My monthly post (or The Vacation that Wasn't)

As usual, I've been meaning to post, but haven't, for whatever reason. But this will probably be a long one. Hopefully I can organize my thoughts.  (I'm trying to keep in all in past-tense, but I know I'll skip to present-tense at some point.  Sorry in advance).

In late August Brony had a bout of barfing.  Aaron got her out of the crib, and she was pretty much covered.  I held her, she threw up more (on me).  Aaron called advice and went to get an antiemetic.  I got pretty good at catching the vomit in a bucket.  The next day, she was completely fine.

In early September, Bronwyn had a sinus virus.  I took her to the doctor to have her ears checked before we flew.  She, Bertie and I got our flu shots.

September 7th we got up at 4am to get to our flight.  Maybe it was 3:30?  It was really early, either way.  The kids did very well with waking so early.  Aaron's dad gave us a ride to the airport, and we were on our way.  Security was fairly easy.  And Aaron hid his flying anxiety very well.  We flew from San Jose to Newark, so it was a L.O.N.G. flight.  But we had free tv, which helped.  Both kids did well.  I had Bron sleeping in the mei tai carrier off and on.  At one point, she got fussy, and was pointing at Aaron.  So I handed her to him.  About a minute later she threw up.  All over him.  So much barf, I have no idea where it all came from.  Then she felt better, and Aaron felt worse.  We cleaned up what we could, the flight attendant brought us paper towels. I changed Bronwyn.  But Aaron didn't have anything to change into. (Why would an adult need a change of clothes? we thought.  I didn't bring any in my carry on either). I think we were an hour from Newark at that point, so it wasn't too long before he could change.
We arrive in Newark.  We stopped in the first shop, and Aaron bought a "Newark, New Jersey" tee shirt, and went in the bathroom to clean up.  (We couldn't find any shorts, or pants). At some point, Bertie needed to pee, so I rush him to the bathroom.  The line in the women's was out the door.  The men's was much shorter. So I stood with him as long as I could before I couldn't see him.  He was fine, of course, but it (like many other things) made me nervous.  After we were sorted out, we needed to take a bus to the A terminal.  We decided we would get lunch once we got there.  They security checked our boarding passes before we got on. We rode.  I grouch that they should have a tram, or make it walk-able, because the bus is stupid and annoying.  We arrived in the A20-27 terminal, only to discover it is the world's smallest terminal.  We couldn't take the bus to another terminal, because our boarding passes said we were where we needed to be.  Aaron asked a security guard if we had options.  He said we could go to the other side of  security and get food, but we'd have to go back through, and the two hours we had might not have been enough time.  (Holy hell! How long are their security lines?!)  There was one sit down restaurant in our tiny terminal (along with a coffee shop, Auntie Anne's pretzels, and a book/stuff store).  We waited in line for the sit down place.  It was ok.  The food was over priced, of course.  We wait around for our plane.  The kids were both getting squirmy, but there wasn't much we could do.  We weren't going to let Bron crawl around on the airport floor.  And there wasn't anywhere Bertie could expel energy either. (But (I'm going to be judgy now) the lady sitting across from us didn't seem to have that issue.  Before we'd sat down, her boys (probably 5 and 2ish) had dumped popcorn all over, and the floor was littered with candy wrappers.  (Yes, the mess was their's as the kid was still eating the candy, and the popcorn bag was near their stuff). The 5 year old was loud, and running around, and touching everyone's stuff.  Both he and the younger boy would run out of the mom's eyesight (which would make me super anxious).  This continued the whole time we waited.  The mom was either on her phone, or looked like she couldn't be bother to care what her kids were up to).
We took the short flight from Newark to Richmond.  No issues.  And somehow, one of our suitcases arrived before the plane.
It is at this point we start to hear about hurricane Florance.  We are scheduled to stay at Myrtle Beach from 9 Sept-15 Sept.
September 8th I got up fairly early with the kids.  (It is a fairly unique situation when I stay with my mom.  Mom moved to back Virginia in 2001.  Sometime there after, she and the man next door (Glenn) fell in love.  She moved into his house, which means that my older sister has the whole house to herself (unless we're visiting.))  The kids and I went next door to hang out.  For some reason, Bertram was calling Glenn (aka Papa) Brett.  Brett is the man down the street from us.  I guess they look similar, but it was funny.  I went for a walk with my younger sister and mom, then we all went out to lunch.
While we were out , Aaron's parents had been trying to call us.  My FiL (Dennis) went to see the dogs around 7.  They went out, and laid back down.  He came back around 9, and found Zelda in the bathroom (which is odd, she didn't usually go in there), on the floor, unable to get up, and surrounded by poop.  Aaron's cousin (who lives across the street from us) had to carry Zelda to the car, because she's big, and fairly heavy.  They took her to the vet and made her comfortable.  But she still couldn't get up.  So the vet said to give her til 6pm and then we could decide.  (Our theory is that she went in the bathroom, and got stuck, unable to turn around (she couldn't ever back up well), and at that point panicked or slipped, and broke her back. 
