Elizabeth’s first pregnancy (with Joël) was not easy, but in Eric’s case it was worse. She began with a five day stay in the hospital for pregnancy induced asthma at nine weeks. The doctor prescribed daily breathing treatments and steroids to control the asthma — after which she developed diabetes, which mean that in addition to her other treatments she had to give herself daily injections of insulin. She had several emergency room visits and stress tests. At the hospital they also did fœtal monitoring, and finally she was on house rest for the last trimester.

Since her doctor recommended that she get some exercise, we went for a short walk in the neighbourhood on 2 January (the delivery was scheduled for 4 January — the doctor had recommended another cæsarean). While in a store Elizabeth said she had to sit down and she thought that labour was starting. Jacques, ever the practical person, suggested that maybe it would pass and wouldn’t it be more convenient for everyone if she held it for another two days so we could go to the hospital on the scheduled date? Needless to say, Elizabeth didn’t see things the same way, so Joël stayed with Elizabeth’s parents while Jacques and Elizabeth rushed to the hospital, where they decided that it was time for Eric to come out, and thus he arrived on 2 January.

At birth Eric weighed 3.01 kilograms (6 pounds 9 ounces) and was 47 centimetres (18 ½ inches) in height. Jacques was allowed to hold him right away and as soon as Elizabeth was in the recovery room Eric had his first opportunity to nurse. He took to it right away. We think that this made a difference because nursing went much better with Eric than it did with Joël. (In Joël’s case, as described elsewhere, we had to supplement with formula, but Elizabeth produced quite enough milk for baby Eric, which prevented considerable worry and made us all much happier.)

The hospital room stay was more pleasant this time since there was no construction going on — the building they were working on when we were in Hoag Hospital after Joël’s birth was, luckily for us, the new Women’s Pavilion. We had a private room, with a small bed for the father to sleep in overnight, and a view of the Pacific ocean.

Jacques stayed in the room every night until Elizabeth and Eric went home. Jacques had much fun with the “baby brother” doll that Joël’s grandmother had given him so that Joël could get used to the idea of having a baby brother. Jacques would place the “baby brother” doll in the crib and enjoy the surprise of the nurses who came in and at first glance thought that Eric was in there.

Joël was very eager to see his brother and came to the hospital every day. He is very happy that we had a second child. Once in a park close to our house, Joël was waiting for a free swing (the two swings were occupied by a brother and sister) and when the two children left, Joël climbed into one of the swings, looked at the empty swing, and sadly asked his father “Isn’t anyone going to sit next to me?” Jacques promised him that soon his baby brother would be out and wanting to play with him.

After a few days Eric came home and was introduced to his sleeping quarters in his parents’s bedroom. Joël of course insisted that he was grown up (and careful!) enough to hold his baby brother in his lap: you can see the proof in this photo.