Week 29/30: Weekend Update

My weekend was one big emotional roller coaster.

Friday night I went over to my coworker/friend's birthday/jewelry party...she lives about five minutes away which is awesome to have someone live so close!  (This is also the gal who has two kiddos and will be watching Baby H when we need her).  She turned her birthday into a wine and hor d'oeuvres party (I consumed sparkling water and apple cider) while her neighbor, who is a representative for Premiere Jewelry, did sort of a trunk show.  It was nice getting out and meeting new people-I really haven't done that in quite a while...which kind of makes me feel like a hermit, but at least I'm a hermit with my husband.  Anyway, I didn't end up buying anything but I did get to chat with all these new moms which was really fun.  I also didn't eat much because when I got home husband and I ate pizza.  Mmmm, pizza.

Saturday morning I was exchanging phone calls and texts with the French Bulldog Rescue Group, and we thought we were going to give Coltrane over to her foster family on Monday morning but turned out it was for Sunday morning...which meant a smaller window of time to spend with the one dog I've had for almost five years-longest time I've ever owned an animal.  Psycho animal, yes, but also a very loyal animal.  While Matt was at work, I washed all of Baby H's clothes and Oh. My. Gosh.  This baby has more clothes than I do.  But what's funny is we don't have very many newborn clothes--definitely a lot more 3-6 months.  We're set at that age!  I also did the grocery run and planned the menu for the week.  With so many baby clothes to wash (and my own laundry), I didn't get all of his clothes put away until 10pm.  

After Matt got home, we took the pups for a nice walk, sigh-our last walk with Coltrane.  It was so bittersweet Saturday.  Both hubby and I had our teary moments with her and we let her sleep with us that night.  It's been a long time coming, but to have a solidified date of her leaving us just made it really hard.  We kept telling ourselves this is the best course of action to take, knowing she'll be treated properly and hopefully get the training she needs; and if she stays with us, she'll probably be locked in her crate most of her life.  

Sunday morning we got all of her things ready and drove over to the Van Nuys airport (boo Van Nuys) where we got to drive onto the tarmac and pull up to the private plane she was going to be flying in.  Lucky pup.  We finally realized that the people flying Coltrane to Monterey were just helping out-they weren't her foster family.  What nice people, right?  And this couple had to be a few years younger than us.  Must be nice to be rich and have your own private plane in your 20s.  Holy cow.

Coltrane was surprisingly very calm about all of this, and it broke my heart to have to send my goodbyes to her.  As we were shaking hands with the couple I started to tear up and had to walk away before I started balling (ugh just writing this makes me tear up).  She was still so calm when I looked back, sitting there watching us.  I cried halfway back home but the more we talked about how this is good for everyone, the more I pulled myself together.  But I still made a haiku last night and collage of the frenchie I'll never forget.

Coltrane the Frenchie
May your life be wonderful
We will miss you so.

The apartment definitely had a different feeling to it when we got back, but we ate breakfast in peace and there was no fighting between the pups, or hovering around our feet or having to yell at her not to lick her bars.  After watching football with Matt for a little bit, I took Miles over to my friend Christina's parent's house.  Christina is a good friend who I used to work with but she moved down to San Diego after she got her Master's Degree and lives there with her boyfriend and new puppy.  Well she brought her puppy up and we had a little puppy play-date while we caught up.  These two were SO rambunctious...and I was embarrassed when Miles kept trying to dominate Riley's head...over and over.  It was weird.  But they played hard for almost two hours straight!

When I got home I gave Miles a nice bath and he immediately crashed until dinner, then fell asleep again.  You know your puppy played really hard when he starts cuddling/falling asleep vertically on a pillow next to you...

So overall, as I mentioned before, it's just been a whirlwind of emotions this weekend.  We really miss Coltrane and kept saying, "I wonder what Coley is doing right now," but last night we had our first really peaceful night.  I was able to snuggle up next to Matt without either of us getting attacked.  And this morning when I took Miles out it was so easy to get him to eat and potty.  Coltrane was so stubborn about pooping, seriously!  It took forever.  

Life will be fine for our little family now, but we'll always carry a soft spot for our little frenchie in our hearts.

Week 29: Rainy Wednesday

It's actually raining here!  Woohoo!  I've never been so excited for cold, drizzly weather...but it's just a nice change from the 90 degree weather we've had for the past, I don't know, five months?

I am now officially 29 weeks pregnant.  Warning: content in image below has explicit language...

