Dogs and Babies

Meet Daisy 

Daisy is a miniature beagle, she is going on nine years old and has been part of our family for almost 8 years now. I got Daisy from the SPCA,  I was actually her third owner :( and by fluke and what I think was a little bit of fate she became my dog.

I wasn't supposed to be there. I wasn't "allowed" a dog. But that day, August 16th, 2004 I went to the SPCA with a friend to go look at the dogs.  And there she was. She had just been dropped off not even 24 hours before. She wasn't even in her proper cageing area I opened the door to the first kennel room and she was sitting in a cage straight ahead of me and I feel in love instantly.

So Daisy has spent the last 8 years being cuddled and spoiled by hubby and I, so naturally as my pregnancy neared an end we were curious/slightly worried how she would be with a baby around. You hear of people abandoning their dogs when babies enter the picture, and dogs becoming jealous and crazy behaviours. We didn't know anyone with babies that would have felt comfortable "testing her" reaction so we just hoped for the best.

And the best is what happened.

We brought home a receiving blanket for her to smell but I don't think we needed it. The first day home she was curious, and by the end of the first week she had become an attentive second mother. If you didn't respond fast enough to him she would come to you and try to heard you towards him like you were cattle lol.

She always likes to be as close as possible, she will sit on the floor in front of where ever he is to guard him. She will try to soothe his cries if he is in reach by attempting to lick whatever inch of skin she can find. When he is colicky we tend to go room to room trying anything we can to soothe him; Daisy follows along attentively right by your feet offering moral support. And at night MV almost always ends up in our bed at some point; once in the bed she will snuggle right up alongside him. It melts my heart.

She's no longer my dog. She belongs to MV now and you know what, I'm ok with that. I look forward to watching their relationship grow, he already is very aware of her presence and will reach out to touch her soft fur. We feel very blessed with how it all worked out.

April 27, 2011

 A year ago today I was struggling with my miscarriage and searching the message boards on the What to Expect App for others sharing my pain. This is how I found Maria   :)

 Her story helped me realize that my world was not ending, that I was not alone. Others had felt this same pain, some others felt the pain way too many times in comparison. Maria was one of those people and she was sharing her journey on her blog.

I instantly felt a connection not only because of our shared experience but there is something about her, about the way she writes that makes you feel you know her. So open and loving and warm. So genuine and real.

And now a year has gone by and so much has happened for both of us in our journey's.

If you don't know Maria you should check out her blog, but make sure you  start by reading this post . Its her first post, the one with her story. Maria has recently taken on a new challenge in her journey to motherhood, one that I'm hoping will finally bring her that shining rainbow. 

I started this post a few weeks ago, I wanted to make sure it was ready and that despite whatever craziness was going on I wasn't going to miss posting this tribute to my awesome friend. 

I am now super excited because of her newest post which I saw this morning. Perfect timing. check it out Here if you haven't heard the news already.

 And so for you my crazy cat loving friend I've dedicated this post full of cat loving. Enjoy!

<3 V 

 This one I've added in light of the exciting news :) 

this is your car isnt it Maria?? LOL 

Again SOOOOOO Happy For you guys Maria and Steve!!!! <3 <3 

Thank you Maria for being such an awesome friend this past year oxox

Happy Morning!

We're seeing a lot more of this lately!

Honestly?

So not impressed with the fact I got my period already. 7 weeks post partum and here I am pretty much useless due to the aching pain. Funny I can go 12 hours of labour before getting an epidural but get my period and I'm crying for extra strength Tylenol and advil every chance I can have them. And yes I take them both, at the same time I need to.

I'm a little paranoid about my supply, MV is wanting to feed a bit more frequently so I'm hoping he's getting enough. I had read somewhere supply can drop but it should return once aunt flo leaves. Fingers crossed. He's still vomiting pretty regularly not sure the meds working, I might request another one since he obviously hates the taste and struggles to keep it down.

We had our first play date this week. MV met a friends baby who is 2 months older than him, and also girl cousins baby was there too. We just found out recently another cousin is pregnant and due in October :) yay babies!

