This morning Caleb had his first solid meal. By “solid” I really mean breast milk with a little rice cereal sprinkled in. I don’t think he really knew what we were so excited about, but he enjoyed the attention and change of scenery. And yes, we did this with full knowledge of what horrendously foul substance awaits us in tomorrow’s diaper change.

Happy Easter!  What an awesome day this has been.  A time to reflect upon the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a time spent with family and friends in celebration.  We had a fun time with Caleb, as he got the opportunity to spend some quality time with the Grandparents and the Great-Grandparents, as well as his uncle and aunt.

Reflecting upon today, we might ask what was the purpose of the death of Christ?

I thought it might be edifying to go through John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” (50 Reasons Why He Came To Die) - one post per reason, one at a time.  Perhaps this 50 days might be a time to grow in understanding of the greatest event in human history - the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why did he suffer and die?

Appropriatly, post #1 is on Easter Sunday:

#1 - Christ Suffered and Died to Absorb the Wrath of God

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a
curse for us—for it is written,

“Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree.” - Galatians 3:13

“God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood,
to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness,
because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.” - Romans 3:25

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us
and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.” - 1 John 4:10

If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to
suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness
for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving.
Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.
God’s law demanded, “You shall love the LORD your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”
(Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more.

This is what sin is—dishonoring God by preferring other things over
him, and acting on those preferences. Therefore, the Bible says,
“All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans
3:23). We glorify what we enjoy most. And it isn’t God.

Therefore sin is not small, because it is not against a small
Sovereign. The seriousness of an insult rises with the dignity of the
one insulted. The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of
respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him
is not trivial—it is treason. It defames God and destroys human
happiness.

Since God is just, he does not sweep these crimes under the rug
of the universe. He feels a holy wrath against them. They deserve to
be punished, and he has made this clear: “For the wages of sin is
death” (Romans 6:23). “The soul who sins shall die” (Ezekiel 18:4).
There is a holy curse hanging over all sin. Not to punish would
be unjust. The demeaning of God would be endorsed. A lie would
reign at the core of reality. Therefore, God says, “Cursed be everyone
who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the
Law, and do them” (Galatians 3:10; Deuteronomy 27:26).

But the love of God does not rest with the curse that hangs over
all sinful humanity. He is not content to show wrath, no matter how
holy it is. Therefore God sends his own Son to absorb his wrath and
bear the curse for all who trust him. “Christ redeemed us from the
curse of the law by becoming a curse for us” (Galatians 3:13).
This is the meaning of the word “propitiation” in the text
quoted above (Romans 3:25). It refers to the removal of God’s
wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God
himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the
wrath; he absorbs it and diverts it from us to himself. God’s wrath
is just, and it was spent, not withdrawn.

Let us not trifle with God or trivialize his love. We will never
stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness
of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But
when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look
at the suffering and death of Christ and say, “In this is love, not
that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to
be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:10).

The above is an excerpt from John Piper’s “The Passion of Jesus Christ” - Download the entire book free of charge here.

Okay, by now, all of you should have realized that the walking post was an April Fools Day joke - albeit, an awesome one. Apart from that, Our little guy loves to practice his walking. Here’s yet another video of his walking progress… and please excuse my fresh-out-of-bed appearance.

Andy found one of his old childhood toys in a box that was stored away in the garage. “Freckles” was a hand puppet he’s had since he was a wee one and grew up with him as one of his favorite toys. When first excavated from the box, the puppet was in rough condition and needed some eyeballs reapplied after a trip to the washing machine. But with a little love and some hot glue, Freckles has been resurrected to entertain the next generation of Holloways.

How a baby can have this deep a voice, I have no clue. It cracks me up every time he talks.

Here’s Andy and Caleb jamming out before bath time.

Here is one of our dear friends meeting Caleb for the first time. You can always count on Eric to make an entertaining video.

This Golden Oldie takes place the day after Caleb’s debut. Andy’s grandparents came to visit the little guy for the first time in the hospital (which would make them his great grandparents). Andy’s mom and sister were also hanging out with us. You can hear Andy say something to Grandpa about the Cardinals game that was playing in the background (at that point they were doing pretty bad). I must have been on some kind of pain medication based on the dumb look I have on my face.

This Golden Oldie was taken the same night as the previous one. A little background: when Toby was a puppy, I was a Dog Whisperer fanatic. Whenever I watched the show, Toby would be engrossed with the dogs on the TV. Whenever I said “look at the puppy” he would go to the TV, wagging his tail, looking for the dogs. It was cute - at the time. But over the course of a few months, our dog began to get increasingly excited when he saw dogs on TV. Now, we can’t even watch the Dog Whisperer anymore and have to cover his eyes when a dog appears on the TV for even a instant. If he sees one, he flips out. It’s not like he’s aggressive toward others animals in real life, I think he just feels like his territory is being encroached upon by the TV dogs.

The night we got the camera, Andy thought it would be fun to hook up the camera to the TV so Toby could see himself. This, of course, led to Toby barking at himself who, in turn, barked back.Thats me egging him on in the background. It was hilarious watching him rile himself up; it made for great television.

