The Best Christmas Gift

It wasn't the consumer electronics, the computer accessories, the clothes, the furniture, or the giftcards - although those were much appreciated. It wasn't the time off from work, or the bonus; it wasn't even the food.

The time spent with family was perhaps a close second.

No, the best Christmas gift of 2007 consisted of five little words, in a tiny yet persistent voice, repeated in what normally would be akin to an annoying scratched record but in this instance was a sweet sweet melody...

"Da da da da da"

Lauren's first distinguishable words.


Merry Christmas,


- Scott

a cinco de mayo scare

On Thursday night, Lauren started refusing the majority of each bottle. She's always been a sipper; the opposite of Cayleigh who was notorious for the vacuum she'd create after attacking a bottle at feeding time. This time however, she flatly refused to eat much more than the first few sips. No big deal, I thought... she probably just had a growth lull or stomach ache (though she sure didn't seem to show it).

Friday morning, Becca took her to the doctor. He sent her home with instructions to keep an eye on her. Again, no big deal I figured.

By the time I came home from work, Lauren had developed a low-grade fever. She acted normally - smiling occasionally, following motion as she has been, without lethargy. We decided again to keep an eye on her and grabbed a bite to eat at a local restaurant.

By the time Cayleigh was down for the night, Becca had alerted the doctor's office's on-call nurse that Lauren's fever had increased above 101. What seemed small to me turned into a very long weekend. We were instructed to take Lauren to the emergency room. Over a 101 degree fever?

At 3:00 AM on cinco de mayo after several hours in an E.R. triage, her tests had been taken and she was admitted to the hospital for a minimum of 48 hours as standard procedure. We were informed she could either have a simple "wait it out" virus or a deadly bacterial infection. I learned about the dangers of infection for infants under 2 months. At just over six weeks old, Lauren was just shy of the immune-system development hump so I learned.

After our weekend in the hospital watching our little one with an IV attached to a brick on her arm, she was released with many sighs of relief.

Now I don't really wonder why Becca takes Lauren's temperature throughout the day. In about two weeks I guess I'll get over some of my new-found paranoia.



- Scott

Welcome, Lauren Mackenzie

Our family has expanded! I am happy to announce the birth of our second child, Lauren Mackenzie Heaberlin on Tuesday, March 20, 2007. She came into this world weighing 8 lbs., 5 oz. and measuring 21 and a half inches in length.



She looks like Cayleigh but with dark hair!



Becca and Lauren are resting at home now. Cayleigh is excited and growing accustomed to seeing us both hold another baby. She enjoys helping with stuff like bottle feeding (she loves to hold the bottle) and is constantly leaning to give Lauren a kiss or to hold her hand. I'm now the proud father of two beautiful daughters!



I have to admit though I made my first of likely many mistakes as Lauren's dad just hours from her birth. Those of you on my e-mail distribution might notice I have spelled her name differently here than I did in my e-mail announcement. Yes, I misspelled my own child's name. I could of course claim we simply "changed" the spelling but that wouldn't be right. It was even my suggestion months ago when we chose her name to spell it "Mackenzie" instead of "McKenzie" but I e-mailed it as such anyways. Oh well…




Be sure to check the photos in the gallery!



-Scott

Hang on, La-La!

Phew! We had a little scare this week: early contractions. No, these weren't the fake kind either. They were the "hey that's not supposed to happen yet" kind that so far seems to be fixed with a little help from modern medicine.




We've finished Lauren's nursery - pink and plum with oak furniture, complete with hand-stamped butterfly and flower border around her room. Props to Grampsy for the paint job, though I can at least claim the border.




I think we're looking at mid-March for an induction if she makes it that far. Becca's officially home from work now so she's resting but is extremely uncomfortable. And bored, I would imagine…




Cayleigh is getting smarter by the week. She can now tell you what "one" is, can clearly say things like "baby," "Jedi" (our dog), "night-night," "boom," and can pretty much understand most of what you ask or tell her to do. She seems to have a new tooth or three every week… and a constant wrinkle-nosed, snaggle-tooth grin to show them all off. She is both our joy and our entertainment these days.




My next update will likely be a baby announcement - woohoo!




-S

The envelope please...

We found out yesterday that Becca's having another little girl! After collecting our jaws off the floor, we realized that we're super excited. It just goes to show you that just because the second pregnancy is drastically different from the first that it doesn't mean anything.




We got to see her little face and profile in the ultrasound. Not a ton of detail, mind you, but I can definitely tell you that she has none of the features that stood out to us during Cayleigh's ultrasound. Not that I expect the two to look exactly alike… but our initial belief is that she may look more like Becca. Lucky for her :)




One thing we realized is that we're just about back to square one with choosing a name. We had about a dozen candidate boy names but only one for a girl - and only a first name at that. I guess we had better get to choosing!




Another thing I realized is that come next March, there's going to be a severe imbalance in the hormonal Force at the Heaberlin house. I may need another Jedi to restore balance to the Force.

Part Deux

Near the end of March 2007 we'll have two babies under the age of 16 months. That's right, we're having another one! We were admittedly suprised but are excited nonetheless. And no, if you're wondering about the "suprised" part, it's not like we had to visit Wikipedia to figure out how these things happen; you'd have to know the background of the situation before Cayleigh to understand.



I'm starting a diaper fund. Donations accepted via Visa, AmEx, PayPal, and U.S. Postal. :)



Anyways, we won't find out what we're having for a few more weeks. Not that I'm saying I think it's one or the other; I will say however that this pregnancy is already shaping up to be quite different from the first in terms of how Becca's feeling, etc. The hormones are still there though. And yes she'll kill me when she reads this… which she does in fact do because it was her that brought it to my attention that I had yet to blog about our wonderful news.




More immediate plans involve Cayleigh's first birthday party. It looks like it'll be a cookout at Lake Murray. I'm sure there will be no shortage of food, toys, and baby clothes if you're into that sort of thing. And little tykes.



But on that note, holy cow! Little tykes! Seriously, it seems nearly every married couple we know is pregnant! Six, count them, six friends of ours are pregnant and due between October and April. And that's of course not counting ourselves!



Perhaps I should put it in bold text… note to self… time to buy more stock in Babies R' Us!





-S