Heehee.  Explanation of image: stretch marks can also happen to 40% men, and can happen during grown spurts in puberty, weight gain and body building.  So pregnant women are not alone!  Thankfully I don't have any stretch marks on my belly (yet?), but I've been slathering on my cocoa butter all the time so let's hope nothing appears.  Also Baby H is around 15-17 inches tall, almost as tall as he's going to be.  It's crazy to think that this long human being is folded inside my belly.

So Monday I had one of my all-time favorite meals I've made yet.  I normally do not post pictures of my food just because I think it's silly how people do it all the time on Instagram and Facebook now-a-days, but again, this was soooo delicious.

"Lasagna Stuffed Spaghetti Squash"

I found this recipe on Pinterest (as I do almost all my new recipes)...I've never been a fan of squash in general before, but I love spaghetti squash and how it substitutes for pasta!  This was a gluten-free meal too (sans cracked-wheat sourdough bread from TJs).  I'll be cooking this waaay more often now that squash is in season. Aaaand...that was the biggest excitement on Monday.  Sad.

Tuesday felt like Monday.  Work couldn't have gone any slower.  I took Coltrane for a nice walk after work since the weather has cooled down-hubby saw me on his way home from work and I was able to walk Miles as well since he had him.  I'm looking forward to more dog walks now!

Today is our final prepared-childbirth class and I'm not sure what's in store for us.  I've been reading the book they gave us a lot...I think it spurred on another baby dream last night.  This time there were no crocodiles or bears, but we had a nanny who would feed and take care of Baby H more than I did and it made me really sad.  Hopefully that won't happen in the near future.

Update on the pups...we still haven't heard back from the frenchie rescue org.-such a long process.  But I'd rather they find a good foster home for Coltrane than just give her to anyone.  And we will be enrolling Miles in obedience classes at the end of the month.

Okay back to work, Happy Hump Day everyone!

Week 28: Good weekend

Hi y'all!

My 'good' weekend streak is alive-nothing catastrophic happened, no doggy problems, no meltdowns, phew.  Feels good to have a couple weekends in a row that are problem-free!

So there is this program on KUSC, the only classical music station I pick up on my car radio, called "Off to School Requests" that airs every morning at 7:15am.  You can go online and request a song for them to play at this time-it's usually for students going to school, but they say adults can make requests as well.  I made a request a couple weeks ago and they played it this Friday!  I know it's nothing too special/exciting, but it really made my morning and my name was announced as the requester (it was for Holst's Jupiter from The Planets.  You too can enjoy this piece, here you go!).

After work I made myself do a pregnancy workout even though I was tired, but it felt good to move and stretch.  Then another relaxing night with the hubby.

Saturday hubby had to work in the morning, so I ran and got groceries then did a serious cleaning on the bathroom and kitchen, did all the laundry, vacuumed and got a crock pot roast going to make french dips for dinner.  Talk about OCD cleaning/nesting!  I was definitely tired by the time hubby came home and we relaxed at home again in the evening.  It was too hot to go out!  Darn heat waves...can't wait until they're over-which should happen sometime mid-week.  Phew.  Hubby went to bed early while I stayed up watching a guilty pleasure movie (I'm too embarrassed to say what it is!) and should have went to bed earlier because...

Sunday morning came around and my internal clock always wakes me up around 7-7:30am on the weekends.  Plus I had to get up to meet one of my besties Jen for breakfast (finally!) and so I was a little zombie-like.  We got breakfast at a place in Hollywood which was quite yummy and caught up.  She has a super cute 9-month old we chatted about and she walked me through the whole maternity leave process, which is so confusing!  She ordered a couple coffee drinks to go, and on our way to the car she had them stacked a little precariously...

It's a new trend, right?

We stopped by the grocery store to pick up a few things and then as we were hugging before I left, this happened...

Not only did the restaurant forget about this cappuccino to go, she dropped half of it on herself, then the rest was unintentionally sacrificed to the Coffee Gods.  She will have good coffee fortune from now on!

When I returned home, I read up on my prepared-childbirth booklet while hubby watched TV and fell in and out of sleep.  That felt nice.  :)  Later on we made a trip to Burbank to IKEA-my nesting phase comes in strong waves, and I really wanted to get a wardrobe for Baby H's clothes.  I have this urge to get them all washed and put away!

Extra Baby H swag with a good deal on a dresser

Hubby put together a few things when we got home, but the dresser he will tackle this week.  I love IKEA!

Almost Week 29 of pregnancy.  I know I say this a lot, but I can't believe how fast time flies!

