Why dogs are a menace, Part 1

And now for a long post.

The last couple of days have been eventful. Let us start at the beginning, and let me also start by saying that everything is OK now. Monday my stomach was kind of achey all day, but since different parts of me are achey all the time now, I didn't think much of it. It didn't hurt any more to eat or not eat, so I ate as normal and took it easy. Monday night at about 9pm, Jon came home and I had a glass of water. The glass of water put my stomach over the edge for some reason and I was in serious pain from then on. Like a constant stabbing in my stomach, two inches above my belly button. Good times. I went to bed and tried to sleep it off, but by 11pm I knew it wasn't happening. At midnight the pain moved to my lower abdomen/intestine area and it was excruciating. As bad as any gallbladder attack I had before that pesky organ was removed. I was shivering and feeling faint from the pain, laying in bed moaning and crying. I took some milk of magnesia and promptly threw that up. I knew the problem wasn't baby-related, but I was freaking Jon out so I called my on-call midwife number to see what I should do. They thought the pain was bad enough that I might need to go to the ER, but since I am 20 weeks along, I should come to their labor and delivery triage center first to make sure the baby is ok.

We put on our shoes and headed to St. Joseph's hospital. And, of course, like any time I have serious medical issues, the pain seemed to resolve by at least 50% by the time I arrived at the triage center. I felt so stupid. Much like I felt when I was having gallbladder attacks, and the attack would be over by the time the doctor saw me. Ugh. Anyway, they wanted to check me out anyway. I got one of those contraction monitor things and nothing was going on. I got a urine test and a blood test and everything was normal. They gave me a "G.I. cocktail" to calm my stomach, and that helped. Two hours later, at about 3:30am, we went home. My stomach still hurts a bit, but it is just uncomfortable, nothing like Monday night. I wasn't throwing up, like if it was food poisoning, I was blocked up, as if it was constipation, and I didn't have any other bad symptoms. Just a really bad gastrointestinal...something. It's a mystery, and I'm not super happy about that.

But to continue the story. As Jon drove me home at quarter to 4 in the morning, his phone rang. It was our landlord. She wanted to know if we were home because our dogs had been barking FOR THE LAST HOUR. She lives above us, for those who don't know. Oh man. We felt so bad. We had no idea they would freak out when we left. They were quite for the first hour and a half we were gone, but something spooked them and they barked for an HOUR. In the middle of the night. I'm sure it was instigated by Sophie, because Tucker would sleep through anything. We figured they would just go back to sleep after we left. So we apologized profusely, told her why we had left in the first place, said we'd be home in five minutes, and got her a really nice bouquet of flowers the next day with another note of apology. And that is why dogs are a menace.

So now Jon and I are devising various strategies to deal with the dogs if I go into labor in the middle of the night, or if I'm still in labor when the middle of the night rolls around. The chances are very good I'll be spending at least one night in the hospital, possibly two or even three. We have a lot of friends and family in the area that we can ask to help, but they all have their own responsibilities. We can ask people to drop by and feed them, and we have dog walkers with keys to our house who can take them for a mid-day stroll. But the middle of the night is hard. We may ask one of Jon's single, lives-nearby, doesn't-hate-our-dogs friends to be "on call" to come sleep at our house in the event we have to leave. I think having someone there will keep them from freaking out and barking and getting us evicted! They don't bark when we leave in the middle of the day, just this one time at night. Fun.

But to finish the story, I had a regularly scheduled appointment with my midwife the morning after the hospital visit. I went in and everything is looking great. I'm finally gaining weight (three pounds in four weeks!) and all vital signs point to healthy. Excellent. My next appointment is on Tuesday for the ultrasound!

Weekend Recap

Friday afternoon I came home from work with the intense need to clean up. I cleaned the kitchen table, bagged up all my ill-fitting clothes (about 75% of my wardrobe at this point), bagged up a good portion of my knitting stuff, and bagged up the pile of blankets that has been making a home in the back of the closet all winter. Five garbage bags later, I was exhausted. The bags are still sitting in the living room, waiting to find a home. Not sure where to put it all. Probably the back of the closet, where the blanket pile used to live. I also had a very strong need to bake, so I went to the store and bought the fixins for pumpkin chocolate chip cake. The cakes didn't come out of the pan very well so I had to do a little patch work. Also, the frosting I bought was gross and I should have made it from scratch. But the cakes themselves, even though they looked a little odd, tasted very good.

