Date: Fri 12-Jan-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: KAAREN

Quick Words:

DaPra-first-baby-contest

Full Text:

with cut: Local Couple Has State's First Baby Boy Of '96

B Y K AAREN V ALENTA

Robert DaPra was so convinced that the baby his wife, Susan, was expecting

would be a girl that they didn't pick out a boy's name until a week before the

birth.

"Rob was very surprised when it turned out to be a boy," Susan DaPra said.

"And we were both surprised that he was the first baby boy of the New Year in

Connecticut - and the first baby in Newtown." The child's timely arrival also

made him the winner of The Bee's annual First Baby Contest.

Alexander Christian DaPra was born at 12:01 am, just 31 seconds after a baby

girl was born in Waterbury Hospital. Both made the television newscasts the

next day.

"When the television crew showed up at Danbury Hospital on Monday they thought

Alexander was the first baby in Connecticut, but we already knew he wasn't,"

Susan said. "This seems to be a very big competition between the doctors and

nurses at the different hospitals. Danbury Hospital hasn't had a New Year's

baby in years. The nurses and doctor were rooting for the baby to be born on

New Year's Day, but I just wanted to push and get it over with."

The DaPras were at the hospital for less than two hours before their 8 lb 1 oz

son was born.

"Girls tend to run in my family and Rob's," Susan DaPra said. "I have three

sisters and he has three sisters. His 99-year-old grandfather, John DaPra, who

lives in Greenwich, said he had to have a boy to carry on the family name.

Alexander and his great-grandfather are almost 100 years apart (in age)."

Susan is originally from Danbury, where her parents Peggy and Bill Tita still

live. Rob grew up in Norwalk. The couple met at Duracell in Bethel in 1990

when Rob worked for an auditing firm employed by Duracell. It wasn't long

before Rob joined Duracell and worked in the same department as Susan. The

couple married in 1993.

"A lot of couples that are married work at Duracell - we are by no means the

first," Susan said. "But Rob went on to become assistant corporate controller

- I'm a financial analyst - so we aren't in the same department anymore."

The couple lived in a condo in Monroe after their marriage but decided last

March to sell and buy a house.

"The condo sold so fast - within three weeks - and the new owner wanted to

move in so we had to act quickly to buy a house," Susan said. "A lot of

builders in Newtown were building houses that weren't quite finished but

hadn't been sold yet. We were able to find one in Sandy Hook and move in by

May with our bassett hound, Maggie."

The DaPras have relatives in town and were familiar with the area.

"My cousins, John and Wendy Tita, live in Newtown and Rob's sister, Karen

Peterson, is a realtor here," Susan said.

Rob DaPra figures that his son's birth on New Year's Day cost them $800 or

$900 by missing the midnight December 31 deadline for a 1995 tax deduction.

"But the uniqueness of having a New Year's baby and the fact that he was born

healthy more than makes up for it," he said.