Week 28: Third Trimester

Hello Week 28, where did you come from?  You're telling me I have only 12 weeks left?!  Wow.

Baby H is now roughly 2.5 pounds.  And I am definitely starting to feel the weight of him...it used to be just a bump that felt light, but now when I take long walks or try to exercise, I start to feel mini cramps and just can't move as fast.  Aye Chihuahua!

Our third prepared childbirth class was last night and I kind of wouldn't have minded skipping that one due to the emergency C-section video we had to watch.  Ugh.  They did a vertical incision which is very rare now, but the baby was breached and they pulled the baby BY ITS FEET out of the poor lady.  It looked painful for the baby and very uncomfortable for the mom.  We had a substitute teacher since ours was out of the state for a few days, and when she asked if we had any questions I wanted to shout out "Yes, can you make sure I don't have to go through that?!"  But then we watched a video about the first few weeks with baby and briefly discussed breast-feeding, dad's roll and post-partum depression.  Those topics were worth learning about more for sure.  Class got out early and we decided to get some food near the hospital since we were both starving and just wanted alone time before we went home to the pups.  We found this awesome place called FreeB!rds and it was a build your own burrito restaurant (like Chipotle but a thousand times better).  I'm glad we ate there, now we know where to go/take family when I'm at at the hospital!

Backtracking just a tad...yesterday morning I received a call from the Frenchie Rescue volunteer and she said she is 99% sure she has a foster home for Coltrane.  The foster lady has a wedding to attend next week and will be out of the state until the 12th, but Coley will be able to go with her after that.  It's so bittersweet!  We love that pup so much, but this is the best plan of action for her.  : (

Hubby has been working like a ninja which is good, but he'll be working on Saturday so that means more nesting time for Nichi!  Planning on doing a deep clean of our place, grocery shopping, making those yummy fair scones and watching some girl movies and most likely horror movies (I love Halloween/October!).  Is it Friday yet?

End of Week 27: Successful Trip Home

Okay everyone, prepare for a very long update on the last few days!

Thursday
When I got home from work we discovered a few packages:

Holy cow, a Pack n' Play!

My bestie and her mom had purchased a Graco Pack n' Play from our registry-how awesome are they?!  Yeah, very cool.  I feel very lucky to have such a wonderful friend.

AND after checking the mail that night I found she also sent me:

Yum!

The card was absolutely hilarious and I've already eaten a couple chocolates from the cute lunch box.  Heehee...I'm saving the frogs for the weekend.  : )  And the book is too cute!  I've already gone through half of it; has some very good advice.

Friday
I woke up at my normal weekday work time and got ready to...sit in traffic.  Since JetBlue flies only out of Long Beach to Seattle, we had to sit through the normal weekday traffic to get down there.  It took us about an hour and forty minutes-not as bad as we thought, but it was still frustrating for the hubs.  I treated him to a fatty breakfast at BK once we got to Long Beach.  :)

Flight was great and the first thing we did when my pa picked me up was hit up Chang's Mongolian Grill...I've been craving that place for so long!  My favorite is the rice wraps, and I can't seem to find any other Mongolian Grill that serves them.

Second plate of food...hungry pregnant lady!

My pa and our waiter giving the thumbs up...he was very accommodating of  our constant requests of rice and rice wraps!

After filling our bellies to the brim, we sat in more traffic back to Tacoma.  That evening was spent going through a lot of my storage I left at home and either taking a few things or donating the rest to goodwill.  I found a couple things that I had bought for my "future baby" from Holland back in 2007...I should have taken pictures, but one is a little elephant that plays music and the other is a stuffed sheep.  I know I'm weird, but I wanted to be able to say, "I bought this for you when I was in Europe!"  I also snapped a photo of my "Record of Birth" hanging in the room I was sleeping in:

Let's hope Baby H is around the same weight as me!

Later that evening hubby sent pictures of two boxes that Nana and my sister sent him so he wouldn't feel left out opening presents...

Missy Box!  Homemade cart cover, towels and bibs.  And from our registry, a Chicco carrier for when we go on hikes/outings!

Nana box: Seahawk and Sounder onesies and homemade blanket and hat, how adorable!

Saturday
Baby Shower Day!!!  I had such a great time, and it was really nice seeing all my friends and family again.  I was sad that some couldn't make it due to understandable circumstances, but Nana and my sister did a great job-I have such a loving family!

That little guy on the left was made by my other "grandmother's" daughter, and the middle basket was made by my cousin!  

Sister set up a "photo booth" and we added the polaroids to our wedding guest book since it was only half full.

