Well, here we are, and it has been a month since Xander was born. How the time flies! He is so mellow, such a good baby. Hard to believe after three bawling girls! Just kidding 😉 He’s more alert now, and gives us smiles here and there. He loves to be held by any of us (but I think he likes mom the best, lets just hope he doesn’t turn into a momma’s boy). He’s a modest child, though. Unlike his sisters who were happy at any moment to be rid of their clothes, Xander prefers to cover up his naughty bits. OK, maybe he just doesn’t like to be cold…

We are so happy to have him here. He has brought a lot of happiness to our home. The girls are really fawning over him. In fact, they fight over who’s turn it is to hold him, or watch me give him a bath, or throw his diaper away, etc. At least they are happy enough not to come to blows over him, yet. We have thought of investing in boxing gloves, though. We have a nice room that we can lock them in, sort of like a little girl’s version of a WWE cage match. Whoever comes out is the winner. That will save us the hassle of refereeing the arguments.

Thanks for all the love and gifts. He has a wonderful family and great friends. He really is growing up blessed.

(Some editorial comments by Jason, who has wanted to say “naughty bits” for a while, now)

We be retired now. We left Logan and the kids five days ago, and although I cried all the way to Provo, we managed to get 500 miles down the road to Mesquite.

Our true appreciation of Cygnus has begun. It is our only house now – no more “big house” to shower in or cook in. The last two months have been a great shakedown trip. We’ve learned a lot. Now we know how much it costs to replace a radiator hose and repair two hydraulic levelers. We know how long it takes to get a new microwave and we know how our electrical system is set up; I have to turn off two heaters on the left side of the bus to use a hair dryer if we only have 40 amps.

Finding an RV space in Mesquite was, apparently, lucky. This place doesn’t take reservations after 2 PM (no one answers the phone) so rigs come in and circle around looking for an empty slot. There were two spaces when we got here. It’s not an RV “Park” as I expected. It’s a large concrete slab with lines painted on it. People pull in, lay out their indoor/outdoor carpeting, walk the dog and then, I guess, they go gamble. There are all sorts of RVs and some of them appear to be here long-term. You can tell because they put pots of cacti out to hold down the carpet, instead of rocks.

We have spent three days wandering around, squinting and smiling, packing up winter clothes, and checking the temperature. (It has been a sunny 68 degrees and mid-thirties at night.) It has taken that long for us to slide out of a snow mentality into an awareness of “here we are in the south-west and we don’t have to go to work and it’s okay if we aren’t productive every day.”

Jason turned us on to “Napoleon Dynamite,” a great indie coming of age film set in Preston, Idaho (overnight stop on the Idaho Bike Ride).

The Bluebird feels good. We have more storage space than we thought, although Dave feels we’re overweight. We sleep very well and have begun to use the grill. We’re very happy in this bus, paying the toll of kisses or a pat on the butt, depending on whether we pass each other frontward or backward.

Life is good.

Love to you all,

Sam

A foot-and-a-half of snow in two hours. Getting to the house was very much like digging our way to the growler in the morning at the cabin at Elk Lake.

Snowed for three days – biggest snow in years here. Aren’t we glad we got to experience THIS!

Now it’s going to get very cold for the next few days. We may get out by spring!

Dave and Sam

For those of you who have been on pins and needles, the new baby’s name is… No, it’s not Chinook. Nor is it Thunder. Drum roll, please… Alexander. We finally had to do something since Jamie was due to be checked out of the hospital. They really prefer to have the SS card info done before mother and baby leave.

If you are curious, there is a great uncle Alexander in the family, an archbishop in Ottowa who was my grandmother’s uncle. To be honest, though, Jamie and I were watching the Athens olympics this summer and we saw a Canadian diver named Alexandre somethingorother. We both thought “hmm, that’s not bad…” And here we are.

Jamie is doing pretty well, by the way. She is recovering from the surgery and moving kind of slow. Thankfully mom is here to help out during this difficult period.

Alex is also doing pretty well, though it is hard to tell since he sleeps so much (I wonder how long THAT will last). I’m not complaining, though. We’ll take it when we can get it. Before too long he’ll probably sleep during the day and party all night. I’ll post a few more photos later today, including a sweet one of Alex and his Gramma Sam, or Gramma Thunder, as we are sure he will want to call her.

Post Scriptum: We (meaning me, his dad, at least) are going to call him Xander. Jamie isn’t quite comfortable with that yet. But we both agree that he is too little to be called Alexander. AND, he has started staying up at night. Yup, sleeps all day…

As you may or may not know by now, our little boy was born at 2:52 am on January 1st, 2005. He was the first baby born in Cache Valley in 2005. We were pretty stoked thinking of all the cool stuff we would get, then they handed us a handful of diapers, some onesies, and a breast pump. I think they may have heard the bubble burst in Pocatello.

We really didn’t think he would be born today when we sat down to watch a movie last night. At about 9:30 pm Jamie was really getting uncomfortable. Not contractions, but back pain. She almost decided to stay home, but I talked her into going to the hospital. So, called mom, then left when she came over with her pillow and a book (did I mention anywhere how really, really great it is to have mom and dad for neighbors?).

