I was pregnant for David, now. Had insomnia for the only time in my life. Being pregnant, the doctor wouldn't give me anything to sleep; he said when I got tired enough, I would sleep. So, there was absolutely no sleep at all for about 5 days; it was really rough, mentally - all things are exaggerated, feel like your "freaking out", very scary. But, about the 6th day, I did fall to sleep. It sure felt good waking up after all that and, it never did return, thank God.

We picked out the name David after King David in the Bible, and Paul after Paul in the Bible, and Joe's best friend Paul Blanchette. We were going to call him Daniel Paul, but a little boy down the hill from us (Daniel Rotondi), had just had a heart operation and passed away. We didn't want to be calling "Danny" around the neighborhood and upset the parents. (We later came to know the Rotondi's better, when all of us became Christians.)

Danny Rotondi was in bed a lot, being weak with his heart trouble. He fed this red cardinal bird that came each year, into his back yard - everybody called it Danny's cardinal. Even after Danny passed away, the bird continued to come...kind of a reminder to all of us.

I had gone to the funeral they had for Danny at St. Ann's Catholic Church, across town from where we lived. I sat way in the back of the church - didn't know the Rotondis well, and somehow felt guilty because I had so many children and they had lost one of the two they had.

David was born on September 14, 1963 (Saturday) at 2:43 p.m.. He weighed 7 lbs. 2 oz, and was 19 1/2 inches long. Dave was born headfirst, induced labor. He had blond hair and it stuck out all around. I called him my "little chicken", because that's what he looked like. He was cute and "impish", with very blue eyes.

David was baptized when he was a few days old. I don't remember who the godparents were; we had used up about all the people we knew.

When David was close to 1 1/2 years old, he developed a hernia down near his groin. I noticed it when changing his diaper, it would pop out when he cried. He went to Leominster Hospital and had the hernia operation. The very next day, he came home; jumped right out of the car and ran into the house. The doctor said how remarkable it is, when they are young, with that operation. Dr. Cummings had the same operation as an adult, and he could hardly walk for a week.

David had asthma really bad, many times a month. Once he got a hold of a can of baby powder, while in his crib - dumped the whole thing on top of his head, and began to wheeze. He had a very bad bout with it...almost died. I called doctor about stopping by to give him a shot (we lived between doctor's house and office and the hospital, so he didn't mind stopping by all the time). Doctor didn't come and didn't come. Dave got worse and worse. I rocked him right in front of the humidifier, all day. I called again that early-evening and another doctor who was filling for him, came and gave Dave a shot of adrenalin.

I sure was upset about our doctor not coming all day. The next day he called and said how it was his day to go to Boston Hospital and he had completely forgotten about stopping to give the shot. He was really upset with himself, insisted on dropping our bill at his office; we didn't want him to - but finally said okay, when we could see that nothing else would make him feel any better.

Joey was in first grade at St. Leo's Parochial School, now. It was time for his First Communion. We got the dress pants, white shirt, tie for him to wear. It went off quite well.