Monthly Archives: June 2012

Jun22

Getting close!

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Getting close!

So today we hit the 38 week mark. Woohoo!

(That announcement couldn’t be complete without accompanying pictures, right?)

Had an interesting trip to the doctor’s office today, where we expected nothing, and then as she was examining me, said, “Wow! Interesting!” (Just what you want to hear in the middle of somebody examining you “down under”. Oh, did I just cross a line admitting that? Too bad. You are reading MY blog, after all.)

After I politely inquired after her reaction, the doctor said I was already at 2 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced (for those who know what that means. If you don’t, I dare you to look up “dilation and effacing” online!). Essentially, it could mean the baby is coming soon, or that she still will take her sweet time and show up in two weeks. So, it actually means WHO THE HECK KNOWS when the baby decides to arrive.

Even more exciting news, the baby’s room is near completion! I’m feeling pretty good about it at this point.

See, this was her room a week and a half ago:

Yeah, scary, I know. Since it was that darker, brownish paint, we definitely had some priming we had to do.

Then, this is what the room looked like about Tuesday:

Painted a lovely shade of Tinkerbell Green, but still no furniture set up and the carpet desperately wanted to be cleaned. (Excuse the awkward angles of the pictures, but in order to get the green coloring to show up true to shade, I had to contrast it with the white ceilings/doors.)

Then, as of yesterday evening, the room had become… this:

Some wall decorations up: Carter Jungle Jill Wall Decals courtesy of my mother…

The wall under the decals with a bookshelf and cedar chest.

A crib all set up (courtesy of the most handsome Jared!) with sheets already washed, and the mobile I PUT TOGETHER BY MYSELF WITHOUT ANY HELP! Also, we took down the remaining decals that we put on the crib in this picture because we weren’t crazy how they looked. (We might try something like this once we decide officially on her name. Could you see that in pink lettering with those cute monkeys?!)

Moving along, you can admire the nightstand, bouncer, cubbies, desk (that will also act as a changing table once we get a changing pad…)

And here you can see the dresser and bookcase, mainly full of my old Beanie Babies and then books that I mostly got from wonderful people at my baby shower. (I didn’t forget to blog on that, by the way. Still waiting on pictures from a secondary source!)

Can you tell how excited I am that her room is pretty close to complete? Her closet and dresser are full of clothes, we have diapers and wipes ready to go, and we’re just missing a few essential items like the changing pad and diaper genie.

I love, love, love how Baby Boothe’s room has really come together!

Jun18

Frankenpooch update

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Frankenpooch update

Good news: Stevie got his stitches out Saturday!

Bad news: He’s been tearing around the house like a fiend now that he doesn’t have annoying stitches and staples cramping his style.

Good news: He hasn’t managed to hurt himself more yet!

Bad news: Regardless, he still looks a bit mangy.

So, what looked like this:

Now looks more like this!

Big improvement, though, yes?

Speaking of news, Bonnie got to visit the vet last week, too. She apparently thought that Stevie was taking up too much of the attention around here and started to have some very concerning back problems. Every time we would try to hold her, she’d yelp. It got to be that Thursday evening she could barely walk, and even laying down or getting up on her own in her crate was making her cry. She couldn’t bend over to eat her food out of her bowl, even though she was hungry (not much is more pitiful to watch than that dog circling her food bowl, occasionally pawing at the kibble, trying to figure out some strategy to try and get the food to her mouth!). I ended up having to hand feed her for a few meals.

Anyways, vet said she’s probably got a deep muscle tweak or a very minor disc issue and sent us home with some doggie muscle relaxers and pain killer/anti-inflammatory, but said it’s nothing to be too concerned about unless it gets worse. Bonnie is loving the excuse for extra peanut butter and is pretty much back to her normal self.

We just cannot keep up with their crazy shenanigans and medical bills as we quickly approach the Baby Boothe birthday arrival, so both dogs are on probation from having too much fun until further notice.

Since this means mostly sitting with me on the couch for hours on end, they don’t seem to mind.

Jun11

Things I found while browsing around…

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Things I found while browsing around…

I know there’s things I should be doing that are more productive around the house.

Napping, even, but it’s hard when it’s nearly 100 degrees, you’re in your ninth month of pregnancy, and you have two hot little doggies (one that’s a big ole pathetic sicko) that want to sleep RIGHTTHERE with you. Under a blanket, no less.

