R a i s i n g C a n e y . c o m

Random pics from the past few days… Canaan has such a beautiful smile.

Caney playing with Beaux and Dot at Lovey and Duke’s:

Caney giving Uncle Caleb a smooch:

According to Boolean Logic, my title is (at least partially) incorrect.  None of the content of this post relates to Needles AND Signs AND the Mid-West.  However, most of the post is about one or the other at any given moment.

Before the actual content of the post, I want to point out an awesome new feature here at RaisingCaney.com!  One of our most loyal fans (she’d be the president of our fan club if we had one) can’t see the pictures we put up on Facebook.com, but she CAN see pictures we put on Flickr.com!  SO, if you look to the top of our page (under the banner), there’s a link titled “Photos”.  The Photos page will host our photo albums that are automatically imported from our Flickr feed.  Check it often!

Needles…

My friend, Jon Copeland, has an extreme aversion to needles.  In fact, he was pretty freaked out to be in the hospital at all when Caney was on her way, mostly because of those red boxes the walls…full of needles.  Apparently, Canaan isn’t a fan of needles either.

Canaan got her shots the week before last.  She had one in each hip (ok, butt cheek) and one in each thigh.  She also got an oral vaccine.  When we got into the office, I suggested Tasha hold Canaan while she was getting her shots.  She refused, and now I know why!  When Canaan got her shots, naturally, she cried.  However, worse than that, she looked me in the eyes, quivered her lip, and gave me a heart-breaking whimper that definitely meant “Why would you let them do this to me, Daddy?”  Annnd so, I almost cried.  Ah well!  Hopefully the shots will scare away any mean, nasty illnesses that come after my daughter.

Signs…

Happy (Belated) Mother’s Day!  Tasha’s been asking for a “Baby Sign Language” book ever since she was pregnant, so for Mother’s Day I bought 4 different books, and Caney picked her 2 favorites (the 2 she seemed most interested in).  I took the others back.  I personally bought Tasha the final Twilight book that she had been begging me for for 2 weeks (she read those books in 2-3 days each…crazy).

The night before Mother’s Day, I put a Mother’s Day Card from me to Tasha and the Twilight book on the bed.  The card showed the bottom of two grown up sets of feet and one set of baby feet between us.  It read “Lately, something has come between us…”  The inside continued “…and I’m cool with that!”  When Tasha went to get ready for bed (after midnight) the gifts were waiting on the bed.  She loved it, but she assumed that was all!

The next morning, there was a gift bag waiting in front of the swing that I had put Canaan in.  Tasha looked in it and found her Baby Sign Language books (one has flash cards in it!) and a card.  The card was a nice card about her being a first time mother.  More importantly though is what Caney wrote in it… I gave her a pink crayon and held the card up to it.  In her natural swinging arm motions she scribbled on the card…  I looked at it, and it looked somewhat like a turtle, except it was missing some pieces so I drew those in with a pen.  Tasha cried when she saw her turtle drawing .

Mother’s Day at church Canaan was dedicated (as well as Sally and Chad’s kids, Biddy and Gabe) to God.  For those of you who don’t know, there are no implications of Canaan’s personal salvation in her dedication.  Dedicating our child to God is simply our commitment (along with the commitment of our church) that we will do our best to raise her in a Christian home and environment.  Further, it is our admission that we are basically just “adoptive” parents of Canaan.   She’s on loan to us.  Her REAL Father is her Creator, God.  Tasha’s sister (Aunt Sissy) and brother-in-law (Uncle Bubba) and his niece, Cheyenne came.  My Mom, Dad, Nanna, and Niece (LaTrista)  also came.

These are the pics from her dedication ceremony (also in a photo album on the new Photo tab), and of course, we’re all “pretty in pink”:

Pretty in Pink

Us again!

PawPaw acting silly, of course!

The video is pretty long (almost 10 mins), but if you want to see it, here’s the video of the dedication ceremony:

Mid-West

So, we haven’t seen “Lovey and Duke” (Tasha’s parents) or Caleb and Sidney (Tasha’s little brother and sister) since the week after Canaan was born.  We haven’t seen our good friends Brian and Amanda since this summer in DC (after our wedding and honeymoon).  They all live in the wonderful world also known as the mid-west.  Kansas to be exact.  We will be going to see them this weekend because I get a 4-day weekend because of Memorial Day.  Her parents will be moving to Oklahoma soon, so this might be the last chance we’ll get to see them before they move or before I leave for my South Africa mission trip.  This will be the longest trip Canaan has been on since she was born (8 hours).  Although, technically she’s been on a longer trip.  While Tasha was preggers we drove from Maryland to Louisiana.  We are all very very excited to see all of the wonderful people up there in the mid-west.  Hurry up, weekend!  We will be sure to post pictures (in the new Photo tab!).

