Our New Project

Burgess, deeply pensive, peering into the baby's cot.

Ten days ago, Burgess and I had a sleepless night. In the morning, just after sunrise, our little family became just a bit bigger. 3.685 kilos and 53 cm to be exact. After my initial shock of baby’s very spontaneous arrival (She was a week early, and I’d been told by the midwife that the average first-time labour would be 18 hours. She came in eight.), I must have drifted off briefly into a painkiller-induced sleep because the next thing I remember is taking this photo.

I also remember looking out the window onto a beautiful Sunday morning. I thought it beautiful even though all of the grass on the hospital grounds had been burnt brown from the incessant sunshine and lack of rain this spring and summer. But that’s what love does to you.

Ten days later, we are trying to keep up with the little sprog as she eats and sleeps her way into this world.

Mimi's first glamour shot.

Marie, our amazing and wonderful midwife. I'm now mad, mad, mad about midwifery as the best kind of birthing situation. We said goodbye to her on our way out of the hospital last Monday and she said "See you in 12 months!" We can't thank her enough.

Napping on our pet crocodile (the best £2.99 I ever spent at Ikea)

Napping on our bed

Posing, while napping, next to 'Freddie' the teddy bear I sewed for her from the beautiful wool sweater Don got me for Christmas, and which I unfortunately shrank in the laundry. OOPS. Sewing, by the way, is an excellent way to pass the time while fretting or trying to avoid fretting, a lot of which I was doing in the weeks leading up to now.

Our first Saturday at home after seeing the midwife for her first check-up. Big brother Brendan couldn't wait to come over and see her. He's delighted with his sister, although sort of distraught that she can't have a bicycle yet.

Napping, with what I'm calling a smile.

The new bunch of us. And she's not napping in this one!

Stay tuned to this blog for more photos, which I’ll update as frequently as new-motherly possible.

Oh! We finally decided on a name. It was not, as my father suspected, a plot to keep everyone guessing–we just wanted to get this one right after we’d been so attached to ‘Mimi’ for months.

She is Emelia Miryan Louisa Burgess

Nicknames: Cookie Monster (for her nyum nyum nyum noises), sproggy, Mimi

Yes, you can still call her Mimi. We do. In fact, we are currently having a family dispute on the spelling of this nickname. Burgess has devised Miu miu in homage to her Chinese heritage (he knew a Chinese nurse named Miu miu), even after I told him it was a trendy shoe brand, while I’m going with Me-Mi from looking at the name we settled on. I’m sure that just as soon as she can, she will tell us what she’d like to be called and how she’d like it to be spelled and lots of other things.

Shares a birthday with:

• Style guru Yves Saint Laurent — hooray! days of fun shopping ahead!
• Notable Americans Herman Melville and Francis Scott Key
• Eccentric American musicians, Jerry Garcia and Coolio
• Footballers Bastian Schweinsteiger (the coolest name of all the 2010 World Cup) and David James (the only English footballer who actually deserved to get paid for this year’s World Cup performance) and Caribbean sportsmen Frank Worrell (cricket) and Trevor Berbick (boxer)
• Many, many eminent scientists



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