2 Breaths, 30 Compressions...

After our scare with Belle choking last week, Keith and I signed up for CPR classes and attended the local Infant & Child CPR class last night. They covered not just CPR with kids, but adult CPR and choking in adults, kids, and infants too. The protocol for what you do (how many reps, the steps, etc.) was apparently updated in 2005. We also learned about using an AED (the layman's defibrillator), which seems to be such a great product. Apparently if someone's heart stops beating without CPR or an AED to help, they have a %5 chance of survival. CPR alone increases those chances to 25%, and the AED brings it all of the way up to 75%! AEDs are becoming more and more available in public places (Wal-Mart, etc), but still are not everywhere (schools, hotels, homes). The machine itself tells you the instructions of how to use it once you turn it on, so it is very easy to use, even in a panic situation. So, even if you've never seen one, don't be afraid to use it if the need occurs! They also covered the signs of heart attacks and strokes. I didn't know that men and women have very different signs for heart attacks and women can actually have days of warning that it's happening.

Although I took CPR in health class in high school, I don't really remember anything from it except for "Chris, Chris... Are you okay?" (Chris was our class dummy's name). It was interesting to hear the physiological reasoning behind the counts for compressions and breaths as well as what actually happens when you do the compressions and breaths and tilting the head back, etc. Also, like the person who commented on my blog last week said, apparently I did the right thing by hitting Annabelle's back when she was choking on the apple. That method is technically for infants (up to 1 year), but since she's so young that was still a good thing to do. She's about the size/age where doing the actual Heimlech would have been good too.

The instructors that we had were good because they were very passionate about what they were teaching. They were sisters whose other sister had passed away a few years ago from a cardiac arrest in the middle of the night, and she was only in her mid-40s. Although no one was there to help her, it seems that their interest in women's heart disease sparked this interest and passion in saving lives through the education of CPR and AEDs. Our class was a small one with only 6 people in there. I assume this was because it was an "Infant and Child CPR" course, but 3 of the 6 attendees were pregnant, 2 were dads, and one was a mother or mother-in-law. For only $20 and 2-3 hours of your time, if you haven't already taken a CPR course, I HIGHLY recommend that you do because you never know when you'll need it for your children, parents, or friends!

I've uploaded some pictures from the past week. There are some of my FAVORITE pictures of preppy Annabelle being all sassy and some not-so-happy pictures of her learning to float in recent swimming lesson classes. I'm SO far behind on posting videos! Hopefully I'll have some new ones up soon!

I'm sure she doesn't realize what exactly she's doing, but Belle has started talking to my tummy! I think it started because she's learned body parts and she just wanted to see my tummy, but I have told her that baby Corgan is in there and she has started moving the clothes off of my tummy, giving it kisses, then covering it up again and saying "bye-bye". It's SO cute! She's also becoming really clingy to Mommy lately, even to the point that she wants nothing to do with Daddy sometimes (which is so weird because she LOVES her Daddy so much!). I wonder if it's just the age, or if she has a sense that someone else is going to come along soon who will steal away some of the attention that's currently all hers? Probably both. I can't imagine how life is going to change over the next few months and it'll be here before we know it!