–
The Milk Saga
A couple of nights ago I poured myself a glass of milk. I was having one of those REALLY strong cravings for a glass of ice cold milk. I started gulping as fast as I could when it hit me that I was drinking VERY rotten milk. I stopped and drank something else, brushed my teeth and held myself. I could not believe what I had just tasted. The most RANCID milk ever!! And I didn’t just take a sip, I GULPED it down.

Last night I went to the store and bought 2 more 1/2 gallons (we buy them in 1/2 gallons, they seem to last longer for us, SEEM being the key word here, people!) and a container of No Sugar Added Chocolate Nesquik. I was really jonesin’ for some chocolatey milk. Tonight I poured myself a HUGE glass of milk and added an embarassingly large amount of Nesquik powder to my cup and stirred it up nice ‘n good. I’m sure you know where this is going, right??

I took a VERY large, long gulp and I thought.. this is NOT tasting right at all. I think I said “What the hell??” and Gene said “What?” and I said “This No Sugar Added Nesquik is TERRIBLE! I should have just gotten the regular one.” and right then and there, it hit me, this wasn’t an awful taste created by drinking a healthier alternative. No, this was MUCH worse. I got the milk from the fridge and poured a tiny bit in a cup, a test cup if you will. I drank a sip and seriously felt like I was going to vomit!! It was DISGUSTING. It smelled fine though and it was not your normal rancid milk taste. It was something much worse and I still have no idea WHAT, but you’ll just have to trust me on this one. Gene braved it and tasted it (just to make sure I wasn’t crazy) and he spit it out.

I called the store and now I have to take my milk back and exchange it. I’ll be getting a different brand next time. And yes, I check expiration dates. What the heck?!?!?! All I’ve wanted ALL week long is a tall glass of ICE COLD MILK. REGULAR TASTING MILK!! Why is that so much to ask for?? I am almost to the point where I’m scared to ever drink milk again. And that is some real, life altering stuff right there.

–
The Not Sleeping In Pack n Play Saga
Ok the title of this little diddy pretty much sums it all up. Apparently my kid is not fond of sleeping in pack n plays or in strange places. Getting her to nap at day care this week has been an EPIC battle with several EPIC FAILS. Monday and Tuesday were pretty much The Days From Hell. I cannot imagine worse days, honestly! I’m talking no napping, lots of whining, lots of crying and unbearable amounts of SCREAMING. My poor kid was so tired from the lack of naps that we were enduring 30-45 minute screamfests that resulted in a very red-faced, hoarse voiced one year old. Can you imagine??? Sure you can, you probably have dealt with this before. But if it’s not fresh in your mind you probably can’t even IMAGINE the magnitude of The Suck right now.

But guess what? Yesterday and Today she took a one hour nap at day care and our lives have GREATLY improved. My kid figured out the whole Napping Elsewhere and Napping In Pack N Plays thing out two days BEFORE OUR LAST DAY DOING THIS GIG. It’s Epic, I tell you.

–
The Astro Saga
Ok so, I never wrote about Astro. I haven’t had it in my heart to, yet. I’ve been wanting to and it looms over my head every week or so and then I push it to the back of my mind. Astro, our beloved Great Dane became very depressed when I brought Zoey home from the hospital. He was our baby and when he was no longer our baby, he decided that life pretty much sucked. It took me many months and lots of crying to come to the conclusion that we just needed to find him a new home, where he can get all of the attention he needed and deserved. He was a LOT more high maintenance than our other dog, Emma.

So anyway, I went through a grueling 2 weeks of finding him a new home. He went to several new homes before we found the PERFECT home for him! Yes, I was very dedicated to finding him the RIGHT place to go. I wanted to know he was well cared for. I have raised him since he was 5 weeks old and I wasn’t going to just let my baby boy go. I loved him so much and I STILL love him!

So the couple adopted him in early November. They stayed in touch via e-mail and absolutely LOVED him. Their whole family fell in love with him and they were as happy as can be. Well, the guy e-mailed me a couple of nights ago telling me that they had to put Astro to sleep. He said he had tumors in his intestines. I bawled my eyes out when I read the e-mail. The guy was asking me if I had known about this illness and I guess he thought I purposefully adopted him a dog that was sick?? I understand people do that but I would have NEVER done that. I told him EVERYTHING about Astro when he picked him up and I even had his vet records waiting for the guy to pick up afterwards but he never came by.