I’ve realized that we have taken many videos and just left them on our camera. Instead of leaving them on there or our computer, I’m going to post one of them every now and then. Granted, they aren’t that old since we got the camera just a few months shy of Caleb’s birth but nonetheless, they sure are fun to watch.

In an attempt to stay somewhat organized, I’m going to go through them in chronological order. This Golden Oldie was taken around 30 something weeks I think. Not too interesting, just Andy trying to figure out the camera while my pregnant self tried to entertain him. The original video is much longer and much less interesting, filled with a disobedient Toby and embarrassing remarks from myself. Only 19 seconds were worth salvaging.

Thanks to my wicked fast camera-acquiring skills, we were able to capture Caleb’s first real laugh on camera. Enjoy!

Make sure to click the HD button to enjoy this video to the fullest

After pressing play, mouse over the arrow and click “HD” to watch the video in higher quality

Our baby is two whole months. I can’t believe it. I’m already feeling that parental anxiety just seeing how fast he’s growing. As of now, he’s smiling all the time, laughing when he gets really worked up, and “talking” so much, as seen in the video above. He’s also holding his head up really well and can easily turn his head from side to side when he’s upright. He’s sleeping great at night but has his good and bad days concerning naps. He’s such a happy and interactive baby. He’s apparently got a lot to say because he’ll talk the ears off whoever’s listening when he gets going. Currently, he loves being held and has kind of become a “mama’s boy” in a sense. Probably because he’s with me 24/7. When he’s tired, he gets really clingy to the point where he’ll throw a fit if I set him down. There is lots of rocking and singing to sleep during the day, which I don’t mind at all. I know for a fact that when he’s older and can’t be held anymore, these days will become cherished memories. I want to create as many as I can.

Caleb had his two month check-up today. He’s weighing in at 12 pounds 4 ounces (64%) and is 23 inches long (57%); right in the middle percentile. He had to get his first round of vaccinations. Of course he screamed and cried. I felt even worse because he was really hungry and tired as well. Needless to say, he didn’t even finish eating afterward and fell asleep the minute he was placed in his carseat. I’m expecting some really good naps from him today.

Every milestone, from the first time he looked at us, to the first laugh, has been such a reward. It’s a tireing job to care for someone every waking (and sleeping) minute. But the fruits of our labor far outshine the sacrifice. We get to experience the learning and development of this little person. It’s so crazy to think when we brought him home in December, he couldn’t even make sense of the world around him. Now he enjoys our company and finds humor in our facial expressions. He knows what he likes and dislikes and will tell us when he’s content and when he needs something. I am simply amazed how a child can evolve and adapt to this point in just two months. I greatly look foward to watching him grow in the months to come.

Here are his “formal” two month pictures in his favorite chair:

Mouse over the arrow and click “HQ” to watch the video in higher quality

Caleb is six weeks old and getting so big so fast. During the first few days of pooping/crying chaos, I thought that it would last forever. But now, Caleb’s doing so much better and I realize just how short of a phase that really was.

Caleb’s fussiness is almost gone. Now when he fusses or cries, it’s for a reason. I just go down the baby care checklist (hungry? poopy? gassy? tired? bored?) and almost every time, one of them is the culprit. It’s nice to actually solve his issues instead of suffer through them.

We’ve had some really good days of cooing and playing. He’s now on the verge of the big gummy smile we’ve been looking forward to. We’ve gotten him to grin a little several times so far. He also has really good head control already. He will look around when he’s held upright and he can get up on his elbows during tummy time. Here’s a picture of when I caught him doing it yesterday:

He’s also been “talking” up a storm. Whenever we start talking to him, his face lights up and he starts making tons of cute little noises. Our little “conversations” are probably the best part of my day. You can see him and Andy talking in the video at the beginning of this post.

Here’s the little guy beefing up his neck muscles.

At exactly 5:30pm, on Saturday December 13th, Caleb Michael Holloway was born!  He weighed in at 7 pounds, 15 ounces and measured 21 inches long. (This makes new Grandmom Holloway the pool winner as she guessed 7lbs 14oz and 21 on the dot!)

What a journey it has been!  We’ve been dying to post pictures and videos but between the hospital stay and the LONG first night and day home, there just hasn’t been a free moment.  Alas, Bri is now fast asleep as is Caleb, so I’ve decided to sneak out and post Caleb’s birth story and some pictures and video for friends and family eager to see the little dude.  Here’s how it went down:  (lots of pictures and video of Caleb at the bottom of this post)

Caleb’s Birth Story

We woke up Saturday morning and gave labor & delivery a call, who said we were set to come in at 6am.  We grabbed the last of our bags and took off for the hospital.  Between registering and getting set up, we finally were in the room by about 6:30 and they got Bri all set up with an IV and started pitocin at this point to stimulate more contractions.  At this time Bri was about 2 1/2 CM and 75% thinned out.