So, I’m watching the DIY (Do IT Yourself) channel and browsing the web. Here are some of the awesome things I have found today.

Big Bang Theory Inspired Soft Kitty Mug

Etsy.com is such a great time waster. I’d never actually buy most of these items, but it gives you great inspiration. What’s better than Soft Kitty when you aren’t feeling well?

Not a fan of Big Bang Theory (though everyone should be, really)? Maybe these garden gnomes are more your style:

Zombie Garden Gnome, "Walking Dead" (5-6 WEEKS Before delivery)

Please don’t take this as a sign that I actually would want one of these in my own yard… Please. And thank you.

Maybe I just find this funny because my life is about to be ruled by an infant soon. You should probably just admire this whole Etsy store because it’s that great:

Accio Milk Harry Potter Bodysuit (Black) Nintendo onesie Daddy's Little Princess

And this is just a unique twist on your usual dice (or die since they are selling them individually?):

Dice (1 Die) - 3D printed, Steampunk Style, Bronze Finish

 

And have you ever wondered at the zoo if that animal was really determined, could s/he break the glass? Here’s a determined polar bear to answer that question!

Polar Bear

I guess I like it because of the polar bear’s awesome strength and determination, not necessarily because the glass actually breaks. Just clarifying, in case you thought I was crazy.

(Well, of course you know I’m crazy, but I digress.)

Anything that you find that you like out there? Feel free to attach in comments. Maybe next time I do a post like this, yours will be on there, too! 🙂

**Update/Edit 6-12-2012**

I just came across this today, and thought it was pretty neat (but not deserving of its own blog post).

I’m not normally a lobster fan, unless I’m eating them, but I would totally keep this one as a pet!

A catch straight out of the deep blue sea

Jun10

Some weeks just stink…

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Some weeks just stink…

And this week is one stinky week.

It’s been awhile since I’ve talked about my depression and anxiety issues, but it really has been a daily battle this year. I made some very specific decisions about not staying on medication. That started around the 2010-2011 school year. Things were going well in life and I felt like I had reached a place where I didn’t need it. I was still enjoying teaching, and I knew Jared and I were wanting to start a family, too.

Unfortunately, by April 2011, things were unraveling with teaching due to the potential budget cuts from the state, and soon the work place morale was extremely low. Starting the 2011-2012 school year was miserable for several reasons, many you know of from previous posts, and many that I couldn’t talk about on a blog. It would have been a perfect time for me to restart medication, but Jared and I didn’t want to postpone our family any longer, and I remained off them. Once we did find out that we had been successful in starting our family, it was that much more important to me to make sure that I was as healthy and un-medicated as possible for my unborn child. Naturally, pregnancy hormones and symptoms didn’t exactly help with a stable frame of mind.

With all that being said, there have been several days and weeks this year that have threatened to crush me, and I try not to focus too much on them. But this week has definitely made a run for the stinkiest.

1. I left a job that I thought I would be doing for several more years. Yes, it was my choice to leave, and several people there wanted me to stay, but I know it was the right choice for me at the time. However, knowing that it’s the right choice doesn’t make it any easier walking away. I suspect I will have more twinges of sadness near the end of August when I know everyone’s heading back to school, and I won’t be there.

2. My energy level is terrible… All I want to do is sleep or sit on the couch!

3. Baby Boothe preparations are not going as well as I hoped. I wanted her room to be ready by now; painted, crib set up, clothing arranged. And we still have many essentials that we need to get in order. (Shout out to my mom for some of the “big” purchases that you’ve done to help us out!) But I think that “nesting” urge is kicking in and I desperately want things to be perfect for when Baby gets here. I told Jared that if the room’s not painted by this weekend, we aren’t going to worry about it.

4. My house is a mess. Boxes from school things I had to move home over the last weekend have taken over our living room, and they’re too heavy for me to lift (especially according to Jared). Our dining room has baby stuff all up in there. It’s just so messy! That “nesting” instinct must be kicking in…

5. Stevie’s Wednesday accident. ‘Nuff said about that trauma.

6. Stevie’s stitches started coming apart Friday (DESPITE his cone-of-shame wearing). Our regular vet wouldn’t look at them, so we had to go back to the EC vet. Fortunately, they fixed him up for free since the stitches shouldn’t be coming undone yet. Unfortunately, some of them had to be completely taken out and staples put in (making him look like Dog of Frankenstein even more!). They also had to put glue on the remaining stitches to help them hold… and got glue on what’s left of his fur, too.

