Retired West Coast star Nic Naitanui and his fiancé, STM columnist Brittany Bown, have welcomed their second child — a baby girl named Zuri Ateca Naitanui.
Naitanui posted a photograph of himself perched on the edge of a rocking chair, behind Bown with Ezekiel and Zuri in her arms. He captioned it with their new daughter’s name and matavuvale, which means family in Fijian.
In her candid columns for STM, Bown revealed how she discovered she was pregnant after she suffered dizzy spells while exercising just five months after her son, Ezekiel, was born.
She admitted she felt relieved when an initial pregnancy test was negative — “phew,” I thought, “I’m not pregnant again; I already have a baby!” — but couldn’t shake the feeling she was expecting.
A few days later, when a follow-up test was positive, Bown said she cried at the thought of being pregnant again so soon.
“My body was still recovering from carrying Ezekiel, and I was just getting the hang of being a mum,” she wrote.
“I went downstairs to tell Nic and when he saw my tear-streaked face, he panicked, thinking I had received bad news. Tearfully, I blurted out, ‘I’ve got to tell you something — I’m pregnant again’.
“Thankfully, his reaction was relief; he was rather happy.”
Bown said her worries also turned into excitement and “the joy and gratitude for new life took over”, especially after she had a dream she was holding a baby girl named Abigale — a name with Hebrew origins, translating to ‘my father is joyful’.
“That dream brought a sense of peace, as if God was telling me, ‘I am overjoyed about this baby’s life, and SHE will bring new levels of joy to your lives’,” Bown wrote. “Weeks later, we found out we were indeed having a little girl”.
She also shared the challenges of being heavily pregnant with an active toddler and Naitanui still on crutches after surgery on his Achilles tendon.
Bown described how the couple decided to change ‘Ezzy’ on the bed rather than the change table because it was closer, and a “laundry emergency” ensured when he weed both on her and the bedding.
“Wellness, for me, in this moment, looks like being content with imperfection,” she wrote. “It looks like Nic and I, both exhausted and teetering on the brink, choosing to laugh when Ezzy had his little accident, instead of turning on each other …
“It’s about understanding that our baby girl will arrive in the next few days, and all these little hiccups won’t truly matter. It’s about choosing gratitude amid the mess.”
