David de Gaston

THE GROWING FAMILY!

          Melanie gave birth to their first child at about 1:30 AM, Friday, March 17, 2000. Jonathan David de Gaston weighed in at 7lb 7oz and 19".

          Their second, another boy, was born 9:44 PM (MDT), Tuesday, August 28, 2001! Matthew Evans de Gaston was 6lb 9oz, and also 19". It is interesting to note that combining the two middle names produces the father's given names, "David Evans"!

          Then on April 30, 2003, David called me and said that Rachel Marie entered the world at 10:06 PM MDT today, April 30, 2003. She was 19.5 inches long and weighed 5lb 11oz, and was full term. Melanie did well after about 10 hours of labor, shorter by two hours than her shortest previous labor. Rachel Marie has very thick black hair, the thickest that he has ever seen!

          The next baby was also a daughter, Hannah Marie. David wrote: Hannah Irene de Gaston was born on Tuesday, January 25, 2005 at 03:49 am in Melbourne, Florida. She weighs 6 pounds and 14 ounces and was 20.5 inches long. She has a little bit of light brown hair, and typical baby blue eyes. She has my detached earlobes...none of the kids have Melanie's attached lobes.            Tuesday, August 1, 2006, David telephoned and told me that he acted as a physician's assistant and delivered Melanie of their 5th child, a girl, at 10:41 PM, CDST. Her name is Elizabeth Anne de Gaston. She came into the world angry and fighting, at 6 pounds 12 ounces, 19 .5 inches with APAGAR scores of 8 and 9. David like a professional doctor immediately unburdened himself of the new baby, which promptly began to urinate in the nurse's hands.

          Another girl (Sarah Catherine, #6 child) arrived at 18:59 CST on Tuesday, November 16, 2010 (about 5 1/2 weeks early). She weighed about 2.3Kg (5.1 lbs) and had Apgar scores of 8 and 8. The early onset of labor was apparently due to a maternal appendicitis...and provided a harrowing experience , but all worked out well.

          Joshua Brian de Gaston was born on Monday July 9, 2012 at 16:54 CDT in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He weighed in at 3284 grams, or 7 pounds 3.9 ounces. His Apgar scores were 8 and 9. Even though he started out strong, his condition deteriorated rapidly a few hours after birth and he was rushed to the NICU. They immediately put him on 100% supplemental oxygen, installed a high frequency ventilator, and did many more interventions over the next twelve hours. He was almost placed on Extra-Corporeal Membranous Oxygenation yesterday morning, but then his condition improved slightly. His first A-P chest X-ray was uniformly hazy where this heart and lungs should have been readily visible. The subsequent x-rays have improved somewhat - showing the outline of the lungs and heart. He is still a very sick boy with a long road in front of him. (David's comments to me via E-mail July 12.)
          Good news is that he was home by the 18th and doing well.

Dad and David on the summit of Mount Whitney, August 16, 1997
(Mount Whitney at 14,494 feet above sea level is the highest point in the contiguous 48 States)

Dad and David, July 1989 in Phoenix, Arizona

Dad and David in Phoenix, Arizona (Roy's), July 1989

The Home Page of My Son:

David Evans de Gaston

Resume of Professional Accomplishments

Here is an example of the professional competence and expertise of my diligent, hard-working, self-motivated, entrepreneurial, Electrical Engineering, and Digital Signal Processing son:

Advanced Voice Encoding Research: to reduce the data rate in transmitting voice-quality speech using the GSM 06.10 Full Rate Vocoder for the TI C6000 DSP platform.

THE GROWING FAMILY!