Today I am writing about having my children. First, I want to say that I loved being pregnant. I was always my happiest when I was going to have a baby. As I said, David was six weeks early. When I first got pregnant with David, I tried to pretend I wasn't because I just knew I would miscarry anyway. About half-way through my third month, I got scared so I went to the doctor. Dr. Asmundson in Enumclaw was my doctor. I had never seen him before. When I got into his office I was trying to hold myself together but as soon as I said "I think I'm pregnant", I started crying. I'm sure he must have thought I wasn't married because I was so upset. Anyway, I told him about all my miscarriages. He said there was a new drug on the market that would help prevent miscarriages, so yes, that new drug was Diethylstilbestrol, DES. (I took that drug with David, Diane, Donna and for about three months with Richard and then the doctor decided I didn't need anymore.) Evidence many years later found that many DES babies had problems. DES mothers felt guilty and I was no exception. So I'm sorry my DES children. Also, apparently, the drug did nothing to prevent miscarriages.

David was supposed to be born in March. Dr. Asmundson always went on his annual vacation to Hawaii in February. I even asked him when he told me that "what if I have the baby early?" He said I was doing just fine, not to worry. Dr. Adams, an Army Doctor from World War 2, filled in for Dr. Asmundson. He was an excellent doctor according to everyone but he was blunt and rough speaking and he did not hesitate to lecture you. As it turned out, I think I was fortunate that he was my doctor. David wasn't breathing when he was born and the nurses said he worked on David for 15 minutes before he started breathing. The nurse said the doctors didn't usually work on them that long. Dr. Adams had been up all night as he had delivered a premature girl 3 hrs. before David was born. The Enumclaw Hospital was very new. There was only one Incubator so David spent the first few hours of his life in an incubator with the baby girl. Like I said, Dr. Adams always talked plain. He came into my room and said "the baby is alive but it is touch and go with these premies". So I laid there and started crying some more. The doctor had hollered at me when I came to the hospital in labor because I had a cold. Anyway, by this time, your dad was a basket case. Then the doctor sent your dad to Auburn to get an Incubator from the Auburn Hospital. At that time in the incubators, they were giving the babies high oxygen. A lot of premature babies were going blind in the forties and early fifties and peaked in 1950 and 1951. An English doctor figured out the problem. He could not understand why the babies being born in hospitals were going blind and the ones born in the country put in boxes by warming ovens were not. Doctors finally proved the theory and almost overnight in 1952, the high oxygen was stopped. David did have eye problems but it could have been much worse.

(Sorry, as usual this letter is getting long) After I had David I didn't have any more problems with my pregnancies until Dan was born. He was breech. We were living in Bonney Lake when I was pregnant with Dan. Our house was very unfinished. We had electricity but no water. We had to pack water and keep drinking water in jugs. This was a hard period in my life. I was washing diapers everyday besides other clothes. Your dad and David (who wasn't quite 10 yet) were digging the well. They were trying to get it done before I had the baby. I was helping too. I had to dump the buckets of heavy mud and sand. One day my Visting Teachers came by. (In those days we didn't make appointments) They were shocked when they saw what I was doing. They said it could hurt the baby. After I had the baby, they were positive he was breech because I had been lifting those heavy buckets. Personally, I think that was just another "Old Wives Tale"

I meant to mention about Dr. Asmundson again. He came back from Hawaii and I was sitting in the waiting room with David for a check-up. He just stopped in his tracks. He had just gotten back and didn't know I had the baby yet. Years later when he wasn't my doctor anymore, he saw me in the hospital, I think with Debbie, and he came over and took my hand and said"Is this the little girl who didn't think she would ever have a baby. How many is this now, Mrs. Otte?"

OK now that's my babies story. I need to march on to other things. I started doing this so late in life I will be lucky if I cover everything of importance. As we all do, I have had many ups and downs in my life. I intend to dwell on just the good things and of course, I will pop in different stories that happened along my life's path.