I replied, gave the guy my vet’s information and told him I would get his records or he could call himself. I explained that I had NO idea he was sick and never showed any signs that I knew of! He replied saying he was sorry to upset me and that he trusts me but that he just had to ask. He explained to me that he took Astro home and burried him in their back yard, they had a headstone and a cross over his grave. He said they will never be able to replace Astro because Astro had his own personality and seemed so human-like. Their family is devastated. I bawled when I read his e-mail but I felt a sense of relief. A sense of relief in knowing that this family LOVED Astro as much as we did. I’ve been on the brink of tears for the last few days. My heart feels a little broken. I feel sad knowing that Astro is no longer in this world. He e-mailed me a few pictures off of his phone that he had taken of Astro. So sweet and so kind.

Sorry for the lame list but I had no idea how else to catch up from all the time I’ve been gone. I’m wanting to get this place back in order and start writing more regularly again. We are still cloth diapering and LOVE LOVE LOVE it! I’ve got a few cloth diapers and accessories that I would love to write some reviews on so expect that in the near future!

Once we stuck her in, she was very content. Just kind of chilled out and was staring at the little whale that was swimming around and squirting water in the pool. Even when it squirted her face, she looked shocked but never actually whined or cried. She never did any real smiling while she was in but she was never upset either. I think she was feeling at peace with nature. Or maybe she was peeing and we had no idea.

We took her bath stuff outside and decided to Take Care Of Two Birds With One Stone (my husband’s euphemistic view of the popular, but much more blatant phrase). After she had swim time, Gene stripped her down and started giving her a bath. That was right when our neighbor drove up and was walking in to his house. He smiled and I nervously said we were swimming and giving her a bath. Right then and there, I realized I probably shouldn’t have told him we were giving our child a bath. Outside. In the front yard. In a swimming pool. I mean, I might as well have pulled an old 1970s plaid couch out onto the front lawn and held up a sign that said “White Trash City.”

After her bath we sat her on a towel in the grass to dry off a little in the sun. I think she loved being naked outside in the warm air.

Have I mentioned how much I love this stage?? She has started pulling her feet up and putting them together like in the above picture. I think it is the cutest thing ever. I can’t wait until she starts playing with her feet more. She has grabbed at them a few times but hasn’t really figured out how to hold on to them tight and play with them.

Her first pool experience went smashingly well! I kept the pool inflated and thought maybe this week we would try to get her out there one more time. The temperatures here are starting to cool down a little (high 80s, low 90s) and usually around this time of year, they don’t slowly cool down. Usually there is an abrupt start and an abrupt end to Summer so you never know when Fall is going to hit!

Astro Update: He is doing better. I haven’t had to shampoo my carpets this week, THANKFULLY. I guess Emma is better as well. I ended up having to take Astro to the vet because he had horrible, scabby sores all over his belly. He has a staph infection and we are having to shove antibiotics down his throat twice a day. And by shove, I literally mean shove. You have to put it in a piece of cheese, put it in the back of his throat, hold his snout shut, blow on his nose and rub his throat until you hear him licking/swallowing. It’s quite a production, let me tell ya! And really, it is all our own fault. Last summer when we went to Disney World, we were giving him benadryl a couple of times a day to help relax him because he gets so depressed when we leave. Well, he found out we were putting benadryl pills in his food and when he realized it, he has been super paranoid EVER since. He eats his food by picking up mouthfulls, dropping it onto the floor and then eating the pieces one by one.. Just to make sure we aren’t hiding anything in there! Pain in the butt dog! But for now, until his wound completely heals and his staph infection clears up, he is walking around in a t-shirt.

It is so hard to stay mad at this guy. He seriously knows how to rock an innocent/sad face.

Thursday I was out having lunch with a good friend when Z was acting pretty tame so I decided it would be a good time to clip her nails. She had grabbed onto my neck earlier that morning and I almost shrieked when I felt her tiny little daggers sink into my neck. I got her left hand cut pretty easily and quickly. I had become pretty good at using the nail clippers on her. I only used an emery board on her nails until she was at least 12 weeks old and then I finally grew the balls to try the big girl clippers. So far it had been fairly easy and we had no real issues.