They gradually increased the dosage of pitrocin, and at about 9 our OB broke the water, and that really got the ball rolling.  Bri started getting contraction after contraction with very little time in between, and they increased in strength as well.  The nurse (who was amazing all day) said that Bri could get the epidural whenever she was ready for it, but that it takes about an hour to get it working between the time to put in and the time to work etc.  After a few hours “toughing it out” to try to speed up the delivery, Bri decided to go ahead with the epidural.  It worked like magic and Bri was feeling fine again.  We pretty much played the waiting game at this point, watching 70’s gameshows on the TV and scrabble on our iPhones.

The nurse checked her at about 3:00pm and was “hoping” for her to be 6cm.  She was 8 and completely thinned, so we knew it’d be pretty soon.  We had some fun drama with our OB because he had another patient at Arrowhead hospital 15 minutes away, who was progressing apparently the same amount as Bri, and he was in between hospitals back and forth.  He finally came in and Bri started pushing at about 4:40 and it lasted about 40 minutes.  Needless to say, I feel exceptionally lucky to NOT be a woman.  Yikes!  Bri was awesome however, and before you knew it little Caleb Holloway was born!  What an amazing moment that was.  It was such an intense array of emotions and senses, we both  instantly started crying.  We couldn’t believe how beautiful he was.

He took his first looks at mom and dad and then they took him over to be cleaned up (after his poppa cut the cord of course!).  Poor Bri was pretty beat up from the delivery so they patched her up for a while and swaddled up Caleb for me to hold.  He was super alert and just gulping in the outside world faster than I’m sure we can comprehend.  After about an hour and a half Bri was in better shape and we were able to usher in my parents and sister to see the new guy and give Bri’s parents a call.  What an awesome day!  Altogether Bri was in labor appx 9 hours, which was speedy!

Our Hospital Stay & The Drama

After a couple hours in the L&D room they moved us to our post-pardom suite, where we’d be staying the next 48 hours or so.  Nurses were in and out to check on Bri and Caleb and do the necessary tests etc.  They give the husband this fold-up bed that make cement floors look like Tempur-pedic.  It felt, as I told Bri, like a thousand pointy springs with a piece of tissue on top.  Never the less I wasn’t going to be complaining…I had the easy part today!

We had some drama rather quicly in the recovery room.  The nurse came in to give Caleb a bath and she kind of panicked or something that he wasn’t breathing.  She started rubbing him a lot and holding him up saying “take a breath” etc.  Streams of panic gripped us but he ended up taking a breath.  Needless to say we were paranoid from this point on as they left him alone with us, new parents, who have no clue what little baby sounds and faces are supposed to look like at this point.  Bri began feeding Caleb an hour or so later and he ended up in another spell that seemed like he couldn’t breath.  We called the nurses and they decided to take him to the “Stork’s Nest” where he could be monitored.  We were both happy to have him there as we know we never would have slept a wink and just would have stared at him all day and night worried.  They monitored his O2 stats and heartrate and reported to us that both were kind-of-lowish and they would need to run an EKG on his heart.

We visited him at various times of the night to feed and see him, and then tried to get an hour or two sleep here and there while we waited for the EKG to be interpreted by a cardiologist.  These were tough times for us as we had dealt with his arrythmia during the pregnancy and now were facing possible complications after birth which we had hoped there wouldn’t be.

We visited the next morning and they reported his O2 stats and heart rate had looked great through the night and morning.  This was awesome news.  Our pediatrician came in and said that perhaps he was simply choking/gagging on the amniotic fluid still in his lungs and said he looked great and could be returned to our room.

He did however, have to check the EKG and said it came back as abnormal, specifically a “prolonged QT interval.”  The doctor said that they can be transient, and go away within the first 7 days of being born but if it didn’t then he’d have to be on beta-blockers for the rest of his life.  We waited a while for the doctor to call back and when he did he explained that prolonged QT syndrome is what kids/athletes have suddenly died of when they’re in massive excitement/exercise, because a severe arrhythmia kicks in and sends the heart into a frantic state.  We were quite nervous at this point, simply because of the unknown of it all.  He said he needed a follow-up EKG to confirm it in less than a week and referred us to a cardioligist for it.

We were happy to have Caleb back in the room at this point and worked (hard!) at trying not to become anxious or paranoid about the diagnosis until it was further confirmed etc.  We both had confidence that God’s plan, sick or well, was better than our plan for Caleb.  We had an up and down first night with him, lots of feeding and not much sleep, but it was awesome to have him back in the room.

Caleb had no more weird breathing episodes and so we set out to head home on Monday afternoon.  We just had to wait for the pediatrician to do his final check and release us.  He decided to do another EKG right there in the hospital, just to see if the problem had already gone away - and it had! His second EKG came back “normal” and we were in tears once more.  We’ll be following up with a cardiologist still to confirm, but what great news that was to hear!  We are praising God for his abundant kindness.

To conclude this epic-post, I’ll just say we’ve been very very very very tired as Caleb and us adjust to being at home, but it’s been a tired-ness filled with a lot of joy.  We’ve been very thankful for the thoughts, prayers, sentiments, and love from all the friends and family - we feel so blessed to have the kind of support and help that we do…(special thanks to Grandmom Holloway…without her we never would have been able to catch up on sleep and food!)

Caleb Videos

Caleb Pictures

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