was very calm," she said. "Then she started pushing. He came out in four pushes."

It had taken three long years of epic highs and painful lows, but it culminated in a quick birth and an instant bond when Overton finally met her newborn son, Oliver.

Read on as she recounts every moment of that long-awaited birth, which was beautifully photographed by Austin, TX-based birth photographer Leilani Rogers.

"Sitting at Cydnee's side, we're moments away from meeting Oliver."

"This is when I first saw the baby's head as he started to crown. It all becomes real for me here."

"Oliver makes his debut!"

"This says it all — simply elated."

"The love in the room was incredibly intoxicating and overflowing. Here, Jason is telling Cydnee what an amazing job she did."

"I'm taking it all in here."

"Big brothers meet their little brother for the first time. Dillon is 5, and Atticus, Jason's son, is 4."

"My cousin, Ericka, congratulating me as Oliver's older brother looks on."

"Grandma and Cydnee's boyfriend meet Oliver for the first time."

"Oliver is cleaned up after our skin-to-skin bonding time."

"Spending more time with Oliver, skin on skin. Although it looks like I'm nursing him here, he's just lying on me. For feeding, Cydnee hand expressed the initial colostrum and then began pumping."

"I embraced Cydnee and began to cry three years' worth of tears. I was beyond grateful for her incredibly selfless act and relieved that the long haul was finally over."