The Bad Boy's Little Pumpkin

And Now We're Here

Hey, look at that! Welcome back, all the way to where we first started. You made it through all that. Props to you, whoever you are.

So there we were, with the pain and the filming and the bad boy and the pushing and me hating my life...and then it was over. All the pain suddenly stopped.

The doctor yelled, "It's a girl!" and held up the disgusting, squishy, alien-like thing that was my baby girl. She wiggled, coughed, and wailed when she was placed on my chest.

"Pumpkin, she's perfect!" Damien said, kissing my sweating forehead.

Let me tell you, I'd heard a lot about the "beauty" of childbirth. Whoever came up with that needs to get their head straight. My daughter was completely bald, full of all kinds of goo that somehow came out of my body. I almost felt like I was going to puke on her.

My mom and Apple were doing their best to get their cameras around the nurses so they could see my little girl. They let Damien cut the cord, then took her away so she could get wrapped up. They also ushered my film crew out so Damien and I could have some alone time with her.

"Okay, here she is," a nurse said, handing her to me.

Now she looked cute. She was the perfect mix of me and Damien. They had her wrapped in a striped pink blanket and wearing a hat with a bow on it. I cradled her in my arms. She wasn't crying but kept making little sounds. She blinked her deep brown eyes a few times at me.

"Hi, I'm your Mommy," I said.

"Do you guys have a name picked out for the birth certificate?" the nurse asked. Damien and I looked at each other, completely lost. We shook our heads. "No worries! I'll give you some time to decide."

Finally, after thirteen hours, everyone was out of the room except for Damien and I. Plus our completely nameless little lady, of course.

"What do you wanna do about this whole name thing?" Damien asked.

"Give her one," I said.

"Yeah...what are you thinking? I think she kinda looks like a Hazel, because of her eyes."

"That would be cute...but I did have one other name in mind. Like, I kinda wanted to name her for when she was born," I said. "I was thinking Autumn of Fallon, like fall, you know?"

"I like Autumn," he said. "We should give her a Thanksgiving name too, if we're going this route."

"STG, I'm not naming my daughter Autumn Thanksgiving Thrasher," I said.

"No, that's not what I mean. Like, what do you do on Thanksgiving? You eat, you're thankful, you're grateful to be with your family and friends—" He stopped. "What about Grace? My grandma always had us do this prayer thing before we ate."

"Sounds good to me!" I said, looking down at Autumn. "It's nice to meet you, Autumn Grace Thrasher!"

"A perfect name for a perfect girl, who may or may not be taking the official spot of my little pumpkin."

"Hey!" I said. I must've startled Autumn, because she started crying.

"Give me! I'll take her," Damien said.

I handed her over and she was immediately quiet. Looks like she's going to be a daddy's girl, for sure. I was just happy she'd be growing up with her dad actually around.