Guard Duties Resumed
Greetings to everyone.
Needless to write, but it has been a very serious time of historical rainfall along the Front Range. Flooding is rampant and washed-out roads and closed roads abound.
All this going on and newly promoted 1st Lieutenant Ogden must report to the Wyoming ANG base today. Of course, she has to be able to get to Wyoming to report in. I-25 is closed and she is sitting on it three miles from where the Big Thompson River overflowed I-25 (the highway is closed in both directions).
Her orders are for Friday and Saturday this month. Next month and through next year, her orders will be for Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Guard Weekend. This will be the first time I am left to care for and manage Xavier on my own. Whom will I ask "should I feed him 60 cc or 70 cc?" Or, whom will I ask "what do you think is wrong?"
Most likely, Rebecca will come home to find Xavier in his diaper, holding a slice of pizza in one hand and the TV remote in the other. Dad will be sitting next to him in his boxers also holding a slice of pizza.
Levity aside, Xavier is doing well. Today he is four months old. He is growing, and these last two days he has been eating and eating. Every two hours he downs 50 to 70 cc. Though he has not been weighed in nearly two weeks, he likely weighs about 6.5 pounds. It's getting difficult to hold him with one hand as his chest girth is increasing nicely.
Also these last two days he has not been so colicky. I must say, it's like a new calmer, gentler Xavier has emerged. His whole countenance has changed. We are not sure why the sudden (and it was sudden, within hours) change. Our top three thoughts are: the cooler temperatures, the low pressure parked over the Front Range, or the number 2 nipples we are now using on his bottles.
The new nipples definitely have had a positive effect on him. He burps better and he has not "volcanoed" since we introduced them. (volcanoed: (v) when a baby sucks in 50 cc or more of formula, aerates it in the stomach, then sends it back up, sometimes at gail-force speeds. Often thirty to sixty minutes after ingestion)
Of course, the one reason I did not mention above is the prayer. Always, we thank you for it. Great and Mighty is our Lord!
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Rebecca, dressed and ready to go, says her farewells to Xavier. She will not see him again for nearly two days. She looks good in her freshly-pressed uniform with 1st Lieutenant bars. It's the first time since her promotion she has donned the uniform with its new insignia.
How Did Xavier Get His Name?
Greetings to everyone.
"How did you pick 'Xavier' as a name?" has been a common question directed at Rebecca and me. After answering it again, I realized I should blog the answer as well.
Rebecca and I began discussing names early in the pregnancy. At that time we did not know if Rebecca carried a boy or a girl, so we discussed names for both. We learned we definitely had different ideas about choosing names!
The power to name was given to Man by God from the beginning; it is not something to be done lightly. Our primary concern was bestowing a name that had meaning. One's name becomes one's reputation. We wanted a name that would encourage and strengthen our child to press forward to achieve the meaning and reputation suggested by the name. We wanted a name that would effuse light, hope and comfort, while making evil and darkness tremble at its speaking.
Rebecca and I passed name ideas between ourselves, but nothing clicked for both of us. We were not too serious about choosing a name, we figured we had months to think about it. We did not even know the baby's gender at the time. Also, we heard so many stories of people who had the name picked out, but when the baby came and they looked upon it the first time, they decided the chosen name did not fit the child. Rebecca and I wanted to have an arsenal of ideas and be ready for any contingency. Little did we suspect what the next months would bring!
When the reports of a troubled pregnancy started, Rebecca decided she wanted to know the baby's gender. Referring to our baby as "it" or "the baby" or "the munchkin" was too impersonal. We needed to give our child a name.
The doctors already knew from a series of labs run against Rebecca's blood (some of the baby's genetic material passes through the placenta and into mom's blood stream. The series of labs was looking at our baby's DNA for reasons for his slow growth). Both Rebecca and I already knew the gender, it was something we both deeply "felt". Breaking with our thought to wait until birth to know "for sure," we asked one of the perinatal doctors. Armed with his gender, we could now complete the task of choosing a name.
Knowing his gender only slightly helped ease choosing a name. Not too long after having his gender "verified" to us, Rebecca informed me she thought his middle name should be "Michael" after his father. I agreed. It is a good tradition and a strong name, and one I strive to live up to. It had all the right elements. So, his middle name was settled.
Nearly two weeks passed, and still no first name could be agreed upon, though many candidates were considered. Then, while having lunch with a friend, the name "Xavier" came into the conversation. Rebecca liked it instantly and brought the idea home to me. I considered it, but I did not have Rebecca's zeal for it. It was not a common name, which appealed to me. So, I did some research on its meaning.