We tried to get on with our day in the mean time.  We debated back and forth about even going to Myrtle Beach, as it's a 6+ hour drive.  And varying points it looked like it would directly hit Myrtle Beach on Wednesday-ish (though, the forecast seemed to change hourly).  Rebecca called the hotel, they said they were open.  And if there was a mandatory evacuation mom would be refunded.  We decided to throw caution to the wind and see what happened. 
We talked to the vet again in the evening, Zelda had no improvement, so we decided it was time.  It's hard to put your dog down, it's harder to do it from 3000 miles away.  Every time one of our animals has been put to sleep, I've been there to hold their paw.  Zelda had to do it alone, without a familiar face.  I also realized I didn't even say bye to her before we left on vacation.  I didn't think to ask the vet to hold on to her collar and tags, so they are gone too.  (I'm crying now.  I just feel like such a shitty dog parent.  We gave her so much, and she deserved better at the end).  She was about a month shy of her 13th birthday.  It's old for a Greyhound, and we'd had her since May of 2010.
September 9th  We got up and headed down to the beach.  Not too far from home there was a major semi-truck accident that shut down the whole South side on the freeway.  We were stuck waiting to be re-routed for a while.  Though, not as bad as Rebecca and Nate.  They were stuck behind the accident on the freeway.  The backup was about 2-miles long, with zero movement.  When we drove passed people were standing around outside of their cars.
The rest of the drive was uneventful.  We wrote down stated from license plate, and tried to find radio stations.  We had to make lots of stops for potty breaks, and because Bronwyn was done with being in the car.  I managed to squeeze myself between their carseats, and was able to nurse Brony while we drove.   Mom, Jessica, Rebecca and Nate all arrived around 4.  We got there closer to 6.  The room was supposed to be ready at 4, but it was probably 5:30 before it was actually ready.  So we didn't miss much.  We all got dinner, and later Aaron, the kids, Rebecca and I went to the pool.
We kept tabs on the hurricane.  At that point it wasn't likely to make land until Thursday evening or Friday morning.  We debated among ourselves when we should leave.  I voted for mid day on Wednesday (not that it mattered in the end).
September 10th Our one, and only day at the beach.  We headed out early-ish.  (It turns out it takes a lot to get two little kids to the beach: tons of sunscreen, toys, towels, shade tent etc).  Bertie had a blast.  And the water was so warm and wonderful. (Also the skies were completely clear).  Bronwyn didn't want to be in the ocean much.  Then wanted to eat sand.  So I took her to the pool.  (That little bit of time sitting on the shore was all the ocean/beach time I got).  Around noon the four of us came up to the room for lunch.  And Bron took a long nap. After that there wasn't time to go back to the beach before we needed to go to dinner.  Right before we left for dinner we got a call that an evacuation order had been issued, and we needed to leave the hotel by 11:30am Tuesday Sept 11th.
We drove to Broadway at the Beach (a shopping center, touristy place), to eat at Joe's Crab Shack.  We wanted to walk around after dinner, but now we had to go and repack everything.  We really wanted to go in the Kwik-E-Mart (a la The Simpsons), but it was all boarded up for the storm after we'd finished dinner.  We went back to the hotel.  Walked on the beach for a bit, and then started repacking and reloading the cars.  Then planned to get on the road by 7am, to beat the evacuation traffic.
September 11th The weather was calm, serene and beautiful as we left.  Not too far along on our drive Bronwyn started fussing.  So I squeezed into the back of the car again.  Then she threw up again.  Not a lot like on the plane, but definitely vomit, not spit up.  But after a little while she went to sleep.  We didn't hit ant traffic on the way back (despite the evacuation order).  It was a very long day, nonetheless. 
The hurricane did make land somewhere between Thursday and Friday, but it hit North Carolina, not South.  I would periodically look at the different Myrtle Beach webcams, and most of the time the weather was either sunny or very mild rain, and there was no shortage of people walking around.  (Though, even if the beach was fine, the roads we'd need to take back through North Carolina were impassable.)
After Wednesday, we just had rain.  Lots of rain.  It was actually pretty neat to see so much rain.
Aaron went home on September 17th.  The weather was calling for thunderstorms.  In the afternoon, mom, the kids, and I went to Target.  On the way there Glenn called and said there was a tornado warning.  We didn't think too much of it because the sky was blue where we were, and Virginia doesn't really get many tornadoes.  When we got there, the sky started to get cloudy again, so we decided to hurry and get what we needed and head about home.  A couple minutes later, there was an announcement for a tornado warning in the area, and everyone needed to go to the middle/back on the store.  That was seriously the most anxiety filled, scary time on my life.  There wasn't a basement to go to, or anywhere like they say you should go.  I had a very nervous tummy, so I went to the front of the store to use the bathroom.  I could see the sky, the clouds were still white, which I took as a good sign.  I couldn't stop sweating.  I think we had to stay there for 45 minutes.  Once the warning expired we got our stuff and ran for it.  I've never wanted to leave Target to badly.We got back to the house, and I paced around anxiously until the next tornado warning expired.  Then I could finally calm down some.  It was awful.
The rest of the trip was (fortunately) uneventful.  I flew back with the kids last week.  No issues, just another long day.