Well, Thursday was not my day. All of the Patting On The Back I did to myself was thrown out the window on this fateful Thursday. I started with her right thumb, which had a gianormous nail on it. I was sitting in the dark (not pitch black, but no lights on over head) and I remember clearly thinking, I should turn the lights on while I do this so I can actually see what I’m doing. You know, when I’m using a sharp object to CUT MY DAUGHTER’S NAILS. Can you tell where this is going? Because I’m not very good at leading up to suspenseful endings without giving the story away far in advance. Anyway, so I cut her nail and as soon as I cut it, she started crying and had this look of horror on her face. I checked and she was bleeding. A LOT.

I mean.. A LOT. We soaked a couple of tissues trying to get it to stop bleeding. We tried tiny bandaids but they just wouldn’t stay on her SUPER TINY hand. We needed Super Tiny bandaids, damnit!! Are there even such a thing as infant bandaids?? I have no idea. So she didn’t cry near as much as I expected her to. She became really fussy afterwards but I think it was a mixture of PTSD and sleepiness. I gave her some of the yummy grape flavored infant Tylenol and she went to sleep immediately. I put a tissue in her hand and she grasped it (yay for those graspy little infant hands!) and held it the whole time she was asleep. After a good hour or so it had stopped bleeding and hasn’t bled since and she has been fine.

But me?? I have beat myself up over it at least 4 times today already. When I’m holding her, I look at her thumb and want to kick myself. I know it’s a stupid mistake and I’m sure a lot of us have done it.. but I can’t help but think back and wonder why I didn’t just turn the stinkin’ light on! I shouldn’t have grown so confident in my alleged Professional Infant Nail Cutting. I guess all that matters is that Z is ok and I am ok and we are all on the road to being ok over this whole thing.

But I can’t promise that my daughter is going to have short nails any time soon. I just hope she doesn’t scratch herself anytime in the near future or I am going to be forced to do it again before I’ve fully recovered.

Astro Update: I took him to the Vet today because I found sores ALL OVER his stomach. $50 later and he has a Staph infection and is on 2 weeks of antibiotics. Poor dog. His wound on his side is healing up nicely and we’re guessing that is how he got the Staph infection. I coated that darn thing with Neosporin for a few days but I guess it just wasn’t enough. He’s still wearing his frumpy t-shirt around the house as I wait for that wound to FULLY heal.

Emma Update: Astro was locked in the bathroom last night (so he wouldn’t poo all over my carpet) and we woke up to poo on the floor in our bedroom. Which means only one thing: IT WAS EMMA. It had to be her because Astro was still in the bathroom when we got up this morning. So now I have no idea which dog has the poo problem and which doesn’t or if they both have it? It’s all a freakin’ mystery to me! So now they are both confined to each bathroom when we are out so I can figure out who is having the problem.

My Sanity Update: It’s GONE. MIA. If you see it, please send it back to me. I need it. It helps this day to day gig go much smoother.

My little peanut is 18 weeks old. I can’t even believe it. Has it really been that long? August 14th was her 4 month birthday. Four months?? Seriously?! How? When?

She went to the doctor on Monday and she now weighs 13lb 13oz and is 24 inches long. Her head circumference is in the 50th percentile (Yay! No gianormous head!) and her height and weight is in the 75th percentile. All of her rankings are based off of a baby born at 36 weeks, not full term. She is a little bit petite for her age but has caught up really well and we are proud of her.

Lately she has really learned how to pick up her toys and pull them to her mouth. As you can guess, she is slobbering on everything! Sometimes I try to catch the slobber before it hits her clothes but I am slowly but surely getting used to the neckline of her clothes being soaked. Just a couple of days ago she found her feet and was trying to hold on to them while laying on the changing table. All of these little milestones and new things are just so much fun to watch!

Astro Update: He’s still wearing his t-shirt. I went out for lunch with a friend this afternoon and when I came home he had snuck out of the bathroom and had diarrhea all over my living room floor again. So as usual, I put Z down for a nap, put him outside and began shampooing the living room carpet. If our carpet wasn’t clean before, it DEFINITELY is now. It’s tiring and so frustrating.. I can’t wait until his bowels are back to normal!

