One of the most common questions when expecting a baby is, “Do you know if it’s a boy or a girl?” That is quickly followed up by, “Do you have a name picked out?” This time, the proud parents-to-be-for-the-second-time answered, “It’s a girl” for the first question, but were a little more cryptic with the second question. Yes they had a name, but they were only giving some clues as to what the name was. The hint: the first name was part of the name of a band that they both liked but didn’t get much airplay and the middle name was also the lead singer of a band that they liked. The guessing game began. My guess was Pearl (after Pearl Jam) Bjork or Pearl Polly (after PJ Harvey), but I was a little off. Her name, revealed shortly after birth, was Catherine (The Catherine Wheel) Layne (Layne Staley-Alice in Chains). The latter, Mom concedes, not the best role model, she just likes the name.

s

Catherine (Cate) was booked for a photo session at eight days old, a perfect age because if you want good newborn baby portraits, we recommended that they are taken within ten days after birth as this is when the babe is sleepiest and tend to nap a lot. When Cate arrived, however, I was a little surprised to see how awake and alert she was. This was partly due to her sleeping in the car on the way from her home to the studio in Markham and partly due to the fact that she was on the cusp of the ten day old rule and her mother had already noticed the beginnings of change in her sleeping habits. Fortunately, we had some time with which to play and eventually, Cate began to drift off to sleep.

Cate’s mother plays the Tuba in an orchestra in Toronto, so we thought it would be nice to get some pictures of the newborn with the tuba as a prop. The original plan was to have Cate positioned safely and comfortably in the bell of the Tuba, while it was being held up right, but with Dad not being able to get the time off work we were short on hands. So we decided to place Cate next to the Tuba instead.

At this point, Cate was sleeping comfortably, so we were able to move and settle her relatively easily.

So we took some pictures of her on soft white blanket…

…in a little basket lined with faux fur…

…on a blanket that her mother knitted for her…

…and in a garden basket lined with faux fur.

s

It was great meeting beautiful Cate and taking her newborn baby pictures. She’s a lucky girl to be born into a family with a sister who is excited to have a playmate and two doting parents to spoil her.