A tiny letter (to You) 👶

August 23, 2023

Hi friends,

I recently reorganized my email list, which means some of you are hearing from me for the first time in a veryyy long time. If you’re not interested in my ever-evolving thoughts on tech, startups, and life in nyc, just scroll to the bottom of this email and click unsubscribe.

I typically reserve this space for my sometimes thoughtful, sometimes goofy, sometimes relevant, sometimes on-point professional posts. But today I have something special and personal to share. I shared this with family and friends last week.

Jesse

Two weeks ago, we received a special delivery — You. It’s not that we weren’t expecting You. To be honest we were expecting, as they say, a Baby Girl Middleton for many months. But two weeks ago, You did something unexpected and you came into this world four and a half weeks early. Late pre-term is what they called You. This was a surprise. This was truly unexpected. We went in on Friday evening with some complications and after a long weekend filled with tears and exhaustion You arrived — All 4 lbs 15 ounces of You arrived like a burst of lightning four and a half weeks before your expected due date. Yes, we expected You, just not then. Yet as much as we were expecting I couldn’t expect how much You would change our lives in that instant. That lightning bolt morphed our trio into a quartet in the blink of an eye. Holden, Mommy, and I had talked about this day but here it was, in the operating room. We expected so much and yet in your first little baby cry You blew away our expectations.

You are a perfect tiny baby girl who has changed my life and expanded my heart in only fifteen days since your arrival. Every sleepless night brings a smile to my face. Every bottle You drink causes my heart to skip a beat. Every time You grab my finger I want to live in that moment for as long as humanly possible. I felt all of these things when Holden was born and I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to get to enjoy these feels all over again.

I just want You to know that while I was expecting You would arrive and grow our family I could never have expected the way I’d feel as I wrote this at 3am after yet another bottle. I’m the luckiest guy in the world to get to be your Dad, Charlotte “Charlie” Hernandez Middleton. You’re my little Peanut and I love You. Welcome to our world. You can and will change this world for the better.

Now go to bed.

And to my strong, determined, beautiful wife, Cat Middleton, thank you for bringing this one-in-a-billion life force into this world safe and sound. I love you. ❤️

👋 Hi, I’m Jesse, a seed-stage VC at Flybridge. If you find a fast-growing niche or paradigm shift in the future of work, reply to this email with 1-2 short, compelling paragraphs. I answer as many emails as humanly possible.