TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) - Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and his wife Casey announced Monday on Twitter the arrival of their third child, a girl named Mamie. And then the governor crossed the state to update Floridians on the coronavirus.
DeSantis remained a proud dad in frantic and strange times. He was in the delivery room for the birth of his first two children. But this time, the governor said, he didn’t want to take up needed personal protection equipment that hospitals need right now. So he didn’t see Mamie’s birth.
“It’s surreal being in a hospital during this time. I did not go into the delivery room because I didn’t want to burn PPE. It was kind of a sad thing, but my wife and I both felt that was the right thing to do,” DeSantis told reporters at a news conference in South Florida, about 425 miles (684 kilometers) from the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee.
First Lady Casey DeSantis tweeted a picture of the baby and wrote: “Ron and I are beyond blessed to welcome our new baby girl, Mamie to the world. At 7 lbs 4 oz she was the smallest of the bunch, but she is already holding her own. Madison and Mason are so excited for their new baby sister!”
A minute later, the governor offered his own tweet, saying the family is counting their blessings. He added that his wife and children are “doing great.”
The tweets did not say when the baby was born, and the governor’s office wouldn’t reveal those details, saying it was a personal matter. The office said it would leave it to the governor and first lady to release any further information.
But DeSantis did reveal some information about Mamie.
“This one is really, really, cute,” he said.
And she’s also sleeping really well, thanks to a pricey bassinet equipped with sensors and microphones that monitors when the baby gets fussy and makes adjustments to soothe her.
“She didn’t make a peep all night,” he said.
The governor did say on Thursday that his wife hadn’t left the governor’s mansion since the beginning of March because of the coronavirus. And the photo Mrs. DeSantis tweeted of herself, her husband, Mamie and their two other children appears to be from the governor’s mansion, which is the family’s only home.
The announcement received bipartisan support.
“There is magic in the moment a baby is born. Congratulations,” former Florida Democratic Party Chairwoman Allison Tant tweeted to Mrs. DeSantis.
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Kennedy reported from Miami.
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