So Astro is struttin’ an XXL Race For The Cure t-shirt. He’s cute and looks like he is going to a pajama party. I have to pull the shirt up and use a chip clip to hold it up whenever I take him outside so that he doesn’t pee on it. It’s quite amusing, let me tell ya. It’s kind of a pain because I am having to walk him in the front because I want to monitor his bowel movements (gross, I know, you don’t have to tell me) so I know how long to keep feeding him this Putting Us Into The Poorhouse canned food that we are feeding him.

So far he is doing well. He has been laying around all evening. I think having the cone off of his head this long is making him so happy. I think having it on for a week made him emotionally and physically exhausted and he seems a lot more tired than usual.

Here is to hoping that tomorrow I don’t break down into tears. I don’t think I can do 3 days in a row sobbing over dog poo. It might just kill me!

My house smells like dog diarrhea.

I’m losing my MIND. I cried for almost 2 hours this afternoon. Bawling my eyes out. Luckily I was able to get Z down for a nap so I could handle the MESS that is in my house. I shampooed the carpets, AGAIN. I put the dog outside. I gave him some special canned food that is supposed to help with the loose stools and I washed his feet when he came in. I cleaned my bathroom because he had diarrhea ALL OVER my bathroom too. It still smells in here and is making me feel NAUSEOUS.

I have fought myself back and forth all afternoon over what to do. Spend lots of $$ on a vet visit, new cone, special food, etc.? Money we DON’T have, might I add. Keep him outside indefinitely? Not really an option. Anyone that knows about Great Danes knows they cannot be outside dogs. It’s just not an option. They are family dogs and will become crazy if they are left outside alone, resulting in eventual euthanasia (you know, kind of like how Obama’s health care reform bill is going to throw all the Grandma & Grandpas out there into the wild and let them DIE if they get sick! </sarcasm>). Confine him to one of the rooms in the house that has hard floors (bathrooms, hallway, kitchen) and make him stay there indefinitely? I feel awful confining such a big dog to such a small space.

I don’t know what to do. I gave him some special high fiber canned food to see if it will help harden his stools. I’m letting him lay in the living room with me without his cone on, to give him a little break. I’m waiting on the vet to call me back to tell me if there are any other options other than Suck It Up. Because honestly? I can’t suck it up much longer. I’m losing my mind. This is two days in a row of crying, scratch that, SOBBING over dog poop on my carpet. This is the very carpet that my daughter is going to crawl and walk on, I can’t even stomach the idea of her crawling and walking on something that used to have doggy diarrhea on. It grosses me out just thinking about it.

I love this dog with all of my heart. He really is the sweetest dog in the world. His sad eyes tell it all. But the stress of taking care of his high maintenance need are starting to wear on me. I never wanted to become the person who looked at her pets in a different light once the baby entered my life. But I am sad to say that I think I am becoming that person. Zoey is my number one priority now and the dogs are, sadly but truthfully, taking a back seat to her needs.

My heart is torn.

Ok, I promise I’m not going to actually punch my dog. I mean, how do you punch an animal anyway? That seems a little weird. The whole concept. If it wasn’t gross, I’d totally bite him. Cause I think if you bite a dog, they would totally understand your anger towards them. If you punch a dog, I don’t think they have any way of knowing that you really mean business because in their little doggy world, they don’t have fist fights or boxing matches. Ok this is WAY too much discussion on doggy punching.

I don’t have much to talk about, if you can’t already tell. Today I took Z to the doctor to have a quick weight check because she has been fussy the last few days and I thought maybe it was time to up her dose of acid reflux medicine. Well, she is now 13 lbs even and just turned 15 weeks old on Tuesday. My little peanut is growing and although it is really exciting, it isn’t sitting well with me. My heart aches for that tiny little newborn again.

So the doctor said no to upping her medication and actually suggested we start her on Enfamil AR or some other special kind of formula. Gene & I decided we aren’t going to rush into changing her formulas right now. She has been on this formula since she was about 8 weeks old and has been doing fantastic on it. I’m thinking she just had a bad few days. Maybe a little stomach bug? She was AWESOME today! We were at Target for a good 4 hours and she did magnificent there and has been doing wonderful ever since she’s been home. We had lunch with my mom and my sister (they both work there) and did a little shopping. I only went to get Level 2 nipples for her bottles and ended up spending $60. How? you ask. Let me tell you thy way of spending the quan.