Saturday Jon and I took Sophie to her first obedience class at the Dumb Friends League. In the class of about 10-15 dogs, Sophie was the smallest dog and most well behaved. A couple of really LOUD labrador-type dogs. Their owners didn't even try to control them. It was a little obnoxious. But we worked on the "name game" and sitting with an implied stay. Sophie has sitting down, she's getting better at down, and she clearly knows her name. Our big issues are barking at the door and walking on a loose leash. I actually don't care if she walks on a loose leash or not, but when she is out on the flexi-leash, she gets CRAZY when any other dog walks by. She wants to play with all the dogs in the world, and expects every dog to want to play with her. So it becomes a battle of pulling her back to me so let the other dog walk by without Sophie running in circles around them. For that reason only, she should learn to walk on a loose leash.

Sunday we ran errands, went out for dim sum, grabbed a few items at the asian market, and then took the dogs to Chatfield Reservoir for a nice, long, off-leash walk around the ponds. Tucker hates it, of course, but Sophie could run and play all day long. Everyone was completely pooped after our big day so we came home, made some snickerdoodles, and watched some TV.

It was a good weekend.

Random post of miscellany

My dogs are hilarious and exhausting and awesome, all at the same time. We almost gained custody of another dog this week, but luckily the owners found a new home. It was a "we'll take the dog if you can't find anything better and the only option is the pound" kind of thing. It would have been a foster situation while we found it another home, but I'm glad it didn't come to that. With my current pregnant craziness I would have been hard pressed to take a dog in and then let it go again. But the dog has a new family and is probably doing very well. Yay!

OK, so my dogs. Sophie always takes a nap on the corner of the couch, and 75 percent of the time she lays on her back, rear legs splayed, front legs folded over, looking as cute as a button. To prepare for her naps she often rubs her face into the corner of the couch, kicking her back legs out until she has pushed all the pillows onto the floor. Tucker naps on the floor, looking like an ottoman more than a dog. Every so often he moves forward about four or five inches, and hunkers back down. Over the course of his nap he'll move a foot or so. He also likes to walk into a room, pass gas, and then walk back out. Now THAT is delightful! Dogs...

Ten days until we find out the gender of this baby! Jon is still thinking boy. The whole gender thing is completely determined by the man, whether the sperm that gets to the egg is carrying the X or Y chromosome, but an article in the New York Times today says that a study recently found that a woman's diet at the time of conception can influence the viability of a fertilized egg based on its gender. In essence, if a woman's uterus is more hospitable to a male or female zygote. A woman with higher levels of glucose in her blood, and a diet with a lot of varied nutrients, is more likely to conceive a boy. A woman with low blood glucose, like a woman who skips breakfast every morning or is dieting, or who eats a nutrient-poor diet, is more likely to allow implementation of a female zygote. This is all at the time of conception and direclty after. I was in Japan when I conceived, I certainly never skipped breakfast nor was I dieting, and my diet at the time was moderately varied in nutrients. Lots of fish and rice and soups with vegetables. So...who knows? The difference between male and female babies for women following a higher calorie, higher nutrient diet was only 11 percent or so. Still, interesting.

If we have a boy I think we want to decorate our nursery with astronaut and space stuff. But all retro, 1950's space. Crazy aliens, rocket ships, etc. That would be cute.

Names

Maybe I'll name my kid something prophetic, like Sojourner Truth or Grandma Moses or Miley Cyrus. A name that probably wouldn't be a given name, but that tells the person's story without any additional information. Yes, that is what I'll do.

This week's food obsession: Triscuits. Yum!

