Canaan, 34 weeks

I am teaching him not to roll over during diaper changes by saying, "No no." and holding his thigh so he can't roll over. Today I said, "Canaan, NO." and did not have my hand on his thigh but he just laid there and cried like he was soooo sad. LOL I guess he's learning! (Side note: just using "no" has not worked for subsequent diaper changes. LOL)

When he is on my & Alif's bed he makes a beeline for the blinds or the alarm clock. He loves when we pull up the blinds and he can look out the window at the trees, the neighbor's dogs etc. When he plays with the alarm clock he wants the music on, but then when he turns the volume knob and the sound goes too high and startles him, he ducks into my side and looks at the alarm clock like it is mean.

I am working on having him in the nursery at church. The last two sundays he's made it about 15 minutes. ;-)

My Awesome Boys

We have been doing our schoolwork on the couch most of the time for the past few weeks, which leaves the table free for crafting endeavors on the part of those not directly involved in schoolwork at the moment. One day I noticed that Graham had some fuzzy purple stuff in his hands and knew it would be taken from him as his level of focus would probably not allow fuzzy purple stuff and also phonics practice at once. I looked over at him and he was looking at me like the picture below. I had to ROFL and take a few pictures before setting the purple stuff aside until after we were done with phonics. He is so awesome!












Malachi has been asking me to teach him to sew for eons. The other day he brought out two pieces of fabric - primary stripes and primary tie dye - and asked if he could make Caris a doll blanket. There is never a good time for something this involved, so I just said yes. He was so proud of himself sewing all on his own! When it was done he ironed it, folded it into quarters, tied a ribbon around it and presented it to Caris. What an awesome brother!

Squash is good

First I grew the butternut squash in my garden. Ok, just kidding, I should have but didn't - I just bought it at the store and baked it:










Then I scooped it out and put it into the Sunbeam-brand "magic bullet" Alif got me. LOVE THAT THING! Also added some rice cereal and breastmilk.














Poured the blended squash into ice cube trays











It's ready to eat!












And it's a huge hit!

Picture Time

Graham lost two teeth this last week!














Uh-oh! Canaan loooooves to find pieces of paper to chew up. Mr. Mischief!!












I love how contemplative he looks in this picture. He is a serene, pleasant baby.

I was IMing with Christina one day and heard "mmmm, mmmm, mmmmm, mmmm" from the living room and found Canaan like this. ROFL

Thank you Mom and Rod for the gift cards for my Birthday! Here's one outfit I picked out:

Canaan asleep in my arms at soccer this last Saturday

Canaan, 33 weeks

Tooth #6 poking through


Gets on hands & feet with ankles crossed


Loves "his" new BabyHawk mei tai baby carrier - will often fall asleep in there snuggled up close to Mommy

Goes from sitting to lying on tummy, though not always gracefully. LOL Also learning to go from lying on tummy to sitting up (only once successfully so far - one leg usually gets stuck facing backwards LOL)

Canaan, 32 weeks

Varies his sleep positions. I have found him sleeping on his back and on his side. He still mostly prefers his tummy.

Lots of rocking on hands & knees, and a few scoots forward. Still mostly backwards, sideways and in circles.

Learned the art of ripping off diapers. Joy!

Canaan, 31 weeks

~Has 5 teeth now! 3 on top, 2 on bottom.
~Had a weird week with Mommy's hospitalizations but did great. He even drank down a whole bottle during the last one.
~Still doing great sleeping all night in the crib. I guess we could say that Caris & Canaan officially share a room!
~Added peaches and oatmeal to his repertoire

Third Time's a Charm

There was more than enough drama in my home last Monday and Tuesday with the whole afib thing. Well, Saturday night I put the kids to bed, visited with Alif and went upstairs for bed. I laid in bed reading my Gospel Wheel Scriptures to recite for our Awana kick-off meeting and then turned out the light and laid down to sleep. I don't know how much time went by, or if I was fully asleep or not, but my heart started pounding. Oh no, I was sooo scared! Not this again, not this again! This is exactly what I had been so afraid of. I went downstairs and told Alif it was happening again and to make a long story short, I ended up in the ambulance and back in the emergency room. I was not in afib, my heart was just racing, and my heart checked out fine. I felt pretty happy about that, though I wondered why it'd started to pound like that in the first place. Seriously, as soon as we left the hospital I started to feel weird. My hands and feet were tingly and I felt lightheaded. I mentioned it and Alif suggested that we go back but I thought no, let's just see how it goes. IT DID NOT GO WELL. We got home from the hospital at 3:30 am and I laid there feeling absolutely horrible all the rest of the night. I had diarrhea, I felt numb, chest pressure and pain coming and going, heart felt like it was pounding, blood pressure was all over the map as was my pulse . . . it just felt like ok so I may not be in afib but what in the world is going on, because something is not right. Finally around 10:30 I asked Alif to take me back to the hospital. He did, and my Mom met me there. They took me straight back to triage, and straight back to a bed. The nurse hooked me up to some oxygen and a heart monitor and said, "This isn't afib." I was having some premature beats of some sort but my heart was doing fine. Another long story short, Jan from church came (bless her!) and between my Mom, Rod, Jan and the doctor we basically summed it up that a) my heart is doing fine and b) anxiety is causing this to keep happening - the heart pounding, anxiety, tingling hands, all of it. I've been so afraid of going into afib that I'm causing my heart to go a little bonkers. He sent me home with an anti-anxiety medication that I have taken 3x. Between the medication and the knowledge I gained during that last visit, I feel so much better. Also Mom sent me some awesome verses that I printed for my desk.

Health issues STINK!!

I was tagged

Hey thanks Theresa! I don't think I've ever been tagged. :-)

1)What is your school name and why?
Prince of Peace Academy. When we made the decision to homeschool, I knew we had found peace. We had struggled and struggled trying to figure out which educational option was the best one, and it was such a peaceful feeling knowing we had heard God's voice. He is our Prince of Peace!
2)How is your weather today?
Hot. It was a very hot day for our first day of the 2007 soccer season.
3)What steals your joy?
Stress
4)Name five blessings you received this week.
1) Love and caring when I had my medical scare
2) Love and caring for my Birthday!
3) I hesitate to call this a blessing, but my brother lost a very dear friend this week and the blessing part is that it reminded me how blessed I really am to have my awesome husband.
4) Smiles, hugs and fun with each of my kids
5) I know I kind of already said this in #1 but it *really* blessed me when my Mom took off work to help me after my afib incident, and that Alif and his parents took amazing care of my kids.
5)Favorite Scripture
He is faithful to complete the good work he began in me. Amazing!
6) Who in the Bible do you think are most like?
That is a hard one. I'm not sure!
7)The passage of scripture you read last:
Matthew 1. I read on a postcard from church that we'll do Acts this year and it would be a great continuation of Matthew, so I thought I would refresh on Matthew.
8) Have you ever praised God for something weird?
Oh, I'm absolutely sure I have. I don't know what at the moment. LOL
9) If you were making a greeting card for God what would it say.
Oh my, it would be the longest greeting card ever but at the top it would say, "I LOVE YOU!"
10) What is the best miricle God has performed in your life, or what is your favorite answered prayer?
Best miracle I know of is that he works in my life nonstop. He never gives up!
11)what is the most fun thing you have done lately.
Laughed until I cried!
12) How did you choose your screen name.
We are God's children and we were married 3/7.
Now I get to play tag!
1 Megan http://www.megmills.blogspot.com/
2 Lynette http://aviewfrommywindow.blogspot.com/
3 Tammy http://bakomom.blogspot.com/
4 Barbie http://www.justinandbarbie.blogspot.com/
5 Raquel http://mopsmommyof4.blogspot.com/

Atrial Fibrillation

On Monday we were having a great day! I was rearranging my dining room, playing with the kids, just having a nice day. We were taking the day off school for Labor Day. At about 12:30 I went upstairs with Canaan and laid down to nurse him for his nap. All of a sudden I started to have heart palpitations and it was beating so hard and just felt out of control. I turned quickly to my stomach and thought, "what is going on??" Then I started to feel faint. I yelled for Malachi to bring me the phone and he called back, "which one?" I said, "ONE THAT WORKS! QUICKLY!" He rushed up and said, "what do you need it for?" I said, "I need to call 911" and he said, "what do you need to call it for?" I called and told them what was going on. I was very scared! I told them I was home alone with four children and he said, "It's ok, ma'am, we'll call law enforcement. They will be fine". Whaaaaaaat? That made me realize that Alif's parents are right across the street so I told Graham, "Go get Grandma and Grandpa". I made my way downstairs (I don't remember this, but Malachi says I told him to take Canaan downstairs) and waited. Fred came over and got the kids and Chamil came and sat with me until the paramedics arrived. What an embarrassing, scary experience. My house was a mess, I was unshowered and in pajamas . . . ugh! They put me on oxygen right away, asked a million questions and loaded me up. On the way to the hospital the paramedic got the IV going and then said, "I'm going to give you a medication that's going to stop your heart for a fraction of a second and it's going to be uncomfortable." Woah, scary! I said, "Is it going to be painful?" He said, "Yes." I said, "How painful?" He said, "It might hurt a lot." GAAA! It wasn't, though. It made my arms and legs hurt but just for a second. I felt so out of it, weak, tired, unclear.

