The birth of our seventh child

Our seventh child was born on a cold, windy day in the spring of 1983.

"Today was quite a day," I had written in my journal on Monday evening, April 4, the day before the birth. "Hurricane force winds ripped out of the canyons all day and wrecked havoc all over Davis County. We were without power for six hours."

That day Claudia went to the hospital for her non-stress test. Apparently she was already having contractions, and the doctor was willing to start the baby then, or he was willing to wait until Wednesday morning if the baby had not come on its own by then. Wednesday would be April 6, and we thought that would be an appropriate date for little Joseph to be born.

"A long, exciting day," I wrote on Tuesday, April 5. Sometime around midnight, just as April 4 was becoming April 5 in our time zone, Claudia woke me up to say she didn't think she was going to have an April 6 baby. She was having regular contractions, not very strong yet, but regularly every two to three minutes, so I lay in bed timing them while she busied herself getting ready to go to the hospital. We drove to the hospital with gale force winds buffeting the car.

We arrived at Lakeview Hospital around 2:30 in the morning. Fortunately, Dr. David G. Lewis happened to be there already delivering another baby. Otherwise, he would not have made it. The baby was born at 2:51 a.m. It had to have been Claudia's easiest delivery: two strong pushes, and the baby was out.

"I see why you didn't wait for April 6," Dr. Lewis said as the baby was born. "It's not Joseph." Eliza weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces and was 19 inches long.

A little after 4:00 I left the hospital to try to get a couple hours of sleep before the children starting waking up. Talmage, who was five years old, came in at 6:00 and was the first to learn he had a new baby sister (except he never did ask me if the baby was a boy or a girl). The others soon followed. The radio announced that all the schools in Davis County would be closed for the day because of the continuing high winds and extensive power outages.

On Thursday afternoon, April 7, which was my Dad's 68th birthday, Eliza and her mother came home from the hospital. We had a birthday homecoming party. Claudia had a gift for each of the other children (nine-year-old Michael, eight-year-old Rebecca, seven-year-old Rachael, five-year-old Talmage, four-year-old Anna, and twenty-two-month-old Camilla), and I had one for her.

"Eliza is a cute baby who has been home for a week now," I wrote in my journal on Thursday, April 14. "I've never heard her, but Claudia tells me she wakes up at night."

And then on Thursday, May 5: "Eliza is one month old today. She is a cute little toad and has finally started to sleep through the night, I understand. We all just adore her."

Eliza's name came from her great-great-grandmother on my side, Eliza Brazier Batt (1864-1926), and her great-great-grandmother on Claudia's side, Elise Marie Pehrsson Fraughton (1861-1951). Also in part from Eliza R. Snow (1804-1887), one of the most celebrated Latter-day Saint women of the nineteenth century. We learned from our dear friend and backdoor neighbor, Tom Brandon, that Eliza was also his mother's name.

Eliza was named and blessed during the fast and testimony meeting of the Bountiful Twentieth Ward on Sunday, May 1, 1983. I gave the blessing:

"Our kind and gracious Heavenly Father, in a spirit of thanksgiving and love and humility, we take this child in our hands today to give her a name and a blessing. We do it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the power and the authority of the holy Melchi­zedek Priesthood. The name that we give her is Eliza Cleverly.

"Eliza, we bless you at this time that you may grow and develop both in stature and spirit, in body and mind, that you may accomplish the reason for your coming here to the earth at this time. You have recently been in the presence of our Heavenly Father. You come here as a covenant child, a daughter of our Heavenly Father sent to the house of Israel at this time in the important period as we prepare for the great millennial period and the return of our Savior to the earth.

"As you grow and develop, may the Lord bless you with an extra measure of faith and obedience, that you may accomplish all that a loving Father desires to pour out upon you as you go through the various experiences of this life. We bless you, through your parents, your family, your teachers, and all who may have any influence upon you as you grow in the gospel, that they will train you up in the ways of truth and righteousness, that you will be a great servant of our Heavenly Father and live up to the great heritage that you are receiving, a royal birthright, a noble lineage. We pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."