LEWISTON – Suzanne Miller kissed her newborn son, Aizyk-Michael Lee, on his head and beamed at her husband, Jeffrey.

“Now we have a baby from the belly and a baby from the heart,” she said.

At 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, the child she never expected became the first baby of 2008 at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

For 10 years, Suzanne and Jeffrey had tried to have a child. Suzanne took fertility pills and endured surgery to lose weight.

They finally decided to adopt, taking home newborn Kolbe-William from the hospital in December 2006. They finalized his adoption on June 13 last year.

One day later, Miller found out she was pregnant.

She’d already packed Kolbe-William’s infant clothes and cradle for a garage sale.

“We couldn’t believe it,” she said. Nor could she believe it when she stopped at the hospital Monday for an ultrasound and the doctor told her it was time.

“He’s four weeks early,” she said. “It wasn’t in our birthing plan.” But Suzanne’s blood pressure had risen. The doctor tried inducing labor.

At midnight, while Suzanne waited for drugs to speed Aizyk-Michael’s arrival, she watched on TV as the ball dropped over Times Square.

“I said, ‘There goes our tax deduction,” joked Suzanne. Hours later, her doctor had begun to give up on a nighttime birth.

Suzanne was ready, though.

“I don’t want to play this game anymore,” she said. “I want my son.”

Aizyk-Michael – all 7 pounds, 8 ounces – came minutes later.

He didn’t take the title of Lewiston’s first 2008 baby, though. That title was earned by Carson Michael Morin, who was born about an hour and half earlier, at 2:56 a.m. at Central Maine Medical Center.

Carson came four weeks early, too. His mom also had blood pressure problems that led doctors to deliver him on New Year’s Day.

There were moments of drama.

About 2:45 a.m., the baby’s heart suddenly slowed.

“It was very scary and very fast,” said his dad, Stephen. Doctors rushed Jennifer Morin into the operating room for an emergency C-section.

Stephen praised the Central Maine Medical Center staff. Everyone survived well.

“He’s perfect,” said the proud dad. Carson weighed 5 pounds and half an ounce. Stephen and Jennifer, who live in Lewiston, also have another boy, Carson, who is almost 3. He, too, is perfect.

At St. Mary’s, Suzanne and Jeffrey Miller sat in their room and talked about their boys: “miracle babies.”

“We were complete before (today),” said Jeffrey, who was adopted as boy. “Now, we’re even more complete. We’re a family.”

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