So I was sitting in the changing room area and talking to my sister and feeding Z when I get a phone call from a number that I don’t recognize. I answer it “This is Candace” because that is what I do when I don’t know the number because I am a huge dork and like to tell people MY REAL NAME WITHOUT KNOWING WHO IT IS FIRST. Oh my gosh I just realized how stupid that is. I’ve got to change my ways!! Anyway back to the story… It’s my mom! She is calling from the Guest Services (where she works) desk to tell me that she forgot to tell me that there was a huge clearance going on in toys. She said people form the flea market were buying baskets full of toys from there.

So like any good mother would do, I yanked the bottle out of Z’s mouth and hurried as fast as I could over to the toy department. She was fussing a little and again, like Mother of The Year, I shoved a paci in her mouth and told her if she wanted toys she needed to be good. Because, you know, a 15 week old infant knows EXACTLY what it means to be good, let alone GET TOYS!

I made out with a few goodies but nothing fantastical. Have you seen those magnetic toys that spell works, called Wordworld? They’re normally around $30 each and I got one that spells SHEEP and one that spells PIG for about $3.75 each. I got an awesome looking Cranium game that is normally $35 for $7. I got a bunch of sidewalk chalk and bubbles for really cheap ($1-3 each). These are all things that are WAY too old for Z anytime in the near future, however, I am a GREAT MOTHER and was thinking ahead! And I might only partially be mesmerized and entranced whenever I see those little red Target clearance stickers. It’s almost like hypnotism to me. It’s awful, just awful!

Anyway, my husband came home from work early because he was having a dizzy spell again. He gets these from time to time and all the doctors can really tell him is that it may be vertigo. He has been in bed since he got home. His hands, arms, forehead and face were freezing when he got home! I made Meatloaf, but wanted it to cook faster because I was hungry, so I scooped it into little balls with my cookie dough scoop. I glazed them with a VERY complicated and sophisticated sauce that I like to call Ketchup. I made Mac & Cheese and then I ate this by myself, on a small melamine Snoopy plate that is intended for toddlers. It was glorious.

Dishes are done, laundry is drying, Hubby is still snoozin’, Z is sleeping in her bouncy and I am just enjoying a few minutes of down time.

These guys really enjoyed the tiny bit of snow we received last week. It was more ice and sleet than actual snow but they still enjoyed romping around in it. As for me? I could be perfectly happy not seeing anymore winter weather until next year. This year? I’m too nervous on the ice.

Tonight we are going to hang out at my house with my mom and just chit chat. I think Gene and I will get some quality Wii playing time in before the ball drops and eat lots of fattening, bad foods. I don’t like to set resolutions but one goal I do have for next year is to start taking my blood sugars more regularly and start eating a little more health consciously. If not for me, at least for the baby :) Oh and I guess another goal would be to decide on a name for the little one and maybe even get my nursery done BEFORE the baby arrives.

The last couple of days have been very emotional for me (and Gene, I’m sure). Astro has had this weird itching thing he does. He scratches the underside of his chin until its raw and scabby and he chews on one side of his rear end until it is raw and scabby as well. We got an e-collar (those dreaded cone shaped collars) for him from PetSmart last night and finally was able to get it on him, though it was a HUGE struggle. He is a big dog but he is scared of everything! He looked so pitiful and sad and miserable all evening and then for about 2 hours last night he whined non-stop in our bedroom. We tried to give him some water but he was so scared of the cone bumping into things he refused to drink. It was awful and I can’t even tell you how much I cried from the time we put it on him around 9 PM to 4 AM when I finally decided enough was enough. I didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night but I’m really hoping the adrenaline kicks in this evening so I don’t fall asleep before midnight.

Needless to say, as soon as we took the collar off he was back to his old self and didn’t seem to hate us too much. He really knows how to grab a hold of my heart and SQUEEZE it. I swear I thought my heart was breaking last night. I went through a WIDE range of emotions from being really pissed off that he wasn’t cooperating to feeling really guilty about what we had done. It was to the point where at one point I was questioning what kind of mother I am and how I could have done this.

Oh boy, is that the hormones talking or the real me? I can’t even tell. At one point I’m convincing Gene that the ecollar is the right thing and not to worry and the next I am sobbing about how we need to take it off of him because he is so miserable and sad.

All of this. Over a DOG. But man, if you could only SEE his sad face. I’m pretty sure it would make you cry, too.