(Despite the hodge-podge of stitches and staples, the wound does look less inflamed! It helps when he wears his cone of shame…)

Those are just some of the bigger things that are going on right now. There’s been several little things that have just overwhelmed me this week, too, but it would sound too whiny. Plus, it’s not good to focus on all the negative. I just needed to blow off some steam from the stinky week, and purge this all from my system to move on to next week.

So, here’s to next week, and hoping that it will be much, much better than this past one!

Jun7

The trouble with mandogs…

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The trouble with mandogs…

(Warning: Some images in this post may appear too graphic for some audiences. If blood makes you queasy, read on at your own risk!)

Remember those cute, peaceful pictures of adorable doglings that I posted yesterday?

Well, clearly, I spoke too soon.

To begin this story, you have to get a little history. One of our neighbors has a dog, cute little thing that looks like a mix between a min schnauzer and a shih tzu. The biggest problem with this dog, and said neighbors, is that the dog loves our yard and makes frequent jailbreak attempts to get over to our side of the fence. (They do say the grass is always greener…)

If it were just her getting into our yard and trying to play with our dogs, we wouldn’t care. Size-wise, they are pretty evenly matched, and she’s generally a sweet, fun little thing, but the problem with the holes is that it makes our yard less secure. These neighbors don’t have the greatest fence on the other side of their yard, and our little Iggies could easily get out onto the street and get into some major trouble if they made their own jailbreak. We’ve actually run out of rocks, stones, and other miscellaneous objects to stop up all the holes that dog is digging. We’ve started pulling bags of dirt.

But last night, Neighbor Dog broke through again. And while she and Stevie were frantically running through the yard, something happened. I was inside at the time, but according to Jared, he saw Stevie take a bit of a tumble, but get back up and running again. From a distance, everything seemed fine.

All I know is that when I came back out, I took one look at Stevie and knew something was wrong when I saw this:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you don’t know much about greyhounds, especially their smaller counterparts, they have very thin skin with relatively no body fat and very little fur, so it’s common (especially with racing greyhounds) to shred up the whole section, all layers of skin, in falls or tumbles.

Something this big needed to go to the vet. Even Jared agreed after taking a closer look that it would probably be a good idea. The only problem was that it was 8:00 PM, which meant we had to go to an emergency vet to get it taken care of.

Just in case you didn’t think about it, the emergency vet is a really sad place. I wouldn’t want to work there. Just in the hour or two we were in the front “waiting” room, we saw several crying people and sad, sad animals. It seemed like a night for some serious lacerations on dogs, too, from what we saw and heard.

We came at a pretty good time, so we didn’t spend too long before somebody came and took a look at Stevie. At first they thought it would be relatively easy to sedate him, clean out the wound, and patch him back up, but quickly after they started they realized that the injury was actually a lot worse than it looked like. In order to do the extent of cleaning and stitching up that they would need to do, they had to put him under anesthesia (also very dangerous for sight hound breeds). They told us to go home to try and rest, and they’d call us in a hour or two once he woke back up.

Try and rest. Ha. You’re telling that to a woman who has anxiety to begin with, whose special dog has to go under for what seemed like fairly easy to care for wound, and to top it off, is now in her 9th month of pregnancy and is riddled with those fun pregnancy hormones and symptoms.

Go home and rest. Good one, right?

Nearly 6 hours and $600 later, we were able to bring Stevie back home:

(We’ve been trying to think of some good nicknames for him while he’s got those awful stitches in. Our favorites have been Frankenpup, Dog of Frankenstein, and Stevie Stitcheroonie.)

So far, he’s been okay, but he’s seriously grounded. For the next several days, most doggy privileges have been revoked. Potty outside on a leash only so he doesn’t get excited by anything and run off; inside he can’t jump, climb stairs, run, or play; most of the time he should be in a small confined space (like his kennel) to make him recuperate better.

It’s looking like it will be a fun two weeks.