Tag: baby
We did it
I am very happy to announce that June is here.
I had my first contraction while sitting at the bar at Delancey
last Friday evening, eating dinner with my mother, and went into
early labor in the middle of the night. Twenty-nine hours later
– after deafening my companions on the drive to the
hospital; discovering that I wasn’t far enough along to be
admitted; a few hours spent laboring on a bench on the nearby
campus of Seattle University, scaring incoming freshmen into a
lifetime of abstinence; and much care and encouragement from my
saintly longtime doctor, the world’s finest doula, and a nurse
named Wendy – our daughter June Elizabeth Alexander Pettit
was born at 6:29 am on Sunday, September 9. She weighed 9 pounds
and was 20.5 inches long, with a full head of wavy dark brown
hair. I still can’t believe we did it.
Brandon and I came up with June’s first name over a year ago, when we were still only thinking about becoming parents. Neither of us really remembers where the idea came from, though I think we borrowed it from June Carter Cash. June’s middle names come from two of my mother’s siblings. Elizabeth was my aunt Tina’s formal first name, and Alexander was the middle name of my uncle Jerry, who died of AIDS when I was nine. I like knowing that Tina and Jerry will always be with her now. Especially Tina, who wanted so much to meet her. I hope they got to wave to one another as they passed, Tina leaving and June arriving.
Thank you so much for the support and care you’ve shown me and Brandon in these past months and years. I know June has already felt it, too. We’re so glad to know her, and to introduce her to you.
Be back soon.
[Second photograph by my friend Lecia Phinney. I highly recommend clicking it to make it larger. Blogger is making it oddly blurry here.]
September 4
Hi. I’ve never made an announcement like this before, and it feels very awkward and shouty to do it through a computer screen, so please be nice and pretend that we’re sitting in your living room. I’ll give you a minute to get settled. The thing is, I’ve been working on my manuscript, yes, yes, but I’ve also been working on something else. That something else has made it difficult, actually, to work on my manuscript, because it’s made me want to lie on the couch instead, eating peanut butter sandwiches and fantasizing about donuts. I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s there, under my shirt. I’ll give you a hint. It’s a baby. I’m 13 weeks along,…
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