HOW JAXON TRAVELER GOT HIS NAME

On November 8, 2015 our first grandchild was born. It should have been a  joyous occasion, but it wasn't. 

On October 13, 2015 , Ana and her youngest daughter, and  her husband made a dire pilgrimage to University of Southern California (USC) because the twins she carried  were diagnosed with Acardiac/TRAP Sequence.  Twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence is a rare complication unique to monochorionic twin pregnancies. The twins share the same placentia and one twin does all the work of supplying blood  to both of them and this put a lot of stress to the "pump twin." They needed to separate them.

The emergency surgery  called Radiofrequency Ablasion, was a success and one twin was saved!! It was literally a double edge sword. We rejoiced, yet we mourned the loss of  the other twin. Both twins remained in her.

A few weeks later, on November 4, 2015, our daughter called from work. She said, "Mom, I have scheduled a doctor's appointment because I'm not feeling well."  I drove her to the  doctor's office and waited for the sonographer to begin her diagnosis. 

 Within minutes,, she got up and said, "I'll bring in the doctor."

The doctor said, "Let me just touch outside the surface," (of her vagina).  Immediately, he looked at both of us and said, "That's all I wanted to verify.  We need to wheel you in right now to the hospital (which was next door to his medical office).  Your babies want to come!" 

I remember crying!!! I knew this was not good. She was only 24 weeks!  Our grandson was making an early appearance! And as much as we wanted to see him, this was not the right time. He needed to "cook" a little more.

Our daughter was in labor for four long days!! Contractions were approximately every hour, then every 20 minutes, then every 10 minutes!! She slept and ate very little.  Her job was to keep  those babies inside for at least 3 more weeks. 

On November 8 , 2015, (four days later) at 11:09 am at 1 lb. 3 oz.  Jaxon David Hans Stone was born! 

The doctor warned us, that the first three days are honeymoon periods. Everything looks great, but then things could change for the worse. And sure enough, Jaxon was handsome, with an angelic face, he looked so peaceful and healthy. All looked calm in the incubator.

As a family of  strong faith we tried to rejoice of this little Miracle, but we were also very afraid, scared and nervous of the unknown. His skin was  translucent - it wasn't fully developed like the rest of his organs. And as the doctor said, "he shouldn't be breathing, peeing, eating right now. He should be doing this inside his mommy's tommy." 

As the doctor predicted, three days later Jaxon started suffering from several brain bleeds, his organs  shut down, there was blood in his stools and so many other complications.  Due to the amount of fluid in his brain, they inserted a  reservoir tap  onto his scalp to drain some of that liquid (a process they call Tapping). In the end our grandson didn't have a brain it was  filled with liquid 

Baby Jaxon died 7 weeks later on December 27, 2015. 

Our promise to our daughter was to name a horse in honor of Baby Jaxon.  

On July 2020, Hans got a call from one of our syndicates West Point Thoroughbreds. They asked us to name a horse. And they said, "He's a Munnings horse."  You see, in naming horses, we should name them by their pedigree, bloodline, lineage, or historical meaning of his daddy or mommy. 

Hans was familiar with the Breed and together we rushed to research further so we can include "Jaxon's name." We learned  there was a painter named Alfred Munnings. He was  England's finest painters of horses, 

In 1924 he painted a horse he named Traveler.

Voila!! Jaxon Traveler!