For this next pregnancy, I was quite thrilled because I was anaemic again, and that always meant a girl. I had three boys in a row and a little girl would be a nice change. We wanted a short name, like the two other daughters had, so it would go with such a long last name (Girouard). Lisa was decided on, as it was a variant of Elizabeth from the Bible (who was Mary's relative, and had conceived John the Baptist in her old age). Jean was the French word for John in the Bible.

My Mom had another baby shower for us, as our baby clothes had gone through so many children that they were really worn out...I needed all new things. We bought 4 more dozen diapers - had used a gross of diapers in the past years (12 dozen-144 diapers).

Lisa was born January 29, 1966 (Saturday). Labor was to be induced, but labor started about 4 a.m. and she was born breech. She was so small and I had so many children, that I don't think I even had stitches for her...she just fell out. She had a large strawberry mark on the back of her neck; the doctor said it was the kind that would fade and be gone by the time she was 2 years old.

I had all-day sickness for 9 months with Lisa...none of the pills for it seemed to help. I had been praying for another baby to look like Peter, as he was the only one who had dark brown hair, and looked out of place with all the blondes. Lisa had long, dark brown hair, looked like a little Eskimo baby. She was small, dainty - weighed 5 lbs. 12 1/2 oz. and went down to 5 lbs. 8 oz. before leaving hospital - I was concerned that they wouldn't let Lisa come home from hospital, because the limit on weight was 5 lbs. 8 oz. but she was okay to come home. At first, I was reluctant to feed her in the hospital, because she had such small features and the openings to her nose were so small that I thought she wouldn't be able to breathe, but soon got over that...

Peter was absolutely spell-bound by Lisa. We had her in a bassinet in the dining room during the day, so I wouldn't have to go up and down the stairs all the time, to her crib. If Peter was ever missing, all we had to do was go to the bassinet; he was always there (holding onto the edge of it), looking in at his sister. There was a real bonding between them, quite early.

Of course Andrew, being Lisa's "big brother", always looked after her - kept her out of trouble, etc. That continues, even now. We always tried to make our children feel important, so they would be helpful with the new babies and not be jealous of them; always made sure they got the attention when bringing the new baby home from the hospital.