My Aunt Penny and Cousin Lisa (who my mom couldn't stop gushing about!)

My mom and me :)

Sister Missy, Bestie's mom Kay, Nana and Lola

My mom and Aunt Kathy

I also have to tell you that this was my first time trying french macarons...OMG.  I'm in love.  I think I ate about 12 of them on Saturday...whoops.

After the baby shower, we headed over to Redmond to meet my immediate family for dinner at Spazzos.  Dinner was meh (which I will be yelping shortly!), but it was really nice to see everyone.

Top left: My oldest brother John and 5-year old niece Sydney
Top right: My FIL & MIL
Bottom left: My folks and nephew Lance (who tried to look serious, but I think he ended up cross-eyed, ha!)
Bottom right: My brother Avery, wife Amy and 2 1/2-year old niece Ari

Ari is such a cute kid!  And my sister is the greatest sister.  :)

As we were leaving the restaurant, it made me miss my hubby as "his" restaurant was across the way, haha:

When we got home, I ate more macarons and a yummy carrot cupcake Nana made for the shower and watched USC get pummeled by ASU.  That was a fun game.  I don't like USC, or $UC as we call them...

Sunday
The weekend flew by and Sunday arrived rather quickly.  After getting ready and eating some leftover fruit from the shower, I sat on the couch with sister and Bella, the cutest cat/dog (she's sort of cat-like because she doesn't act like a crazy dog...or at least, like our crazy dogs!).  But she was shaking and then stared at me for a long time.  It was quite unusual...maybe she finally sensed Baby H inside me?

Bella also likes to stick her tongue out.

I told my MIL and sister about the few things I wanted to gather before I left Washington and after packing up we headed out to the University Village next to the University of Washington.

Organic Washington Apples?  Check.
Fair Scone Mix?  Check.
Top Pot Donuts?

Check.  Starbucks was an extra perk!

Last on my list was Stumptown Coffee for my co-worker/friend who will be the one to drive me to the hospital if I should go into labor at work...Stumptown is my FAVORITE coffee and I would have bought some for myself but alas, I'm not allowed too much coffee (and I'd rather just not take the chance!).  We couldn't find it within the U-Village in the short amount of time, so I settled with Top Pot Coffee since it's local.  He tried it today and said it was yummy!

We made it to the airport with plenty of time and my MIL and sis took me in since my Baby Luggage was heavy (46 lbs. to be exact!).  The security line was insanely long, but it moved pretty quickly.  After we said our goodbyes, I ended up getting randomly selected for a new line where people do not have to take their shoes off, remove their toiletries or laptops!  I don't know why that made me so excited, but it did.  Unfortunately I still had to take my boots off because there are studs that go along the zipper, but I didn't mind.

I grabbed a Beecher's Grilled Cheese and tomato soup for my flight out and got to my gate when it was supposed to be boarding...and waited.  And waited.  The pilots were stuck on another flight and we were waiting for them to head over.  An hour later we were able to board and I shut my eyes as we pushed out to the tarmac...and waited.  And...went back to the gate.  Apparently they had refueled one wing but not the other, and so we had to go back and fill up again.  WTF.  I was fine with this but the lady sitting across the aisle was freaking out and kept talking loudly, and then two people hurried off the plane.  Did I mention we only had one bathroom working?

Fortunately we took off about two and a half hours later and made it back to Long Beach by 6:30pm.  Not too shabby.  Good thing to come of all of that was I got a few emails from JetBlue with a new account and $50 credit due to the problems.  That's going towards our flights to New York in August!  Woohoo.

So all in all, it was a really successful trip back home.  I did not miss the gray, rainy weather which stayed the entire weekend, but it was a nice change from the heat here.  But the next time I'll be seeing my family won't be for another few months.  My parents are actually talking about driving down for Thanksgiving and staying until Baby H is born since they'll both be retired by then!  That's neat.

Events to look forward to now: My last trip to Disneyland alone with the hubby which should happen in the next couple weeks...Baby Shower #2 thrown by my co-workers...and the arrival of Baby H!  Events that are kind of sad: Coltrane leaving our family.  The French Bulldog Rescue Organization have been in contact with me and they'll be talking about her case this week (it never happened last week, one of the ladies still had questions about her which I finally got a hold of last night).  So she may be leaving us within the next couple weeks.  We're both really sad about this, but she still has been showing the same behavioral problems...she even acted out a few times last night.  But we feel she will get the training/dedication that she just can't get from us since nothing has worked on her.

