I’m in my hotel room in Maniwaki, QC. We are here to see Cindy’s grand-mother, or if you prefer: Edward’s grand-grand-mother. It’s a very long way from home, but it would be even worse if we were visiting her parents.

The fun think about being a freelance photographer that has stock photo as part of his business is that every travel that you make can count as a business related stock shooting. Because that’s what I do: I stop here and there to collect photos for my bank. So gas, restaurant, hotel and every other expenses are tax deductible.

“I’m not sure the bed will go thru the stair case”, said the delivery guy. “Did they move your current one thru there, or did they lift it thru the balconies?”

And here we go again.

“I don’t know. My parents took care of everything because we where at the hospital the day we moved in”

In many situation of our daily life, we are remembered the day Victor came and left. Now that we have Charles-Edward, we are often asked, “is he your first one?” Each time, we don’t know if we should say the truth, “he’s our first one alive”, and creates an uncomfortable moment or if we should diplomatically say yes, at the expense of his memory.

Time faded the injury, but sometime, our memory of that day comes back and it really hurts.

Hey, I’m a father for two months now and I did not flood my blog with photos of him yet. So here is a bunch of photos of our cute little boy.

You should be good for another two months without me bragging about the fact that I have the cutest baby in the whole world.

When you are a in a public place with a 12 days old baby in your arms, you automatically become the center of attention; Everyone look in your direction, everyone talk to you, and look at that little thing you are gently holding. It’s like being Santa Clause: you put a smile in everyone’s face.

Born April 2 at 01h19. 6 pounds and 8 ounces. So much more to say, but I got to go back to the hospital. And get some sleep. 2 hours in the bed after 23 hours up… God!

The Doctor said that things could not be better than that. The baby is strong and healthy, and weights more than 5 pounds. The plan is now to take the cerclage out just before the 36th mark. And for third or forth times, the ultrasound technician said “oh yea, it’s DEFINITIVLY a boy!”

Today is the 33th week mark for baby Edouard (or Edward?). The cerclage is hanging tight. Cindy can start to move a little with more freedom. Yesterday, we even went for dinner to my parent’s place.

On our way back, in the evening, she said “what is that huge 400 on the building?”. It was her first time at night since Christmas, and that 400 appeared 3 months ago for the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. Something that is so natural for us now was totally new for her.

Later today, we have an appointment with the high-risk pregnancy doctor. He is going to have a look at the cerclage, and probably decide when they are going to take it down. He have to do this BEFORE the belly grow to big and the cerclage brakes by itself, which could be devastating both for the baby and the mother. It is usually done before the 34th week, and this usually means the baby comes out in the following days, and often in the following hours.
He could even decide to do the procedure today!

Yes, that means I could be a father as soon as tonight.

Cindy Hains receives a nonstress test (NST)

A doctor shows Cindy Hains the result of her nonstress test (NST) at the CHUL hospital in Quebec City. The NST is a Doppler time series recording of the heart beat of a fetus in utero simultaneous with the abdominal and/or uterine contractions of the pregnant woman to indicate if the baby is not receiving enough oxygen because of placental or umbilical cord problems and other types of fetal distress.
Technical: Canon EOS 1D mark II, 1/100 at f10 with a 24-70 at 26mm - ISO 200, one on-camera flash bounced to the ceiling.
Keywords: CHUL, nonstress, non-stress, nonstress test, non-stress test, NST, doppler, heart, fetus, utero, uterus, record, recording, uterine, contraction, contractions, pregnant, pregnancy, birth, give, giving, biophysical, prenatal, test, high-risk pregnancy, baby, health, fetal heart, reactivity, heart rate, rate

Yep, day to day “activities” is good for stock photography! And by the way, the test was positive, the baby is still moving normally.

My girlfriend Cindy and little Edward, now at almost 30 weeks in the making.
Technical: Canon EOS 1D mark II, 1/250 at f2.8 with a 85mm prime lens - ISO 200, one direct flash facing the subject and snooted on the face, one direct flash with blue gel behind the subject, slightly on the right

After the chicken, today’s meal was apple, cranberry and honey pork: Filet de porc aux pommes, canneberges et miel.

I used one of my cameras to create a time lapse of myself cooking. The Youtube version is, as usual, a bit too much compressed.

I think I need another Timer Remote Control so I could more easily have multiple angles in my time lapse videos.