Let's go back to my crib

Yesterday Jon and I made our first non-onesie-or-t-shirt baby purchase: a crib mattress! Saturday Jon's mom told us she found a good crib at a garage sale of a friend of hers and asked if we were interested. Of course! Used baby furniture is the greatest thing ever. So I drove up to Greeley and helped her disassemble the thing and put it in my car. On Sunday Jon had to go to a street festival to work a booth for his shop, so I stayed home and washed and reassembled the crib in the baby's room-to-be. The room is coming together nicely. We even got rid of the extra coffee table we were using to stack junk on. Now the only things in the nursery (haha, that word is so silly) are a guest bed, which is staying, the CRIB (how awesome is that), a bookcase with Jon's albums that we haven't figured out how to store, and miscellaneous knitting and other stuff. It's fabulous. We won't be able to decorate it like a really baby's room since we are renters so I'm trying to figure out ways to make it look nice. I have no good ideas yet. Perhaps I will pull out my trusty sewing machine and make some curtains or a valence or something.

After the festival (the 4-20 festival...sheesh) we went to Baby Depot, bought a seemingly fine crib mattress and all-natural, hypo-allergenic mattress pad. Jon's mom had bought a crib sheet already, because she's cool like that. Now the crib is all set up, with a mattress and sheets and everything. We put Sophie in it as a test run and the thing didn't fall apart, so that is a good sign. The ends of the crib are solid pieces of wood laminate that Jon is going to paint something on once we find out the gender. I have requested no skulls, but he has made no promises. The man loves to paint skulls...

So I feel like a mom, getting ready for the baby. It's very fun and a little scary. There are approximately 5 million things that we need to buy between now and September, but yesterday was the very first purchase.

Meant to Be

Jon and I have a lot in common, as you would suspect from two people who chose to marry each other. We also have a lot of differences, also not unusual. But we recently discovered that we both have one identical, very odd pet peeve.

We both hate cartoon cows that have both horns and utters.


Not something the average person probably notices or cares about. But it annoys us both. Very funny.

I also like that after being together three years we can still learn new little thing about each other. I hope that continues throughout our lives.

Pregnancy and Food

There were so many things about pregnancy I didn't know about before I became pregnant myself. Maybe these are things nobody talks about, or maybe I have some unusual symptoms and side-effects. One of the more peculiar is my relationship with food.

Everyone knows about the first trimester nausea and food aversion. Nothing unusual there. But now that I've mostly gotten over that particular phase, I still have a weird relationship with food. I'm hungry all the time (not surprising) and I have to eat small amounts of food quite frequently (also not surprising). But if I'm sitting at home and I'm trying to decide what to eat for lunch, I can't eat something I'm not in the "mood" for. Today, I didn't want anything in particular, and we have some leftover pizza so I figured I'd warm it up, even though I wasn't overjoyed at the idea. I ate most of one piece, and now I feel sick. Same thing last night. I wanted sopapillas for dinner (not healthy) but instead we had Chinese. (We were locked out of the house and had to eat something within walking disatance, but that's a different story.) I couldn't eat much of it at all and then felt ill. So very strange. Pre-pregnancy I could eat whatever I needed to, regardless if I wanted it or not. Now, it's much harder. Fruit smoothies and dairy products seem to be the exception. I can eat them whenever and feel fine.

So pizza is out today, I guess I'll have to forage for something else. Bowl of cereal? It's the go-to meal.

So smooth

I have become obsessed with fruit smoothies. I've been craving fresh fruit for the past while, but since it isn't really peak fruit season yet, and un-ripe, trucked-in fruit isn't cutting it, I've turned to the frozen stuff. Raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, bananas, orange juice and vanilla yogurt all mixed together into a yummy yummy smoothie. It's like the greatest thing ever. I hit Jamba Juice four times last week. I went to Costco with my aunt this weekend and bought a huge bag of frozen fruit. I can't get enough of the smoothies!!

Nothing else of note going on. I'm starting to show a little bit, but not enough that other people could tell. I need to find maternity clothes soon. I have two shirts and one pair of pants, but it's really not enough.

Three weeks until we find out if it's a boy or girl!

