GOOD MORNING

Before my youngest son was born I picked up a book that I had read in the past and flipped through it trying to remember its contents. The family were going to bed as I went to the final chapter to see if I could get my memory going. I couldn't but scanning those raised so many questions that I scanned the previous one and then the one before that, read from there to the end of the book and then read a middle chapter or two. Finally I settled down in an easy chair and began at the beginning. Sometime after midnight I finished the book and decided that labor had begun.

My journal records that before going to the hospital that a close neighbor, Steven Evans, came and helped David give me a blessing.  I arrived at the hospital about 2 a.m., processed paper work until 2:15 and was in bed by 2:30 to be seen by the doctor briefly.  The pregnancy had been high risk. We had wanted at least one more child and only with the assistance and interventions of a specialist, Dr. Wescott, had we successfully arrived at term.

Delivery was different and much more intense than all my previous children. It took all the courage and strength I had to follow simple instructions from the nurse. Never before had I experienced fear or pains like that. A healthy baby boy (in those days we did not know gender in advance) arrived at about 2:45 a.m. weighing 9 pounds 2 ounces (4140 grms). His head measured 15 1/4 inches (39 cm), his chest 14 inches (36 cm). He was fairly tall at 21 1/4 inches long (54 cm). He arrived so quickly that the doctor did not arrive so the nurse delivered him. She later told me that he was the 51st baby she had delivered. An IV had been ordered in case of complications but was not inserted.

The complications arrived about an hour later. Nurses, working very hard, got the IV in my right hand, and stabilized my condition but I had already lost 2 or 3 pints of blood. I was in a 4 bed ward and felt so bad for all the noise and commotion. The other 3 beds were all occupied. I was very weak and dizzy and remained weak for many months. So many Ward members, family and friends all helped out bringing food, gifts, and doing child care the first few weeks. We named him after his great grandfather.

I wrote on 15 February, "He is a good baby; gentle and quiet. He is very bright and alert: fully cognizant and he likes to be awake and looking at things and especially people. The children (his sibings) all seem to be in a real tizzy." His brothers and sisters were very excited to see and help with their new brother. We were so grateful to have this child. He was and is a special blessing in our family.