The birth of our second child

In late July 1974, the day after I had a wisdom tooth pulled, Claudia's parents came from southern California to visit us in Provo. Her father came to attend the ninth annual priesthood genealogy seminar at BYU. But the real reason was that their only grandchild, Michael Adam, happened to live at our house. Claudia was great with child. We were not venturing far from home, not knowing whether our second child, like the first, might come five weeks earlier than expected.

At her weekly doctor visit, about three weeks before the August 19 due date, the doctor told Claudia the baby could come at any time. Based on that comment and our experience the previous fall when Michael Adam was born, Claudia's mother decided to stay for the birth of the baby. Her father drove home. He had to return to work.

And so we all waited. And waited. And waited. August 19 came and still no baby. We tried all the old tricks—taking castor oil, driving across railroad tracks—none of them worked. Claudia's dad, alone in California, was probably tiring of peanut butter sandwiches every day.

On Sunday evening, August 25, we went to church in the campus branch where I was serving as a counselor in the branch presidency. I was conducting sacrament meeting. As part of the service, we were inviting members from the congregation to speak impromp­tu. I called on Claudia, and she came forward and started by saying she thought I had done it just to get the baby coming. Unknown to me then, she was already feeling slight con­trac­tions. She shared a beautiful experience from her semes­ter in Europe when her group held a sacrament service on the beaches of Thessalonica, Greece, on the Sunday of April con­ference.

Anyway, back at home after the meeting, Claudia let us know she thought she was finally having a baby. That was good news to her mother, who by now was anxious to return home after four weeks at our house.

We walked around the block—Claudia, Michael Adam, and me—and then she came home to take a hot bath. I guess the walking and the bath help it along. We started timing con­tractions at four minutes, but soon they were only two minutes apart, lasting about 30–40 seconds each. Then sometime around 10:15 at night we went to the hospital.

We had pretty much concluded that this second baby would also be a boy. This was in the day before ultrasounds were used to give parents advance notice of what flavor was coming. After a not too difficult labor, Rebecca was born at 2:24 in the morning of Monday, August 26, exactly one week short of her older brother's first birthday. She weighed in at seven pounds fifteen ounces—almost eight pounds—and was twenty inches long.

I wrote in my journal: "Our first daughter and second child was born this morning at 2:24. She is healthy and her wonderful mother—my beloved Claudja—pulled through it all in fine form. The ex­perience of having a child born, and being there to see it happen, always arrests my thoughts and arouses deep emo­tions that I cannot express. Once again, life seems a miracle so sacred, so divine that I'm amazed that our loving Father so freely shared its powers with us, especially as we see its abuse all around.

"Rebecca comes very welcomed into our home. Just as surely as Michael Adam came to us a week short of a year ago, her coming was also planned and prayed for this time."

With the doctor's having said three weeks before the due date that the baby could come at any moment, and then Claudia's going a full week after the due date, she felt like she had had a ten-month pregnancy. Her poor mother had had to wait six weeks before she could return home to California after Rebecca was born and established.

A month after Rebecca was born, on the Sunday just before October conference, we took our baby to get her name and blessing. In fast and testi­mony meeting on Sunday, September 29, I held Rebecca in my arms and gave her her first blessing. Most of the members of the BYU Eleventh Branch were single students, with maybe a half dozen married couples, so a baby blessing was a rare treat for them.

"Our Heavenly Father, by the authority of the holy Mel­chizedek Priest­hood which we bear as elders in the Church of Jesus Christ, we take this infant in our arms to give her a name and her first father's blessing. And the name that we give to her and by which she will be known on the records of Thy church and the records of the land is Rebecca Cleverly.

"Now we pray, Heavenly Father, first of all that Thou wilt bless those of us who are her parents and her family, that we may teach her the truths of Thy gospel and provide for her the environment that she needs to pre­pare for her mission here upon the earth and to prepare to return to Thy presence after this life.

"We are grateful for this precious spirit that has come at this time in the world's history. Bless her with health, with strength, with understanding, that she may be an example to those who associate with her during her sojourn here upon the earth. May she be blessed with every gift and talent that she needs to accomp­lish her mission in this life. May she prepare herself for the great responsibility and blessing of someday be­coming a mother in Zion—to prepare other precious spirits for the coming of Thy Son.

"May she be aware of the great heritage that is hers, that she has inherited from her families and may she appreciate the great heritage of the name that she is receiving and pattern her life after the great woman Rebekah in the Old Testa­ment, who was a faith­ful woman in Israel, who stood at the side of a prophet of God as a companion and a help­meet. May this child's life be as glorious and as obedient to Thy will as hers.

"These blessings we seal upon her, as stated, by the authority of the priesthood which we possess, and in the name of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen."