Baby Blues

We had a big scare last night.

During dinner, I gave Isaac something new to eat--steamed chicken and apples. He was really tired, and I should have known better than to give him something new while he was cranky. But he is such a good eater, I thought he'd be fine.

Well, he just didn't want any of his food. He pushed the spoon away and got really upset. And when Isaac gets upset, he doesn't wail--he holds his breath. This time was different, though. He held his breath...and held his breath...and held his breath...until he turned blue. By this time I had pulled him out of his high chair and was blowing in his face, trying to get him to breathe.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity to his worried parents, he took a breath. I cuddled him to me as he started to settle down. Then Scott looked at me in horror and said, "He's going to pass out." I looked down at my baby's face, and sure enough his head was lolling and his eyes were rolling back.

Scott asked, "What can I do?" (God bless him!) I told him to put cold water on his hands and splash it on Isaac's face. That seemed to do the trick and revived Isaac from his stupor.

Oh, Lord, how scary! Seeing your child turn blue (and I mean BLUE) is an experience I wish on no parent.

We actually had a fairly similar experience last Sunday, when Isaac got really upset while Scott was trying to use the aspirator on his nose. He held his breath until he burst little blood vessels in his face. Afterwards, it looked like he had a red rash on his face. The rash is still there today, but it is slowly fading.

I talked to his pediatrician today. She said, "Oh, no. You have a Breath Holder!" She said that kids do this to get attention, and that they can actually hold their breath long enough that they will make themselves faint and even have seizures. "They do grow out of it...by 4 or 5 years of age." Oh, goody.

Is the church still there?

This morning on our way to preschool (which Caleb attends at our church), it was incredibly foggy. Not just one of those "Hey, I can't see the skyline anymore" kind of fogs, but the "Hey, I can't see the end of the block" kind of fogs. We couldn't even see the church building until we were halfway into the parking lot.

When we were almost there, I asked Caleb, "We can't see the church. Is it still there?" He wasn't so sure. He just kept watching out the window, and I think he was getting a little worried that somehow the church really had disappeared.

When the church "appeared," he was excited. "There it is, Mommy!" I told him that the church had been there the whole time; we just couldn't see it.

"Can you see God, Caleb? Even though you can't see Him, He's still there, too."

Bad news

AT&T just announced that they will be laying off 12,000 employees starting this month and continuing through 2009. That's 4% of their workforce. Please join me in praying for Scott's job, and for all of those who will be affected.

Something I never thought I'd hear a doctor say

I went to a dermatologist today. I have what he termed "hand eczema"--the inside of my right hand is severely dry and itchy, and it gets so tight that I can't extend my fingers all the way without bleeding. Fun, huh? Sorry if that grosses anyone out. But the doctor told me something that I never thought I'd hear a doctor say. "You need to stop washing your hands so much."

What?!? It's so important to wash your hands! I am such a freak about keeping my hands clean. That's what we're told to do, after all. Wash before you handle food, after you handle food, after you go to the restroom, before you play with the kids, after you play with the kids, after you touch anything dirty (which, in my opinion, just about everything is dirty!), etc. But evidently I've been a little too diligent.

Anyway, the doctor said that I should think every time I go to wash my hands and decide if I REALLY need to wash them. (I did that tonight, and I saved at least 20 hand washings.) And he said that most of the time during the day, I will only need to rinse my hands and skip the soap. I just kinda stared at him, slack-jawed. He said that I may only need to use soap a couple of times a day. What??? Rocked my whole way of thinking. Not sure I totally buy it, but I'll think about it.

He said that our society has become too germaphobic. "There are germs on your steering wheel that will get on your hands as soon as you leave here," he said. You mean not everyone takes a baby wipe, puts hand sanitizer on it, and cleans their steering wheel with it?

Please note: I consider my dermatologist's advice to be strictly for me. The rest of you better be washing your hands at least 100 times a day to keep the germs away from me! :)

Now if only I could get a doctor to say, "You really need to eat more fried chicken and mashed potatoes."