Miscarriage(?) And Baby Number Five

I was having some female problems and had to go into the hospital for a diagnostic D&C; doctor wasn’t sure if I had been pregnant or not… so, there is the possibility. It got me regulated enough so that I got pregnant right away. As practising Catholics, the only option we had, was the 'rhythmn' method...and I should have been 'safe' after the 25th day, but apparently wasn't...so, along came Peter.

By this time, I could tell if I was carrying a boy or a girl, by the simple fact that I was always anaemic for the girls and had to take iron pills throughout the pregnancy - never had to for the boys. (I had it down to a "fine art" by this time!) I was pretty sure the baby would be a boy because I wasn't anaemic and I also had an experience that pointed that way.

I was having a hard pregnancy, with so many small ones at home. I was always a very fastidious housekeeper and just couldn't seem to keep up with it all. It got to the point where my Obstetrician had a talk with me; he said I'd have to make a decision between a clean house and having a physical breakdown - so, I chose to let the house go a little.

I had been praying about the whole situation and felt the Lord spoke a scripture, "Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build 'A' church." (Now, my understanding is that each one of us is 'A' church...where God dwells.) I was still Catholic at the time, but knew it wasn't said as it is in the Bible ("Thou art Peter and upon this rock I will build My church.") Going by that, we decided that Peter was the name for him. We picked John because of the John in the Bible, the current Pope, and also after Joe's brother John.

Peter was born on October 2, 1962 (Tuesday), in the afternoon. He was born a day after I went into hospital (with induced labor). He had put his hand up over his head and it delayed delivery for 24 hours. I didn't know about it until later, had been knocked out all that time (a good rest), and woke up a day later than I thought it was. He weighed 6 lbs. 2 1/2 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. He was very thin, had long arms and legs and a lot of almost black hair. He didn't gain any weight for the first month. I was so scared that they would put him in the hospital that I didn't let the doctor see him until he began to gain weight.

Peter had a large head. Doctor measured it whenever he was in for checkups and shots - wanted to be sure he didn't have water-on-the-brain. I prayed for him all the time; that the Lord would grow Peter's body up to match his head size. When he was about 5 years old, it looked normal.

We had asked Aunt Patty and her husband Joe to be godparents for Peter. They said, "Yes". And they bought a very beautiful, and expensive baptismal gown for the occasion. In later years, when we became "Born Again" Christians and believed in baptism after believing, we gave the gown to a distant relative who had just had a baby.