2007 in Review

Let me just say - 2007 was so much better than 2006. I mean click here 2006 was definitely a less than stellar year. We had high hopes that 2007 would be much better. Fortunately we were right that it was better. In so many ways...

January 2007
- Chance continued to recover from his wounds
- We proved we can accomplish just about anything by taking a road trip with 6 puppies and 4 adult dogs in 1 car.
- Treatments were stopped yet still did progesterone after ovulation... had a positive pregnancy test at 12 dpo and then of course had bleeding to start pregnancy number 12 off with a bang.
- Beta of 84 then 48 hours later 207 - that's interesting
- Puppy trainers - yeah not really successful, but we spent a whole wad of money on it...
- More bleeding which resulted in an u/s that amazingly showed an intrauterine pregnancy... with appropriate growth

February 2007
- Puppies first snow
- Ernie destroys his kennel
- Ernie gets bit by Megan and ends up with a ear wound that creates quite the bloody mess.
- U/S shows a heartbeat with appropriate growth
- Emmy went to her new home
- Louie went to his new home
- Jodi went to her new home
- We were down to 3 puppies and 4 adult dogs
- Car accident leading to yet another u/s.
- OB's office went into high speed gear while D and I back pedaled...
- Asked the question is this your first pregnancy - no 12th - oh you have 11 kids??? Idiots galore!
- Coming out to people at work
- Continuing good u/s...
- Aunt Alice passes away... leaving behind Uncle Howard


March 2007
- Released from the RE
- Dog visits to the vet continue
- PIO was stopped
- Heartbeat found via doppler
- Passed the nuchal
- Bert becomes Grayson Albert and has a new home with a fellow infertile...

April 2007
- Feel like a fraud about pregnancy still spend the time thinking it's not going to work out.
- get outed at an EMS conference
- nuchal screen shows 1:10,000 risk of trisomies WOOHOO

May 2007
- Puppies get spayed/neutered
- Find out a good friend is having a girl - we are days apart due date wise
- A puppy play date with Gray's new owners was enjoyed by all

June 2007
- for the first year in 3 years nothing bad happened in regards to pregnancy
- had the u/s that told us what the NN was and found out that it was a stinker and would not show off the heart - fortunately a peds cardio guy took a look for me... and all was fine.
- My mom's dog Sadie is put to sleep... and crosses to the Rainbow bridge
- spent some more time at the vet
- got in a nasty argument with my mil... fun fun fun

July 2007
- car ride with 6 dogs
- Baby shower
- Dino D and Jill welcomed their daughters into the world :D
- passed the GD screen
- repeat u/s shows the NN heads up rather than heads down and heart is checked once again all good


August 2007
- rearrange our bedroom for SD to show up
- NN still head up rather than heads down
- Washing machine on the fritz but fixable without having to pay for it YAY!
- fatigue fatigue fatigue
- Surprise my water breaks and Squeak is born via c-section at 35 weeks 5 days

September 2007
- We bring Squeak home - a lazy white boy who doesn't want to eat
- breastfeeding woes
- loving our new son
- settling in as a family
- work friend has her baby girl weighing it at a whopping 9 lbs 3 oz OUCH

October 2007
- Ernie is a jealous pup
- Lola thinks Squeak is hers
- Continuing with the breastfeeding saga

November 2007
- go back to work and it's the same old
- breastfeeding begins to actually work
- Synagis is started for RSV protection
- My mom moves in and becomes the nanny
- friend's baby girl turns 1

December 2007
- breastfeeding is hard work
- pumping at work even harder
- 1st Christmas with Squeak is fabulous even though both D and I have to work
- Chance ends up getting bit by Jodi and requires stitches and a bandage on 12/28 Poor Chance...

In summary - this has been a wonderful year even with some of the downs... I would have rather not closed out the year with Chance requiring another trip to the vet during the holiday season, but apparently he has other ideas. The vet just looked at him yesterday and shook her head and said "Chance you could have just come up for a nail trim you know..." He's okay, the other dogs are all okay... D is okay... Squeak is okay and while I am closing the year out with a cold it is all so much better than last year...

I am thankful...



So very very thankful...

Frustrated and Pictures

I'm not all sunshine and light and right now I probably look and feel more like well a big fat shaggy dog.

