Sometimes I like Mondays because it means a fresh new week, a fresh new start. I know there are a lot of really terrible things going on in the world right now, and as I lay down to sleep last night I was extremely thankful to just have my hubby by my side and "first-world" problems. But lately I feel like life has been working against my little family-maybe it's just to prep us and see if we can handle the blows, maybe it's because something really fantastic is coming our way, who knows. But man, yesterday felt like the world was pressing down on us hard and as we didn't buckle under the pressure, it sure felt like I was going to. Let's break it down into downers and uppers to balance it out...
FRIDAY
Downers:
-Miles' hairless patch was getting worse on Friday-probably because he was laying in the sun and it was irritating it to the point it turned red and gross. So I made an appointment for him to see another vet (the third since we moved) on Saturday.
-Work moved terribly slow which is typical for Fridays.
Uppers:
-We received a really cool Zen Swing for Baby H from my brother Avery, sister-in-law Amy and niece Ari. This was a very sweet and thoughtful gift from them, I bet Baby H will love it!
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| Don't mind our alien dog behind it, I think she's jealous she doesn't have a swing. |
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| What's up Graco car seat and stroller?! |
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| Without even telling them, my folks picked up some very near and dear items I put on our Amazon registry. Ergobaby carrier?! Adorable teddy bear humidifier?! Shark baby robe?! And DIAPERS...man, my folks rock. |
-I made a healthy apple crisp Friday night and yummy breakfast burritos for dinner. I love breakfast for dinner.
Saturday
Downer:
-Taking Miles to the vet in the morning and dreading how much it was going to cost us. His patch was still red and scaly and I'm sure that was due to him scratching at it.
Uppers:
-Our new vet was really nice and informational and after doing a skin scraping on Miles we found out it was just mites. We didn't know that mites always live in dogs, but if the puppy's immune system isn't strong enough the mites can get a little overwhelming and cause patches. Once he gets older his immune system will get stronger and the patch should go away in time. For now we are putting Neosporin on it and Miles has to stay in T-Shirts so that he doesn't try scratching/biting at it so much. And the price of his exam/skin scraping was less than we thought it would be, phew!
-New vet wins, we're sticking with that Animal Hospital.
-While we were at PetSmart looking for doggy shirts, hubby found this really neat looking lizard!
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| His eyes would rotate in different directions! |
-We drove back to Valencia and bought tickets to see Insidious 2...I figured I should get all my scary movies in now before I get closer to my due date...heehee. But since we arrived a little early, we decided to walk around the little outdoor mall complex to walk off some of our lunch.
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| Whatcha reading there? |
-We received another lovely surprise box for Baby H from Nana!!!
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| Homemade nursing covers with wonderful fabrics! |
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| Awesome monster/robot/alien onesies, rocking shorts and much needed mittens |
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| EEEK!!! Baby H will be Baby Mickey, how adorable is this?! |
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| So this is freaking awesome...I pinned a shirt like this to one of my pinterest boards, and I was going to buy one but Nana beat me to it! I looove this for Halloween! |
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| Homemade sleep-sack and bear hat, how precious! |
-Oh, and Miles' diarrhea is slowly disappearing...he still has/had some watery poops, but we're thankful we don't have to get up every two hours in the middle of the night to take him out.
Major Downer:
-Saturday night we decided to take a long walk since the weather cooled down significantly. I used the mapmyrun app to track our distance, and when we made it home we had walked about 2.7 miles, not too shabby. But then Coltrane collapsed once we got through the door, and then every time she tried to move she would let out this blood-curdling cry. She's been kind of doing this over the last week but just briefly and we'd keep an eye on her, but she usually would get up and shake it off. Last night however it was really bad...for almost an hour hubby laid on the floor with her and tried to figure out what was wrong with her-and when he pushed on her back, she let out a very loud cry. She'd periodically try to shift her weight and move, but again she'd just cry out really loudly. At one point I sat on the couch and she came over to me and kept her head between my legs; it was really sad how badly she was shaking. We tried feeding her and she did try to eat a little, but then she let out her loud cry and collapsed. Hubby was very scared and we tried calling our animal hospital to see if we could take her in as an emergency, but the only vet there was already performing an emergency surgery and wouldn't be done until closing time. So we ended up getting her in her crate and she thankfully stayed in there cry-free until the morning. It was a very stressful night and her cries are just so loud and heart-breaking. Even more stressful was the fact that I tried googling her symptoms and found a lot of frenchies get IVDD, or Intervertebral Disc Disease, which is where the spinal discs harden. It can be treated with a lot of crate rest or in severe cases, surgery which can cost anywhere from $4,000 to $8,000. This blog is where I learned about one frenchie's case and it really worried me-what if Coltrane has it?! I managed to go to sleep later, but only got about less than six hours.