SORRY THAT THIS HAS TAKEN ALMOST 7 WEEKS! Apparently having a baby, buying a new house, moving to a new city, and starting a new job are pretty time consuming. I’ll get to all that later. I’ll start at the beginning.  As a warning, this is a bit long-winded.
On Saturday, 21 March we had our final baby shower for Canaan at our church in Benton. It was wonderful. Over 40 people attended, and we got some amazing gifts for our princess (our car was LOADED down).
As most of you may know by now, Tasha has had problems with gestational diabetes and pregnancy-induced hypertension (high blood-pressure) since she got pregnant. She was hospitalized twice, she was constantly feeling very weak, and she was eventually put on strict bed rest requiring her to withdraw from classes this quarter.
We knew she had some problems, but when we went to her Dr. appointment on 23 February we did not expect to hear him tell us that he would need to induce labor the next day. It was shocking. Tasha was pretty upset at first because she wanted her Mom to be able to come to the hospital, and she wouldn’t be able to on such short notice.
Eventually though, the pending excitement and the imminent arrival of our princess took over. We had Canaan-fever!
That night we made sure we had everything we would need packed and ready to go. The next morning we went to Target and picked up some last minute things that we would need for her arrival (including an awesome stroller/car seat/car seat base travel system).
We went to the hospital at 4pm on 23 February, and they began the process of preparing Tasha for labor induction.
The labor was anything but ideal. Tasha’s epidural fell out, causing her intense pain. They put it back in, but a little while later, while dilated to a 7 Tasha started feeling excruciating pain… They called the anesthesiologist back in, but he argued with Tasha for 30 minutes, telling her she wasn’t in pain… He was telling her it was just pressure, not pain. 30 minutes into her screaming to the guy that she wasn’t lying…her sister, Stormi, pointed out that the epidural drip was EMPTY. Hrm… The epidural fell out on other time, and had to be replaced again.
Canaan decided to come out brow presentation, meaning she shoved her head back and tried to push out forehead first. This isn’t ideal, and so…Tasha got stuck dilated at an 8. After almost 24 hours into the ordeal, they decided to do an emergency C-section.
During the C-Section, I was behind a curtain, but I could see around the edge of it a bit. I could hear them drilling or cutting what sounded like bone, and it smelled like the smell of the tooth dust when a cavity is getting drilled. Tasha starts yelling that she can feel them cutting, and they tell her she can’t feel it. She tells them once again, as they used a scalpel that she can feel them cutting her right then, and so they decide to put her to sleep for the operation. I hear the doctor ask for the vacuum. I can hear the light suction… the doctor tells them to turn the suction up. The nurses tell him it is up. He starts yelling at them that it’s not working right, he can’t get suction on the baby. The idea was to make a small incision, attach the vacuum to Caney’s head, and pull her out. The vacuum malfunction complicated matters worse… He gave up the vacuum and cut her open even wider so he could reach in and grab the baby.
The baby comes out, the someone yells “10:22pm”! They try aspirating her, she isn’t crying, she isn’t screaming…she isn’t breathing. They run out of the room with her. I scream, “WHERE DO I GO?!” The doctor said to stay, the anesthesiologist told me to follow the baby. I ran after my baby. They had her in a side room with a nurse blocking the door. She wouldn’t let me in… The nurses were slapping her belly, flipping her, slapping her tummy…working frantically. No crying. I am screaming, begging the nurse to tell me what’s wrong with my baby, asking if she’s ok. She won’t tell me anything except warn me that she’d kick me out if I didn’t calm down…
Our family and friends are all gathered outside the doors, hoping to catch a glimpse, they send someone running after a respiratory specialist… As the doors open for the nurse to find the specialist, our family and friends see me crying and I just scream “PRAY! PRAY!” …and the doors swing closed.
Finally, a gasp, a whimper, and then…the most beautiful sound I’ve ever heard, a cry.
Despite being without breathing for what seemed like an eternity, her oxygen level was great…she was jaundiced, but she was otherwise healthy and doing great. She almost didn’t make it…
All that I could think was…I cannot EVER go through this again…EVER… Despite Tasha and I wanting to have several kids, all that I could think was that this experience was too horrifying, too depressing, too emotional to experience again.
And then that beautiful little girl…her screaming face…so beautiful…she had a bruise on her forehead and a bloody bruise on her nose from pushing against Tasha’s cervix with her brow/nose for over 24 hours, but she was perfect.

Her first scream. Music to my ears.

So, you might think that the nightmarish experience was over.  Well, perhaps the worst of it was, but there was plenty more to come.