The name has two sources. One source was Basque, and it means "New House." That meaning, to me, had no meaning. It made me think of a pile of bricks and lumber. Strike two! (strike one was my lack-luster response with Rebecca's suggestion).
The second source of the name derives from the Moors. It means "Bright Hope".
We did not immediately go with "Xavier," at that time. Instead, we called it a good candidate. As both of us continued to mull it over, it felt more and more "right"; the name began to blossom within our hearts. After another "meeting of the minds" between Rebecca and me, we made it official. It would be nearly a month before we started telling people.
The story might end there, but for my sister, Kathy. When I informed her of our choice for our son's name, her response was a sarcastic "big surprise there!" Surprised by her statement, I asked her "what do you mean by 'big surprise there'?"
She then reminded me of something I had forgotten. More than twenty years ago, I wrote stories under the pen name "Michael Xavier" (the choice of that pen name is another story all together).
Not only his middle name, but his Christened name follows after his father. Some have said his hunger to know and experience God will exceed his father's. May it be so! May he go further than I ever have, and may he have greater influence in the lives of people and advancing the Kingdom. We have prayed over him from the time we knew we were pregnant that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit even in the womb and he will be a world-changer and a history-maker. Even at his tiny size and not even a year old yet, Xavier Michael has changed the worlds of many and he has encouraged people he has never met.
Gracious is our God and Father, Who has given us such a blessing. Thank you all for your prayers as they have helped shape Xavier in ways we will not know the full extent for years and Milena to come!
Dad is having some "issues" with his camera. I inadvertently set something I can't figure out how to unset, and it makes taking pictures problematic (which is why I haven't posted more of them). However, I have a work-around for less impromptu shots like this one.
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| This is Xavier in his car seat the day before we took him home (he is having his "Car Seat Challenge"). Wow, he still has tubes and wires in this photo. | Look how much he has grown!. This is quite a difference from six weeks ago when he was 4 grams shy the seat's lowest specified weight limit. Rebecca and I were careful to see Xavier's bottom was sitting in the same place as he was in the picture to the left. |
Here Xavier enjoys the swing Rebecca purchased for him last week. Her father and I picked it up on the way back from the airport and assembled it. After thoroughly washing the fabric and frame (it was, after all, picked up in a second-hand store), we set Xavier into it. This swing has a magnetic drive (which is cool), a timer to turn it off after :30, :45 or :60 minutes, several settings to adjust how high the swing goes, three instrumental selections (which Xavier likes), three "nature" selections (fake crickets, falling rain, and ocean waves which sound like gusts of wind). It's difficult to see in this photo, but Xavier does have a smile on his face.
Xavier Meets One of His Grandpas
Greetings and hello to everyone.
Xavier had a busy weekend. His maternal grandfather flew in for a visit. Labor Day was a long weekend and it worked out for us to receive Danny, Rebecca's father.
I picked Dan up Friday at DIA. On the way home, he and I stopped at Once Upon A Child, a second-hand store for all things baby and toddler related (it's where we found most of Xavier's early preemie clothing which he has at last outgrown). Rebecca had purchased an item we have been discussing getting for a few weeks: a swing. She bought it, but had no room in the car to carry it home. Dan and I made it work with a little disassembly and repacking of his suitcases and Xavier's car seat base.
Danny was happy to see his grandson, for him it is his first grand child. Though happy to see Rebecca, he headed for Xavier as soon as he could. Whipping out the camera, he started his photo shoot, a shoot which continued through the next four days.
For Rebecca, her father's visit meant sleep! She got to rest late into the morning with no concern of getting up to care for Xavier. On Saturday, she did not even feed Xavier until 11:00 PM at night.
We even got a visit from Auntie Rochelle, Rebecca's sister. She joined us Sunday, when we introduced both she and Dan to the chicken at White Fence Farms.
We praise our God for gifting Danny with the trip to visit his grandson. Always, thank you all for your prayers.
Grandpa burps Xavier after a feeding. One of the things Danny did not get to experience this time out was one of Xavier's infamous eruptions, where he returns his milk all foamed up back to the person feeding him. Alas. Perhaps, next time.
With Xavier asleep, Grandpa could have put him down in the new swing just three feet away. Instead, he opted to show solidarity with his grandson, joining him in a quick catnap.