Post partum weight it hasn't fallen off like I would like it to. So I'm of course inhaling cookies like an ad*ict. I'm frustrated by Christmas crap - in laws visiting soon... trying to make sure I've bought everyone their gifts and of course wrapped them. Breastfeeding Squeak as often as possible. Paying bills, cleaning the house on my days off and well just trying to stay afloat. I don't know if this is just the downhill slide or if I'm just finally saying hey everything isn't always rosey and bright. It probably doesn't help that I seen a coworker who had a baby about 4 weeks after I had Squeak and she is of course back to her pre baby weight and skinny as a rail. Her baby of course is roly poly and in like the 50th percentile for weight while Squeak is like in the 10th percentile.

I'm happy most of the time. Right now i'm just frustrated. Frustrated because D seems to think that he deserves a flashlight that costs $75 and I of course am the grinch who points out that he has a flashlight and also that we just bought a digital camera. I felt the camera was our Christmas present to each other... he feels he deserves a flashlight. I keep pointing out that we're saving money for a fence and well it goes downhill from there. We don't argue about it - it's more of a nag thing going on here. Have you ordered the flashlight? Me: We'll talk about that later. D: "There's free shipping if you order it before Christmas." Me: How about we put the money for a flashlight towards the fence and call it a happy new year? D: It's 75 bucks. Me: That's $75 closer than we were before.

Sounds like a pleasant time at our house huh? So I don't know what the hell is up - am I just being stubborn and a pita about not buying the damn flashlight or am I being the practical one? He's got a perfectly good flashlight. Yes the new flashlight would be brighter and more energy efficient, but seriously it's a freaking flashlight and how many does one person REALLY need? His coworkers told him that he was whipped because I vetoed a rifle, playstation and X Box 360... I offered to allow D to take over manning the finances and he declined. I figured if he manned the finances then he would see how hard I've tried to save up for the stupid fence especially since we spent 12 weeks with only 70% of my pay... and I managed to still save money and not have to hit our savings until week 12 and not have to hit it that hard. God I hate being practical!

In other news i just purchased a web kinz for my niece. D pointed out that it was kind of like the year P asked for a pink spotted elephant from Santa... that was the only thing she asked for and Aunt Sami came through that year and she's coming through again. A black bear web kinz is on it's way to my niece. Thankfully my nephew is much easier to shop for.

Fortunately Squeak is the one thing that generally does not frustrate or ask for anything other than to be fed and loved. He doesn't require a $75 flashlight either to entertain him. Yes - still a bit bitter about the damn flashlight.

In dog news Ernie is beyond frustrated... he is now unable to open the door to the basement as it has a child lock on it. He can no longer open the baby's room as it now has a knob rather than a lever door knob. He currently is sitting next to me pretending to be a good dog.

Below are pics from his professional photo shoot at 3 months. Isn't he beautiful :) Vent/Whine? whatever over...

So many thoughts...

Running through my head...

Why can't I be independently wealthy and stay at home with my child? Would I lose my mind if I did that... probably.

I managed to survive my 4 day stretch at work. I won't deny that it was hard to leave Squeak at home and even harder to not call in sick just to spend time with him. But I survived. Work was horribly busy and it was nice to see my coworkers, but I would have rather been at home. Figuring out how to pump at work and not have that affect patient care was difficult... and truthfully it's hard to take the time to pump when we're busy. I feel like a slacker by saying - hey my boobs hurt I need to go pump. However I am determined that we will make it at least the next month if not longer... so I must keep on pumping.

My mom did fine as did Squeak. D spied on her through the baby monitor once he got home... I have to laugh at that because she has no idea that he was listening in. Poor grandma. Squeak still hates his crib, but will sleep in his snuggle nest for anywhere from 4-7 hours.

We did his sy*nagis shot last week and he did fine with that. I feel better that he's protected against R S V for sure since I took care of some infants with it and truly do not want Squeak to get it.

Oh more on pumping - I pump on my way into work and on my way home from work so that I can spend more time sleeping or with Squeak - it horrifies D but I don't have another solution so for now with my frequent pumping I'll be doing that.

I'm not ready for the holiday season - yet I am going to be involved in a cookie exchange... this Thursday. I have to bake 9 dozen cookies by then... wish me luck. D is working the next few days and my mom won't be back until Wednesday so I'm on my own with this one. What the hell was I thinking?