The next day, Tasha was supposed to be on an all liquid diet, and we had been told this.  So we were surprised when a woman in scrubs comes in with a lunch full of solids the next day.  I tell her “we were told she’s on a liquid diet, are you sure she can eat solids?!”  She said “Oh, yeah, she can have solids, this is what they ordered for her.”  So Tasha dug in…  the nurse comes in and says “Why are you eating solids?!  You’re on a liquid diet!”  Ah…terrific.  So later that day the same nurse comes in to hook up Tasha’s new saline drip.  Tasha starts feeling extreme stomache cramps.  She complains to the nurse who is at a loss as to why…  A different nurse comes in, and notices Tasha is hooked up to Pitocin, the medicine they used to induce labor.  The bag was still on the pole, and the other nurse hooked up the wrong medicine bag.  So she was having contractions/spasms because the woman gave her the wrong medicine!  So, finally, the next day, they tell Tasha she can take her first shower…the shower is broke.  They had to call in maintenance to fix it.  The room, by the way, was TINY.  It’s definitely not the recovery room they showed us when we toured the birthing center.  The experience was all so terrifying.  Finally, we got released to go home 5 days after we got there.  Nightmare over?!  Wrong…

Tasha went for her 2 week follow-up appointment with her doctor.  He asked if she was having any problems.  She told him her sutures were starting to hurt a LOT and that she thought they might be getting infected.  He asks to take a look.  He’s SHOCKED.  His jaw drops, and he asks “WHY ARE YOUR STAPLES STILL IN?!”  He continues, “Who was your nurse that discharged you?!  They had specific orders not to release you without removing your staples first!  That’s why you’re in so much discomfort!  They were in for 2 weeks longer than they should have been…”  So he removed them, but the scarring is considerably worse because of the incompetence of the hospital staff.

So, my beautiful princess made her grand arrival with plenty of drama, but everyone insisted (and still does) that she’s the prettiest baby ever.  I couldn’t agree more.  Here are the pictures from when she was born (it’s a lot!)…

Tasha with her Aunt Crystal (TeeTaw) before Caney's arrival

Tasha with her Aunt Crystal, Sister Stormi (Aunt Sissy), and her Nana

Tasha with my Momma (Gran Gran) and my Nanna

with Tyler and Copelander

The door that swung open when I screamed for my friends and family to pray...

Tyler... before they knew something was wrong...

Chris... still before they knew something was wrong.

My Dad (Paw Paw) and Ms. Cathy and Chris after Caney came out to the nursery happy and healthy

Thank God...

It's a scary world, huh, baby girl?

First picture outside the scary doors

In the nursery

Notice the blood bruise on her nose...

My perfect little girl...

She was so alert, just exploring everything and everyone

Still in the nursery...

A light-hearted moment after Caney was safely in nursery...

My princesses...

They both fought so hard. I'm so proud of them...

Me with my princess for the first time.

This is heaven...

I was soooo happy...

and a bit excited...?

Perfect.

My girls...

Nom nom nom!

So happy...

A mommy's love...

Gran Gran with Caney

Tasha's Grandpa with his first great grandchild

Still with Grandpa.

and with her Great-Grandma

Great Grandparents

Nanna, a great-grandmother for the FIFTH time!

Nanna with my Girls

Gran Gran helping

MUAH!

Yummy!

Uncle David is a huge fan!

Uncle David and Aunt Brianne, expecting a little girl named Leah in May (Caney's cousin)!

Sleeping Beauty!

Still sleeping

So perfect. So beautiful.

That’s all for this post, but I promise many many more to come!  We love you all…

-Cy

As most of you know, Tasha and I live in Ruston, La. As you also probably know, we are members of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship. Having said that, we have considered Chi Alpha our “church” for quite some time. The love, fellowship, and community of college-aged believers here is incredible. The campus pastors truly have a heart for reaching the students on this campus. We love it. While we value Chi Alpha and it’s place in our life, we also want to be a part of a traditional church that reaches out to a broader community than our campus. Also, Chi Alpha encourages it’s members to participate in and find a “home” church.

Tasha and I have visited First Baptist – Ruston, South Parkway Church, Crossroads Baptist Church, Warrior School (AoG), and Jonesboro AoG over the past two years. We’ve met terrific people from/at all of the churches, but we never truly found a “fit.”

When my Mom gave her life to Christ several months ago and asked me to help her find a church family, Tasha and I went round and round trying to decide where to take her. She thought I should take her to her old church, Fellowship Baptist. I thought that I should take her to my old church, First Baptist. The night before she was to come to church with us, I stayed up until around 3am…praying that God tell me what to do…where to go…what to do.

Finally, God spoke… He told me “It doesn’t matter where. You bring her to church, I’ll bring her the message.” Wow. That having been said, my decision was made. If God would truly bring her a message regardless of where she went, then I might as well kill 2 birds with 1 stone. I could bring her to Fellowship (making my wife happy), and I would be bringing her to church (making God happy).