My life is pretty boring these days. Nothing happens since I'm home with MV all day, and I don't have enough free time to do anything other than eat, sleep, tidy, feed and play with him. I have found a few projects on pinterest I would love to do but like I just mentioned time is lacking! Since cleaning is one of those things that I need to find some time for I've decided I'm going to trial a bunch of home made/ natural cleaning tips and solutions I found. I'll let you know how it goes maybe I'll find something good!

And now I must go nap while I still can, MV has been napping for about an hour now and I've spent that time pumping and blogging. I'm in need of a bit more shut eye!

Colic Cure

Ok so maybe not "cure" but seriously my exercise ball is a god send! It pretty much is the most effective thing I have to get MV to calm when fussy. We've tried the baby swing (which swings two directions), the vibrating chair, his rocking chair, gripe water, ovol gas drops and anything else we could think of. Nothing was helping, or at least helping well enough to give lasting relief.

And then I remembered... When pregnant I asked my Facebook friends what they felt their must have baby item was. One of my friends told me she used to use her exercise ball (yoga ball) to calm her fussy daughter. So I tried it and it's amazing how well it works.

MV is still gassy and fussy; sometimes he screams in pain and it breaks my heart. He now produces tears and they run down his cheeks at times. He's also still puking, that's actually gotten worse. We are managing the gassiness and crying, but the puking has gotten slowly worse.

So today I arranged for him to see our doctor and she thinks he has reflux. I had already done my research and I had decided it must be reflux or a milk allergy. I'm still not convinced it's not an allergy so I plan on cutting all dairy from my diet for a couple weeks and will slowly add things back. We started rinididine (sp?) today for the reflux, I was hesitant to put him on meds but he needs something. Hopefully it will be short term and we can wean him back off.

So not a cure I know but I highly suggest one of those balls. Amazing. Saved my sanity and really not that pricey. Plus I'd like to think it's somewhat of a workout while were doing it, ido after all spend numerous hours a day on it ;)

1 Month

So this post is two weeks late, but better late than never. I had most of this post started just never finished or posted it. I'm still posting it because I want to have a record of these things.

Weight:
9 pounds 5 ounces! My little man is quickly becoming not so little! What a chunky monkey!

Length:
I didn't write this one down but I do know he is in the 75th percentile for height.

Hair/Eyes:
The hair on the top of his head has fallen out, but the rest is a medium brown. Eyes are still blue; they are a dark navy blue around the edges with a light blue ring in the middle.

Clothing Size:
We are transitioning out of newborn clothing, he still fits into nb pants and a couple sleepers but we are mostly into size 0-3 sleepers

Diapers:
We are onto size 1s but only because I didn't want to buy another pack of newborns and not use them all. We could still squeeze into the nb for a little while longer. No real preference of brands yet, I do find huggies fit a bit smaller.

Sleeping:
Night sleeping has been good, most of the time he is sleeping 3 hour stretches. I'm hoping this stretch continues to grow. He started out sleeping in a wicker bassinet that was on our bed between hubby and I (king sized bed), but we bought a stand a week ago and now he sleeps in it but right beside the bed. The plan is to have him sleeping in his own room sometime after 3 months.

New Developments:
We've been having more smiles, a couple have even been while he was awake lol. Eye sight is improving and he follows objects at times also he shows signs of recognizing faces and voices.

Eating:
We are exclusively breastfeeding at this point. I have purchased a pump and have pumped and attempted to bottle feed but it's not something he does easily. We plan on improving that so that hubby can become involved more. I want to avoid formula as long as possible. I'm feeding on demand which between the hours of 8am and 7pm is usually every 2-3 hours, evenings are more frequent as we've been cluster feeding in hopes of making nights easier. I'm not sure if it's helped.

Other:
I'm 95% certain that MV has colic. He gets so gassy and it's obvious hes in pain it breaks my heart. Some days he's fine so it seems to come and go. he's also a bit of a puker, so bibs are a must.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday weekend!

Ours was no so enjoyable with the funeral and all that so this was the extent of our holiday festivities.
No dinner, no chocolate, just MV wearing his Easter outfit :)

Stay tuned

Just a quick update, life has thrown yet another curve ball. Hubby's grandfather has been very sick and unfortunately just passed away.

I'm really behind on my posting, I have MVs 1 month post in the works and a few others. If I get a chance the next few days I'll be back. If not I promise to write after the weekend.

Happy Easter weekend everyone <3