Weekend fun

I'm so tired this morning, recovering from a fun-filled weekend. Alisa was in town this weekend for a surprise birthday trip for her brother's birthday. All four of her brothers came to town, but she stayed with me instead of at their stinky boy-filled hotel. :) We did pregnant lady stuff, looking at car seats and strollers, and eating lots of food, frequent trips to the bathroom. It was great. I did miss a few naps, though, and my bed time most nights, so I am quite tired today. I tried to get up for work....but that didn't happen. So I'm at home, working away. I'll take a nice afternoon nap and go to bed early and be ready for the office tomorrow.

Death and taxes

Hooray! Our taxes are done! Our accountant is e-filing them today and I don't have to think about it for another year.

This year was quite different than my pre-marriage tax filing. First, Jon is technically self-employed and has a million write-offs accumulating through the year. Therefore, he uses an accountant to make sure he's getting all appropriate deductions, and that all his write-offs are on the up-and-up. I previously used the 1040-EZ and it took me all of 10 minutes to do my taxes. His are much more complicated. He's been using the same accountant for the last 3 or 4 years and she is very trusted. We got all our tax information to her over a month ago, but then realized we didn't have the right tax information from Jon's work. His boss thought he didn't have to provide any official information for some reason. Anyway, it got figured out and we had to wait for the appropriate filing information. But then Jon's boss had a situation with his accountant and didn't get Jon's tax information to us until YESTERDAY. Not by February, which I'm pretty sure is required by law. Sheesh.

Water under the bridge, though, as all is well and we're filing in time and nothing bad happened. Turns out marriage agrees with our tax filing situation and we're getting a refund. Nothing enormous, but a nice little addition to the Maternity Leave Savings Fund I've got going on. It might even buy me an extra week of leave. Maybe. I'd really prefer 10 weeks off after having the baby, but for now we can only afford about 8. Stupid American system of no mandatory paid maternity leave. I should live in Sweden or something.

Marriage Life Dogs Knitting

I have been neglecting the title themes of this blog. Let's catch up.

Marriage: My marriage is good, nothing too exciting to report there. Unlike some people, I didn't get any huge surprises with marriage. Nothing the just shook me to the core or questioned my decision to marry Jon. The first eight months of marriage have been good. Ups and downs, of course, but good. I have yet to figure out why Jon seems unable to turn off the light when he leaves the bathroom, but that just seems like one of those fun mysteries that will continue to unfold.

Life: Um, I'm pregnant, so that's my life right now. Well, work is part of my life, too, and work is good. Everyone seems happy with my work and I'm trying to expand my position a little. I've got an idea brewing that will probably mean a lot of work for me, but a lot of benefit for the company, so I'm working on that.

Dogs: Oh, the dogs. They are great and terrible all at the same time. Sofie is signed up for an obedience class in a few weeks. I need to learn how to train her properly before the baby comes. Mainly, I need to get my dogs to stop barking incessantly every time someone approaches the front gate or door. It is bad at night when Jon comes home at 9pm. Presumably my sweet future child will be asleep at 9pm, and Tucker barking his little head off, with Sofie egging him on, will not help. Gotta nip that in the bud.

Oh, also Sofie got the WORST HAIRCUT EARTH last weekend. She has never been groomed so poorly. This groomer is our go-to groomer and usually does a good job. Maybe she had too much coffee that morning, or maybe she was really rushed, or maybe she had an assistant cut the hair--something, because Sofie looks insane. Her face is all lopsided, the top of her head is uneven, and she has racing stripes down her back. Seriously, racing stripes. The groomer cut her back shorter than her sides, so where the two meet there is a distinct stripe. WORST HAIRCUT. She doesn't even look like our little Sofie, she looks like some crazy mutt you find wandering the streets. Poor little girl.

Knitting: I have not knit anything since getting pregnant. I don't know what it is. I started knitting a stuffed bunny to give to Alisa's baby, and then stopped. I've printed out patterns I like, but then nothing. I just don't have the desire. It is very strange. I should be knitting my fingers to the bone, making booties and baby cardigans and whatnot. But no, I just can't seem to pick up the needles. I hope it comes back soon.

So there you go. A relatively non-pregnancy related post. Enjoy.