Thing were moving pretty slow at the hospital, despite several laps of the second floor corridor. After our doc (really my next door neighbor in disguise) got back from his New Year’s Eve celebrations (thank GOODNESS he doesn’t drink!) at around 1 am, he broke Jamie’s water. Again, more laps, and no significant progress.

It wasn’t until Jamie decided to get the epidural (?) that things started to move. She went from a 3.5 cm dilation to a 5 cm. That’s good. However, the nurse checked her after the anesthesia doc did his bit and found that the umbilical cord was between the baby’s head and the cervix. Meaning he was positioned on the umbilical cord like a tightrope walker standing on his head. The immediate fear was that the cord would get pinched causing severe trauma to the baby, or even death. So, the nurse crawled into bed with Jamie and supported the baby’s head away from the cord, and started giving the orders.

The anesthesiologist was still in the building, and Brett, I mean, Doctor Horsley, was on his way back. Things started to happen very quickly. The operating room was scheduled and they unplugged Jamie from her tubes and wires. The bed was wheeled down the hall and she was put into place as the support crew began to pour into the room. I was left in the hall; aware of only the moans and cries of my wife through the oxygen mask they had placed over her mouth and nose.

Jamie and I were VERY scared. Jamie was crying. The last thing she said before losing her senses in the operating room was to tell Brett that she couldn’t loose another baby. I was in serious distress. I found a shadowy corner of an unused desk area and knelt in prayer. I felt powerless and very dependent upon the skill of my friend and the will of God. I’m not sure what the people moving along the hallway thought of me as I knelt there, but surely I wasn’t the first to be seen in that kind of circumstance.

Within 20 minutes (it seemed like much longer as I started at the partly closed door that had swung against a piece of equipment) I heard the first sounds of my son. I cannot describe the relief I felt as my fear had been focused on the survival of my fifth child. However, my concern began to shift to Jamie as I realized how much danger she could be in. I suppose there is always a danger when surgeries are done in such haste, assuring the life of the child. However, a few minutes to get into scrubs and I was admitted to the OR to spend a moment with my wife.

I have never been in an operating room before, at least not consciously. My view was attracted to the green bundle on the table with an open and bloody wound in the middle. I began to shrink from what I saw, thinking it must be very serious, indeed. I was shepherded past Brett and his assistant to the head of the table where my wife was laying, with her arms spread wide as if in imitation of a crucifix.

I was assured that she was not anesthetized, but rather she had been given a sedative to help dull her senses long enough for the epidural block to become fully effective. However, as I held her hand and tried to speak to her, she showed no reaction. No evidence that she was conscious at all.

After that, things started to calm down. I went to the neonatal ICU and spent time with my son. Then, I went to Jamie’s room to await her return. That took about an hour and a half. I know it was that long because I had just finished watching the second episode of Cheers, which I watched after seeing the end of Foul Play with Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn.

We finally were able to sleep a little at about 6 am this morning. Jamie is, of course, wiped out. They bring the baby in for feeding every two to three hours.

What a blessing it is to have mom and dad here. We are very fortunate. As for a name for the little guy, well, I guess I’ll post on that later. Jamie still hasn’t picked one out.

Here is the Herald Journal Article about our New Year’s Baby

Click HERE for photos or click the “Photo Gallery” link in the menu above on the right.

Well, with Dave and Sam on the road full time, we thought it would be a good idea to create a web log to track their progress. This seems like a better way to keep people up to date about where they are and what they are doing. This web log will also contain some posts on other significant members of the Swan family, namely the Logan folks and those guys in Tacoma who are Swans in all but name.

So, please feel free to check things out. Once we get Sam trained up we suspect that there will be regular updates as well as photographs of their journey. Feel free to register with this site and you can add comments and even post updates of your own to let us know how you are doing. If you have any questions, feel free to email Jason (jason@swansonthego.com) or DavenSam (davensam@swansonthego.com).

Be happy.

I think that anyone watching mom and dad arrive at our house in Logan would have enjoyed the spectacle of backing up the Blue Bird. Our home has a long, narrow driveway on the east side of the house that extends to our back yard and our detached garage/office/workshop. When the Blue Bird is here, dad has to back it down the driveway and correctly position it so that it extends into the back yard (but not too far!) and is close enough to the garage/office/workshop to allow other cars to park next to it (we have renters with two cars and no on-street parking allowed in the winter).

Needless to say, it can be a nail-biter. But, as y’all know, dad is a pretty handy fellow. He manages to back it up and position it so that there is plenty of room all around. In fact, the last time he left to dump his tanks, he came back and was actually able to reposition the Blue Bird in the same holes his wheels were in when he left! Pretty impressive.

So, now we have new neighbors in the back yard. Nice folks. They come and go as they please and are always helping out. Dad is constantly fixing stuff up (due to the constant supply of things either falling apart or wearing out) around the house. Mom is like Alice on the Brady Bunch. Always cooking and shepherding kids around. But, she is careful to leave the heavy discipline to me or Jamie. Keeps her sane and assures that the kids always love grandma best!

We are truly enjoying having mom and dad here. It is fantastic to be able to spend so much time with them. I hope they enjoy being here as much as we really enjoy having them here. They are always good for a frank discussion of ideas as well as a bag of popcorn when we run out. Thanks!