Once I got to the emergency room they just kept asking a million questions and gave me a bunch, bunch more medication. They said my heart rate was fluctuating between 185-200. No wonder I felt so icky! Someone else told me later that it was 220 in the ambulance. After about 3-4 hours it was below 100 and I felt A LOT better, though still very tired & weak. They let Alif come back after about an hour. It felt like forever. They ran a bunch of tests and oh by the way, I had to use a bed pan several times. How's that for embarrassing?? My HUSBAND had to help me with the bedpan! The nurse offered to, of course, but I think I'd rather my own husband help me than some nurse I don't even know - and who was a man, btw.

I was in the emergency room from about 1 till 7:30 or so. I finally got a room on the cardiac floor (I think I was the only patient under age 80) and let me tell you, sinking into that bed was wonderful. Being on a hard gurney all day was not comfortable. I'd had lots of tests done (EKG, chest x-ray, labs) and I was just so tired. They hooked me up to a portable heart monitor that went into a pocket in my gown and that was basically it. No water, no food, but the IV still in. A nurse came out and took the IV out at some point and then it was nice to be able to get up and go to the restroom without the IV pole. I really did not sleep much at night at all. It was so loud in there. I finally fell asleep just before 5 am and the EKG tech came in with a very cheerful voice: "Emily? Hi honey, it's me, Nancy! I'm here to do another EKG, ok?" Then right after her, my CNA came in to do all my vitals - again - and then right after that the hall cleaner came by. AAAAaaaaaa!

Ohh! I forgot! The first doctor who saw me said I could not breastfeed because of the medications I was on. I asked my ER nurse to write all of them down and he very kindly did! I called LaMonica and asked her to look them up in Hale's and guess what? They were all fine!! Alif brought Canaan to me at night to nurse, and 3x the next day, and I pumped like 5-6 times too. Yay!

Ok - so the next day, I waited. I finally got to eat, YAY! I was exhausted but relieved that I wasn't having any more palpitations or anything. My Mom was there all day and we had a nice time chatting. I finally had my Echo at about 4:30 or so and saw the cardiologist at about 6-6:30. He was not helpful. He just smiled and said we'd probably never know what caused the a-fib, that I could go back to life as usual and we'll see you in 2-3 weeks. Umm, not that reassuring! So we went through the discharge process and ohhhhhh I am soooo happy to be HOME!! That first night home I was very, very paranoid. I had that heart monitor on for two days and it was a good feeling to know that at least if something happened they would know it right away. It's creepy to think of something like that happening again, and I still feel like I don't have any answers. I did talk to my friend Jan today, who's a nurse in cardiac recovery, and she had GREAT info and gave me some names of cardiologists. I was able to get in with her favorite within about 2 weeks, so that's good.

Life is precious. I had tears in my eyes in that emergency room, thinking oh my gosh, what if this is it? What if watching my kids leave the house with Fred while I was slumped on the couch was the last time I saw them? The last time they saw ME? I know that my days are in God's hands, and I know that whatever plan He has for me is GOOD. But I'm still human. I'm a wife, a Mommy, a daughter, sister, friend . . . God has blessed me with people I adore and it was so weird to think of the possibility of leaving them all so suddenly. I am thankful that He did not take me home on Monday, as weird as that sounds. I hope that his plan for me includes raising up my children, but I trust His will.

I hope I never go through this again!!!!


http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/Atrial-Fibrillation/Atrial-Fibrillation-Overview

Carrots

Canaan's first time trying carrots - he likes them!
I don't know what it is about carrots but they make him laugh!
Last night Uncle Tony said Canaan has intelligent eyes. I'm not sure what that means exactly but they are beautiful for sure!

Canaan, 30 weeks

~Sleeping all night in the crib. I miss looking over and seeing him in the pack & play but we're both sleeping better and that I enjoy very much.

~Leans to the side when upright, like the wants to see this world from a different angle. So cute!

~Started a funny "cheeese" smile complete with squinty eyes. Funny baby!

~Got his 3rd tooth! Upper left center. His little gums actually bled as it came though. Owie!