1 Month Old

Dear Lane,

Happy Birthday! Today you are one month old. You are totally rocking mommy and daddy's world! We love you so much, even if you don't like to take naps during the day which makes it hard for you to sleep at night. But we're working on that! You're very alert and like to follow things with your eyes. You love it when we massage your legs or feet, and you also love to suck on the pacifier to soothe yourself. You like to nurse when you need to poop...we think it's because you know that eating makes at least one thing in that area feel better, so why shouldn't it fix the other things? You're pretty good about sleeping at night, once we can get you to sleep. You wake up every 2-3 hours to eat, but you usually fall right back asleep. You hate tummy time, but you can turn your head from one side to the other and can lift it up about 45°. You probably weigh at least nine pounds by now, because nine days ago you weighed 8 pounds, 13 ounces. You're still wearing newborn clothes, but a couple of one-piece outfits are too short for you now because you're over 22 inches long! Your hematoma is almost gone, and your baby acne is clearing up on your face but spreading to your neck. You're even losing some of your hair! You're a very happy and good baby, and we are so grateful to God for giving you to us!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy


Your first bath after your umbilical stump fell off.


This is the look you give us when you're trying to keep yourself awake.


We went for a walk to church yesterday and it was a bit chilly. You fussed until we got outside and then you calmed down...we think you like being outside!


Sometimes when you fall asleep you like to dream about "touchdown, Auburn!"


You're so happy and smiley so much of the time!

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

This past Tuesday we embarked on the first of what will surely end up being a plethora of crazy and long trips with baby in tow. We left Kenai at around 11:30 a.m. to drive to Anchorage, arriving around 3:00 in the afternoon. After filling the car up with gas and getting a quick bite to eat, my brothers dropped Shannon, Lane, and myself off at the airport. At 5:40 we boarded our flight to Seattle, and in Seattle we boarded a flight to Dallas/Ft. Worth after a two-hour layover. In DFW we had a 3 1/2-hour layover before our flight to Birmingham. We finally arrived at 10:00 a.m. after almost 14 hours of flying and the almost gour-hour drive to Anchorage.


"I'm about to fly 1400 miles to Seattle, Dad!"

Lane was quite the trooper! She stayed awake for most of the first flight, and then did this for most of the rest of the trip, including the layovers:


Taken on the Dallas to Birmingham flight.

Lane was just a little fussy during the first flight and then I think she was so wiped out from not napping well that she totally crashed, sleeping through take-offs and landings. We were very blessed that our first and third flights were not full at all, so we were able to get a free seat for her car seat. On our second flight, someone gave up their window seat and took an aisle so that we could have a seat for her car seat! Oh random person, how we thank thee! Since our tickets were purchased with airline miles back in August we didn't purchase a ticket for Lane (for one thing, we didn't have a "passenger name"!) and then decided a week or so ago that we'd rather hold her than use miles to purchase another ticket. So we were very blessed to get a seat for her for free on all of our flights (and were quite grateful we didn't use our miles to buy her a seat!).

All together, Lane now has a road trip mileage accrual of about 550 miles and a flight mileage accrual of about 3700 miles. She's been to two states and will travel to two more next week. This is going to be one well-traveled kid!

Hip Hip Hooray!...

...It's Valentine's Day!

We actually don't celebrate Valentine's Day in the Scarbrough household...at least not in the traditional sense. Shannon and I have a $5 spending limit on each other: just enough to buy a card or a bag of chocolate. I've never been a fan of Valentine's Day, whether single or in a relationship, so we have maintained a very low-key approach to the day. I'm a firm believer that if you love someone, you should tell them you love them and make them feel special on any day of the year, not just on the day that society tells you that you should. I love it when my husband buys me flowers because he thought of me, not when he buys them because he feels like he should. I love it when he surprises me with dinner plans because he figures it's been awhile since we had a "real" date, not when he feels like he needs to splurge because it's February 14th. And I love to make his favorite meals and buy him candy (rarely found in our house) just to show him I love him, not because he expects it on a specific day.

However, now that we have a child (and more to come one day!) I'm sure that we will celebrate Valentine's Day a bit more than in years past. Maybe we'll make heart-shaped cookies, and maybe we'll make sure our girls get flowers from their daddy. But it'll never be commercialized in our home: love will be shown and our children will know that we love them on February 14th and on every other day of the year!


A dozen red roses that Shannon bought me. Not for Valentine's Day, but for Thursday, February 4th.

10 Reasons It's Great To Not Be Pregnant

1. My back doesn't hurt if I sit too long, stand too long, lay down wrong, etc.
2. I don't have to pee every 30 minutes all day long, and can drink a glass of water right before going to bed without worrying that it'll keep me up all night.
3. No heartburn.
4. I can pop my back again.
5. I can easily clip or paint my toenails.
6. I can get up from a horizontal position without any help or extreme effort.
7. I can lie down on my stomach again.
8. No worrying that stretch marks are on their way.
9. A larger variety in my wardrobe.
10. Nobody gets mad at me if I try to carry something heavier than a grapefruit.

And Today's Word of the Day is...

...hematoma.

Anybody out there know what it means? I'll give you a hint: it's a big, fancy word for a very common injury:

A bruise.

Who knew, huh?

Anyways, our daughter has a cephalhematoma, meaning some of the blood vessels between her skull and the membrane that covers her skull ruptured during labor. It's on her head, and it was probably caused when she got "stuck" at about seven cm during labor. Basically, this all translates into: our daughter has a great big lump on her head. It's soft and squishy but raised, making her look even more conehead-ish than newborns already do. The bruise should go down within another 4-6 weeks as her blood cycles through.


If you look closely you can see that her head is not round and that there is a bump stretching from over her left eyebrow to over her left ear.

Speaking of blood cycling through, did you know that adults' blood cycles through about every 90 days but that babies' blood cycles through in about six weeks?

As Lane's blood cycles through, the hematoma should go down. The blood will be reabsorbed into her brain, which is totally normal since that's where the blood came from in the first place. However, it will probably leave a very hard spot on her head where it was.

Interesting, no?

Happy Birthday Marci!

5 years ago today, I was living in Poland when my friend Marci turned 25. For her birthday, I presented her with something very rare and valuable: a 2-liter of Dr. Pepper that I had brought from Prague when I made a run for the border the previous November. This year, Marci turns 30, joining us in the "new 20's" club and embarking on a new decade of adventure. While I can't be in Texas to celebrate with her, I know that her husband will make the day super special. So...

Happy Birthday to one of the best friends I have! You are loved and appreciated more than you know!


Happy 25th with some Dr. Pepper!