Happy Birthday Debra!

Labor began about 2:00 a.m. It was June in Utah - hot, and I tossed and turned wondering if this was it. Finally about 3:00 a.m. Ray turned over and asked what was going on. I told him I was having contractions, and we began timing them. We kept hoping to go back to sleep, but that didn't happen.

Finally at about 5:00 a.m. we decided we better go to the hospital. I called Ray's sister Orva and asked if we could bring Audrey over. We bundled Audrey (2 years) into the car, grabbed our bags, and off we went. It was an uneventful labor and delivery, and Debra was born at 10:23 a.m.

She weighed 7 lbs 8 oz., and I marveled at how small she was. I must have mentioned it a few times because the nurse finally said, "She's not at all small. She's exactly average weight." Then I told the nurse that Audrey had been over nine pounds. She understood what I meant after that.

Debra, 4 months

Debra was our only baby we didn't have name picked out and agreed upon before her birth. Back then I didn't know what I was having until they were born. We knew the first boy would be Ray, so that was easy. We just could not agree on a name for a girl. Ray wanted Debby, but I was teaching school and had a Debbie in my classroom that was a terror. I just couldn't name a sweet new baby Debbie.

About a week before I had Debby, we had some business transactions with a woman named Kelly. Ray said he liked the name Kelly. I was not crazy about that name either. We had tried for months to agree on a name. I figured we must be having a boy. Not so. When she was born, Ray looked at me and asked what we should name her, Debby or Kelly. I decided that since I didn't really like either name, and Ray preferred Debby, we'd go with that. We named her Debra, and I call her that a lot of the time. Most people call her Debby.

Now I adore the name. Almost as much as I adore her. What a joy she is for me.