Week Number 2 of this project:  My Birth
Questions to answer:

Do you have any baby photos?
Where were you born?
Who was present at your birth?
Dimensions?
What day was it? Time?
Did you have hair? Eye colour
Are you a twin?

I have never found any newborn baby pictures, although there are many of me in older babyhood.  This looks to have been taken at my aunt and uncle's property near Boring, Oregon, and since my mother is without a coat, perhaps it was taken during the spring following my birth, so I'm about 8 or 9 months old.  Just a guess, I have no one to ask for sure, and didn't think to ask when I did have someone.

I was born on August 19, 1947, in La Grande, Oregon.  I was somewhat of a miracle baby, perhaps.  My mother had given birth to my older brother almost seven years before mine.  Baby Jimmy only lived a couple of days, he was full term but barely 5 pounds and had under-developed lungs and was termed "malnourished," according to his death certificate.  Mother said that the doctors told her she probably would never have a normal child, even if she got pregnant again.   

World War II came along and my father enlisted in the Army, serving in Guam for most of the war.  By this time most of her family had left La Grande and moved to Portland, so Mom followed and got a job there while waiting for my father to return.  At the end of the war, he did return and they moved back to La Grande.

My mother had gone to an obstetrician with Jimmy.  She said the obstetrician put her on a strict diet, not wanting her to gain much weight.  She was a thin woman anyway, so I'm not sure why she was put on a diet, unless it was thought at the time that being heavy would be bad for both mother and baby.  She always blamed this restricted diet for Jimmy's small birth weight and malnourished condition at birth.

When she became pregnant with me, she went to a GP, who put no diet restriction on her.   I arrived safely and healthy, weighing in at 7 pounds 3 ounces and 19 inches long.  Fifteen months later she had my brother, who arrived 3 months prematurely.  Very few babies born that early survived back then, but after 3 months in the hospital, she brought him home, very close to his original due date.  Because I was her only "normal" baby, I give myself the tag of "miracle baby."

I didn't have much hair, just some brown fuzz, and had blue eyes which eventually turned hazel.  

Mom said she spent about a week in the hospital, then brought me home.  She said the total hospital cost for me, plus her stay, was about $75.  I'm not sure what the average wage was back then, but compared to today's hospital rates, $75 still sounds like a bargain!