Tomorrow is the third prepared childbirth class...I'll be keeping you posted on that soon!

Week 27: Dream Log

Guten Tag everyone.  Onto Week 27...

This week has gone by just fine, no serious problems or meltdowns thankfully.  My Week 27 milestone yesterday also marked 3/4 of the way until Christmas (I heard this on the radio on my way to work).  That mean's Baby H's arrival is soon approaching!

So the above photo is very appropriate for our class last night.  We ended up watching a video of a real life natural birth, talked about birthing positions and then watched a video about medications during birth.  I have to admit I couldn't help but cringe here and there...giving birth looks absolutely excruciating.  But everything we went over was very informative and made me understand I may not be able to control the process, so I'm ready to roll with whatever comes my way.  I'm very glad we are taking these classes!

Came home to an apartment that just wreaked of poop.  Hubby had a quick meet and greet with a new post-production company before the class (yay hubby!), so the dogs were left alone for 6 hours...and Miles having the bad case of diarrhea, he pooped all over his crate again.  Sigh.  But go mom instincts...I was able to throw everything in the wash, clean his crate, feed the dogs, take them out and give Miles a bath before hubby got home with take out.  Woohoo!  Thankfully we went to PetSmart before our birthing class and I got Miles new sensitive tummy food and his own bottle of puppy kaopectate...let's hope these help him.

So with the combination of fatty food right before bed and being bombarded by birthing images for two hours, I had my first birthing dream.  Get ready for a doozy...

Hubby and I were downstairs in my parent's home getting ready for bed.  When I woke up a few hours later, Baby H had already crowned and part of him was, well, sticking out.  My pa came down and since Baby H wanted to come out he was going to deliver the baby for me.  I got out of bed, held onto this bar and he basically slid out of me...and I swear it was a crocodile.  I didn't get a good look at him because my pa took him into a big towel and brought him upstairs to get cleaned up.  The upside of all of this was no pain, and in my dream I thought woo, I gave birth in less than five minutes with no pain, go me!

Hubby and I sat and watched TV while we waited to see Baby H.  On TV was stand-up comedy, and we were talking about how he was going to look.  Hubby got a slight glance at him during birth, and we were so nonchalantly talking about how he would be half-lizard, half-human since in my dream world that existed.  In fact after a Chris Rock look-a-like finished his act, this lizard-human creature was doing his standup.  He looked sort of like this:

This is from the movie Enemy Mine, circa 1985...picture this but green and less bumpy

We started getting anxious since it had been what felt like hours in my dream, so I decided to go upstairs and see what was going on.  I found my mom ironing in her bedroom, but no pa and baby.  I asked where was he and she basically said Baby H was not one of God's creatures...interpretation: he was badly deformed.  So my dad had taken him away since Baby H's chance of survival was slim to none.  You know what's terrible?  In my dream the first thing that came to my mind was, "How am I going to tell the facebook world about this?"  Of course I was really sad, but it was just a strange feeling.  Then I woke up in horror and it took me a very long time to get back to sleep.  WTF.

I thought my first birthing dream would be a little less freakish...I'm definitely NOT eating bad food right before I go to bed anymore.  That was a huge mistake.

Today feels like my Friday, I'm sooo excited to travel up to Washington tomorrow!  The weather prediction was better earlier this week...it said it was supposed to be about 67 when I flew in with a few sun breaks.  Now my whole trip is below 62 degrees and raining.  Lame.  Oh well, what's fall in the Pacific Northwest without a little rain, right?  : )  Again, I'm just excited to be home with friends and family.  See some of you real soon!

Another early start, Week 26/27

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!

Don't mind our alien dog behind it, I think she's jealous she doesn't have a swing.

-AND we also received a lot of swag from my mom and pa...

What's up Graco car seat and stroller?!

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!

His eyes would rotate in different directions!

-We decided to treat ourselves to our faaaavorite Mexican restaurant at lunch (friends and family, if/when you come to visit, this will probably be one of the first places we take you for lunch) and gorged ourselves.
-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.

Whatcha reading there?

-If you like scary movies, Insidious 2 was, in my opinion, very good.  Hubby had a few hesitations here and there and I had a couple questions myself, but all in all they did a great job with the movie.
-We received another lovely surprise box for Baby H from Nana!!!

Homemade nursing covers with wonderful fabrics!

Awesome monster/robot/alien onesies, rocking shorts and much needed mittens

EEEK!!!  Baby H will be Baby Mickey, how adorable is this?!

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!

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.