First Baby Arrives: Emily Nicole Locke -- Governor's Daughter Born 2 1/2 Weeks Early

With a head of curly, black hair, Emily Nicole Locke - all 5 pounds, 9 ounces of her - was born last night to Gov. Gary Locke and Mona Lee Locke. She's the first baby born to a Washington governor in three decades.

Mona Locke gave birth at 9:47 p.m. last night at Swedish Medical Center in Seattle - 2 1/2 weeks early.

At a news conference at Swedish this morning, an exuberant Locke described his daughter as "cute" and "really pink" and declared: "This is the best day of my life.

"I don't think anybody can be prepared for a first child," he said. "She's so small when you hold her . . . so light and fragile."

Locke said he wanted to raise his daughter with as little public attention as possible. "She's not dating until she's in college," he quipped.

In lieu of cigars, he passed out little campaign-like buttons bearing tiny footprints and proclaiming: "It's a girl."

That the baby came 2 1/2 weeks early was "not a problem at all," said Dr. Nancy O'Neil.

Locke was with his wife in the delivery room, helping her monitor her breathing. At one point this morning, Locke, fumbling for words to describe the delivery process, asked O'Neil what it was called, and then said he'd also helped with "the pushing part."

He also helped to catch the baby as she was born, he said, and then grabbed the camera.

"His dad and mother were at the hospital when he came out to tell them," said Locke's press secretary, Marylou Flynn.

The baby announced her impending arrival yesterday while the Lockes were at the Governor's Mansion in Olympia. "Mona's water broke at 4:30 in the morning, and we called the doctor," Locke said. The Lockes then drove to Seattle and checked into Swedish about noon.

O'Neil described the Lockes as "very calm, wide awake," when they called her.

In addition to her early arrival, Emily Nicole surprised her parents another way. They had declined to be told the baby's gender before birth.

"There are so few surprises in life," Mona Locke had said.

Balancing his work as governor and his new family life will be a challenge, he added. "The last few years have been so hectic, so overwhelming," he said.

Emily Nicole has two nurseries - one in the Governor's Mansion and the other at the family home in Seattle - and toys and furniture given by legislators, family and friends.

Locke said he planned to take a few days off from work and finish wallpapering the mansion nursery, which used to be office of former first lady Mary Lowry.

Mona Locke has said she plans to temporarily stop the weekly public tours of the mansion for the first few months of the baby's life so the family can have some privacy.

The Lockes announced the pregnancy during the campaign last summer.

"It was completely unexpected - quite a surprise to us," Locke said at the time. "Now I guess I have to learn all the nursery rhymes and practice lullabies. Learn how to do T-ball and soccer. I am looking forward to getting on my hands and knees and playing horsey."

He called the baby "a dream come true" and added, "My dad's only real reaction was, `What took you so long?' "

Gary and Mona Locke married in October 1994. Locke, 47, had been married briefly to a law school classmate in the 1970s. It is Mona Locke's first marriage and child.

Throughout the campaign and in the early weeks of his four-year term, Locke frequently talked about the pending birth, saying it added a sense of concrete reality to his abstract thoughts, such as the need for world-class schools.

"This really puts a greater urgency to everything I'm trying to do," he said.

Mona Locke, 15 years her husband's junior, says she worked hard to establish herself as a reporter in three television markets and for years resisted traditional roles of wife and mother. But now the new roles fit to a T, she said.

Mona Locke said earlier that her pregnancy had gone smoothly, though in the final weeks she - like pregnant women everywhere - had fretted over her weight gain (35 pounds at that point) saying: "I don't fit into anything anymore. I'd dress in sweats if only they'd fit."

The Lockes say they want at least two children.

It's the first child born to a governor's family since Dan Evans and Nancy Evans had two sons while he was serving in the 1960s and '70s. In an interview, Nancy Evans said it was a struggle to maintain privacy for the family in the fishbowl existence at the Governor's Mansion - but that it worked out well. Nancy Evans said her sons, now grown with children of their own, look back fondly on the Olympia years as a grand adventure.

The Lockes compared parenting notes with the Clintons and Gores during a presidential-campaign trip here last year and when the Lockes went to Washington, D.C., for the State of the Union Address this year - and an overnighter at the White House.

"Mrs. Clinton volunteered to baby-sit," Flynn said.

Seattle Times staff reporter Florangela Davila contributed to this report. Material from Associated Press also was used.