Baby on Board

Some happy news...

Dear Friends,

I’ve already shared this on Instagram, but I wanted to share a little bit more with you, my readers, here. I have some very happy news to share: my husband and I are very excited to welcome a baby into our family this year!

I hope what I’m about to write won’t seem overwrought, but if you won’t mind, bear with me: I always think long and hard about sharing details about my personal life. I’ve written a little bit about dating my husband and settling into married life, but that’s about it. People ask me fairly often why I don’t share pictures of my husband. In my sillier moments, I like to speculate what people think might be the reason: He’s ugly? He’s a celebrity?! He doesn’t exist?!

There’s many reasons I keep his identity private, but I suppose one of the main ones is that what you share on the internet you can’t un-share; what is made public is difficult to erase from the internet. I did chuckle (and feel a little proud) when I discovered that one of the most popular things people google about me is “Joy Clarkson Husband” and that this is what Google Gemini has to say about it:

I’ve felt especially cautious about writing about this pregnancy and baby. First of all, I want to be very careful about preserving my baby’s privacy. Both in the practical sense that I want to conceal any of the baby’s personal details that could expose or endanger (like birthday and likeness… I think we underestimate the fact that the internet is full of disturbed people!), but also that I don’t want to feel like the baby becomes a piece of content, or a way to get more readers. I want to let the baby’s life unfold as it unfolds, without narrating the baby as a character in my story. Maybe this is over-worrying, but I’d rather err on the side of caution.

But then, with all that aside, I’ve also really wanted to find a way to share about this good news. I’ve wanted to share the joy and excitement of this new season with you, whom I have considered friends for many years. Many of you have been with me for almost a decade, since my lonely PhD years in Scotland. And on a practical level, welcoming this new baby will change and shape the coming years of writing and professional endeavors. And finally, this experience has been important to me, and I want to find ways to write about it when it feels right and in a way that honours my own experiences and the baby’s privacy.

On which note, I have been writing a little bit about all the experiences of this pregnancy and what they’ve made me think, laugh, and feel about, and I think I will share them here in the coming months. So stay tuned for that, if you like. :)

On a more fun note: in London, the little badges pictured above are offered to pregnant women on public transport so that fellow passengers will look out for them and offer their seats. Some train managers even keep them in their pockets! I’ve been wearing one for a while now, and it will always be a memento of this season of anticipation for our family. To mark the memory, a friend followed us around with a film camera for a day in London, which was rather fun.

Waiting for the train at Russell Square, near Bloomsbury. Bloomsbury is the university area of London— within a fifteen minute walk you can find University College London, London School of Economics— and King’s College London, where I work!

Outside Somerset House, near my office. If it looks familiar, it might be because it features as MI6 in the first couple of Pierce Brosnan James Bond films.

Stopped for a coffee at Monmouth Coffee Company, one of my favorite spots. It was started in 1978. I’ve been careful with caffeine, but I still enjoy my one coffee a day.

I am persisting in my pregnancy diet (more on that in a forthcoming post I’ve written on the first trimester), but have to confess that I’m getting rather excited for soft cheeses, cured meats, wine, and experiencing no hint of anxiety about raw vegetables. Please say a prayer for us, that all will go well and smoothly.

Warmly,

Joy