Sunday
Downer:
-Since we didn't hear Coltrane cry at all in the night, we thought maybe she slept it off. I had plans to get breakfast with my friend Jennifer and so I took the dogs out to eat and potty-Coltrane was stiff and shaky, but she didn't cry at all. Once I got in the shower though, her cries started again. I called breakfast off and we headed out the door to the vet with Coley in her crate (we were terrified to pick her up in fear of making it worse).
Uppers:
-Of course Coltrane did not cry once when we got her to the vet. When we talked to the vet about this she said that's what happens with all dogs-the adrenaline pumps and they don't cry. Our vet checked down her spinal cord and thankfully Coltrane didn't react to anything. But then she tried moving her head down and her range was a bit limited. We agreed to have x-rays done on her and turns out she has cervical arthritis. Good thing is she just needs to be on meds and she needs to keep getting walks, but we're not going to be as tough with her as we used to.
-Coltrane is on pet insurance, so we'll be reimbursed for most of her costs thankfully.
-Once we got Coltrane home with meds, she was back to her normal self in no time. She even tried playing a lot with Miles and us, but we restrained her. She acted as if the previous night/morning never happened!!! We were in shock.
Downer:
-After all the dog racket, I decided to go grab groceries while hubby watched football. I parked my car in the apartment complex Saturday after the Miles vet trip so that we didn't have to move our cars around in the garage, which was a big mistake. I accidentally left my low lights on, and since the electrical panel in my car has been acting a little wonky there was no buzzard/ring to indicate this. My battery was completely dead. And we don't have jumper cables.
-Hubby drove us to AutoZone and they were ALL OUT of jumper cables...what kind of auto store doesn't have jumper cables?! Really?!
Upper:
-We found jumper cables at the BigLots right next to the auto store for only $10, score!
-Also made a quick trip to the Dollar Tree next door where I was able to get a few things on my list for the apartment.
-We grabbed groceries on the way home and was able to stick to my list and spent less than normal (granted I budgeted for only a 4-day work week since I'm flying back home on Friday!).
Downer:
-Once we got to my car, the cable wouldn't reach my battery and hubby couldn't put it into neutral. So I wrote a note to the car parked next to me (the other side was a grassy curb) and asked that once he moved to please call me, although I was pessimistic that he wouldn't move all day.
-From all the crazy stressors this weekend/month, I had a minor breakdown. I think I was really exhausted too.
Upper:
-Hubby figured out there was a switch to put my car in neutral with no battery service, and he was able to back my car up and connect the wires. Success!
So, looking back, things could have been worse, but it sure felt terrible. Oh, I should have added something to the downer list--still haven't received my 2013-14 Vehicle Registration even after the whole Changing of Address fiasco. I'm glad I kept my appointment with the DMV for tomorrow, but it still means I have to get out of work in the later afternoon. Darn you DMV. AND my car didn't start this morning which meant dragging the hubby out of bed to jump it once again-at least both cars were in the garage this time. He's a sweetheart, I felt bad because he looked tired and miserable.
I'm really hoping that everything is now on the upswing; I didn't hear my alarm this morning and scrambled to get ready earlier than normal since I had my glucose screening at 7:15 near my work...I had to drink this super sweet drink that tasted like flat orange soda and sit in the waiting room of a lab for an hour. Then they drew blood which didn't hurt at all (thank you nice lab technician lady!) and got to work 45 minutes late, but all the faculty knew and were nice about it. And so far my day has gone by smoothly. I look forward to my second childbirth class on Wednesday and then flying home on Friday. I'm really excited to see friends and family again! So, yay Monday, and here's to hoping for a good week.
Chin up and hang in there! That does sound like a rough weekend, but you guys handled it all really well. This week will be better, I'm sure of it!
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