After service that Sunday, my Mom asked me “did you tell the pastor I was coming?! It was like he was talking SPECIFICALLY to me!” I laughed, because I knew that while I hadn’t told Brother Don anything, God had (given him that message).

Since then, every time Tasha and I have been in town, we go to Fellowship. If my Mom is off work she usually comes with us. I had never been to Fellowship, so I had never given it a chance! Basically, I’ve fallen in love with this family of believers. They are sponsoring me in my mission trip to South Africa this summer. They are allowing us to host our baby shower in their reception hall. They have a true heart for outreach and service to our community, and they have a strong heart for young believers (as well as reaching young non-believers). The preaching and the teaching is relevant and powerful. We went to Sunday night Bible Study there for the first time this weekend, and it was awesome.

Tasha and I both have a strong desire to invest in this church’s ministry. My biggest fear about this right now is the fact that our future is so uncertain right now! I really hope I get a job in Shreveport-Bossier so that we can continue to grow and invest in this wonderful family of believers after I graduate. It would truly be a blessing to be able to raise our daughter in a church family with the love of this church.

Hello everyone!  So, Tasha and I have been wanting to get maternity pictures taken for a while, but… that usually costs money.  We weren’t able to avoid spending money altogether, but we were able to save a LOT of money by taking them ourselves!  We had to buy a tripod for our camera and some baby blocks (that we wanted for Canaan anyway) and a new set of sheets (we got a really nice set that fit our bed).  We spent a long time taking the pictures and an even longer time editing them, but we love the results (and hope you do too)!  Some of you have already seen these on Facebook, but for those who have not here they are…tell us what you think!

I love them all, but this one is probably my favorite:

We love you all! 23 days left until Canaan is due to arrive…

-Cyrus

While we were in the ER for Tasha, I wrote this poem for Canaan.

My Princess
I know your name
but only because I gave it
Every moment that we share
I desire to always save it
I’m eagerly waiting
for that first glimpse of your face
I count down every moment
but I can hardly keep the pace
That my very Creator
breathed life into you
inspires my spirit to delight
and sends chills right through
Chosen to be your daddy
I am unworthy to be
Yet somehow He’s chosen
to bring a miracle to me
I’m so in love with
the tiny racing heart that beats
and the fluid movements
of your anxious little hands and feet
I’ve seen so little of the girl
in your mommy’s belly, perfect… round
but I’ve felt so much for the girl
who’s got my heart wrapped round ‘n round
Not the day of your birth
but from the moment I’ve known
that you’d be my princess
I gave you that throne
Thank you my Canaan
and thanks to our Lord
for my part in this miracle
and all that is in store

(c) 2009 Cyrus Lee Gerald Robinson

So, every beautiful little princess needs somewhere beautiful to keep her wardrobe! So, that presents a dilemma for my beautiful wife and me concerning Canaan Sidney. We had our new walnut finish modular dresser system from target and an old maple finish dresser from Wal-Mart. Here’s the maple finish dresser:

It’s not a particularly terrible dresser, but it’s nothing marvelous either. Well, Tasha and I decided to give that dresser to Caney, so we bought ourselves a new walnut finish dresser from Wal-Mart to match our other new dresser. It took a while to get it set up, but it matches perfectly (looks great too!). Now the problem is that this maple finish dresser just isn’t pretty enough for my princess…so what’s a daddy to do?!

Well, this seems like good inspiration for a pretty little girl’s furniture:

So…the fabric is decoupaged onto the top of the dresser, the dresser is primed and painted “azalea pink” with “banana green” polka dots and lettering. Tadaaaaa:

Yep, this took me two days of allllll my free time, but it was totally worth it.  I’ve never been a real big fan of the color pink (although I did call it “Sexy woman color” when I was a little kid), but Tasha told me I better get used to it…

Sooooo, I guess I think it’s a pretty fun color for my daughter to be surrounded by.  So what do y’all think of my baby girl’s new dresser?

-Cy

So Monday night, the Chi Alpha girls threw me an amazing baby shower.  I had a lot of fun, we played some games, ate great food (very important to a pregnant woman), and Caney got lots of great presents.  One of the games we played was predicting the measurement of my belly with a piece of yarn.  Most of the girls were way off, but a few came pretty close.  Caney got lots of cool stuff including diapers, wipes, a mirror for the car, a diaper genie, a travel bed, a prayer doll, socks, a baby on board sign, cute little outfits, a picture frame, bottles, an I Love Daddy bib (that her Daddy loves), and a crib dust ruffle.  I really appreciated all the effort the girls put into making my shower wonderful.  It was really touching how many girls were there to show support and love for Caney and me.  Caney is going to love her presents and spending time with all the Chi Alpha girls.