Somehow it's been a month since I blogged.  I suck.  

Let's see what I can remember.

Our 12th anniversary came and went without fanfare.  Between being 8 months pregnant, having a 3 year old and being poor, we didn't end up doing anything.  I think sometime after baby is born we'll have a do-over.  We had dinner at Chick-fil-a.  Haha.

Last week my FiLs truck was stolen from in front of their house.  It was his work truck, so all his tools were in it.  We assumed we'd never see it again, or if we did, it wouldn't be driveable.  Bertie and I came back from running errands today, and there it was, back in front of the house.  Nothing was missing, nothing was broken.  And, the weirdest thing, it was found one street over.  So that had a happy ending.  The police guessed maybe some kids wanted to go joy-riding, found they could, got scared, and left it.

Last week Aaron's co-workers threw us a baby shower.

It was really nice, and kind of fancy.  We got a lot of diapers, and clothes.  I'm making Aaron write all the thank you notes (since I did all of them from my shower).

Baby is measuring right on track.  I've had some braxton-hicks, but nothing "real" yet.  I had my GBS test last week.  I'm positive.  Lame, but no big deal.  We have her room mostly ready, I need to put a few more things away, and hang up the wall decorations.

Aaron got a promotion at work!  He was an EW2, now he'll be a supervisor.  Usually, one has to be an EW3 first, but they liked him, so he gets to skip a step (which is really rare).  So he'll make a good deal more money, and have a better commute.  (I should mention that his commute was good before, about 30 minutes, which is practically unheard of around here, but his new one will be 15-20 minutes).  So that's really exciting.  His supervisor pay starts today, but he doesn't actually start the job til next week.

Today Fiona has a seizure.  This happens once or twice a year.  Generally it's not a big deal (as in the vet can't do much).  But she was kind of running as she was seizing, and smacked her head into the bed frame.  I picked her up, and she had cut her forehead open.  I took her to the vet (which was fortunately open).  They kept her for four hours.  Gave her drugs to stop the seizure, and she got iv fluids.  They glued her head back together, no stitches.  They drew blood, but we won't have the results til Wednesday.  I was talking to one of the vet techs about fireworks, and mentioned we'd given Yoie her anti-anxiety medication last night.  The tech said that that medication can cause seizures in dogs that are already prone to seizures.  That was good to know.  She's currently still a little dopped up, so the few fireworks going off haven't bothered her.  We'll see how tomorrow night goes.  (Note: we have a thunder shirt for her, but putting it on her, makes her nervous.).

