As some of you know, Elizabeth has had a difficult pregnancy. She had morning sickness and asthma, and in the last few weeks we found out that she had a low amniotic fluid index and a breech baby. Since the baby was breech our obstetrician scheduled a Caeserean section (C-section) for 16 September 2002, but when Elizabeth went to have her amniotic fluid checked on 10 September 2002 the baby’s hearbeat was weak and the amniotic fluid level was very low so she was told that she needed to have the Caeserean section the same day.

Jacques was called at work, went home to get the camera and joined Elizabeth at the hospital. The doctor that we had been seeing throughout the pregnancy was not in the office so a different doctor in the same group was scheduled to perform the operation. All this made us a little nervous, but the operation happened very quickly and we soon had a first glimpse of our new baby boy!

The baby was born on 10 September 2002 at 17:30 (California, USA, PST), weighed 6 pounds and 7 ounces and measured 19 inches. After a C-section the mother is of course still on the operating table but Jacques was able to bring the baby to her so that Elizabeth could see him.

The anesthesiologist was kind enough to narrate the operation for us while it was happening, and mentioned that he had the same camera so we asked him to take a picture of the father holding the baby.

Jacques followed the baby up to the nursery where they were doing the regularly scheduled tests (everything OK) and then rejoined Elizabeth in the recovery room. The operation lasted approximately 1 hour (from 17:00 to 18:00) and around 19:30 we were in the maternity room where they brought the baby to us. Elizabeth was very tired so after one attempt at having the baby breast feed she tried to go to sleep and Jacques went home.

The next day we practised dressing the baby in his first set of clothes.

On the second day he did very well with his breast feeding and Jacques had his first experience of changing a diaper. We also had to decide on a name, which we hadn’t done yet! The weird and wonderful names suggested by Jacques failed to meet with Elizabeth’s approval, and finally we settled on Joël Roger. The first name was chosen because we both liked it, and the middle name to honour the baby’s paternal grandfather.

As you can see mother and baby are doing well and are both happy.