How far along? 37 weeks 
Total weight loss/gain: About 20lbs

Maternity clothes? Yes, please.  I've been searching for a couple more nursing tops.
Sleep: Surprisingly, no real issues, except some insomnia.  Once I'm asleep, I'm usually good.

Best moment this week: Baby shower with Aaron's co-workers

Movement: She loves to dance

Food cravings: Otter pops, watermelon
Food aversions: Garlic, onions, and sometimes raw veg
Gender: Girl
Labor Signs: Some braxton-hicks, off and on. (By this time, Bertie was already born.)

Belly Button in or out? In, it's not going anywhere
What I miss: Sleeping on my back.

What I am looking forward to:  Meeting my girl
Milestones: We made it to full term!

Christmas and catch up.

I'll start with recent first, and work my way back.

Today I got home from work, and let the girls out to pee.  After I let them out, I noticed two accidents in the garage.  This is not unusual.  Well, two are, but an accident is not out of the ordinary.  One was poo, the other was pee, with blood in it.  So then I went into freak out mode.  With four fur kids, it makes it hard to track down who did what.  My guess was it was Yoie, but I wasn't sure.  So I checked out the other guys.  Then I took Yoie out on lead, with a bowl, to try to get a urine sample.  She only did a few drops, but they were red.  I called the vet, and they were able to see her right away.  (I'm really glad our vet is open til 7, otherwise the emergency vet is so expensive).  So Yoie and I dashed off.  I felt bad about leaving Zelda, the girls usually go everywhere together.

The vet looked at her, and the few drops of pee I brought in.  He said there are four possibilities: Uti, crystals in the urine (from diet), some badness from the kidneys, or trauma to the bladder.  I think it's a UTI, I know she's not feeling well.  And having had plenty of UTIs in my time, she's got the symptoms.  Frequent trips to the bathroom, trying to pee more than she needs to, and just not feeling herself.  The vet gave her two injections of antibiotics, and she'll start Amox tomorrow.  Aaron or I need to bring in a urine sample tomorrow.

I feel so bad, I know she's not feeling well, and there's nothing I can do for her.  I've been giving her extra snuggles, but my poor puppy.  Plus with my hormones the way they are, it's hard to deal.  Not to mention having to get up and down to let her out every 20 minutes.  (Hopefully Aaron will be home soon).

Now that I'm 28 weeks pregnant, by the last due date, I have to start doing my kick counting.  Every night after dinner, I count kicks to see how long it takes to kick ten times.  So far it only takes him 10 minutes.  Aaron and I have been taking turns reading Mojo a book every night.  He kicks a lot most of the time.  I'm liking it.  We have a name that we'll likely name Mojo.  We've told our families, so far only my sister and Aaron's bio-mom like the name.  My mom said she could live with it.  My dad didn't say how he felt.

My dad's sister and her husband were out to visit.  He cousin and her husband also came to visit (all four live on the East coast).  The plan was to spent 4 days in Las Vegas (over Christmas).  But my dad was still feeling  pretty weak, and even worse his cousin and her husband got the flu!  Like the real lasts a week or longer flu.  Neither had gotten the vaccine, and my dad, his sister and brother in law all had the shot.  No one else in the house got sick.  So the two sickies stayed at the house all week, and the other three went and did some day trips.  And my MiL was able to accommodate them for Christmas dinner.

On Christmas Eve we went to services with Aaron's mom and that side of the family.  When we came home, we stayed up for a while, and then it was after midnight, so we opened our gifts.  I got Aaron a few medium sized gifts, he got me three big gifts, and a couple little ones.  Also, my stocking was filled with stockings (socks and tights).  He got me a Timbuk2 messenger bag (I've been coveting his for almost 5 years), a fitbit flex, and a set of emerald cut aquamarine earrings.  Aquamarine will be Mojo's birth stone (unless he's a premie).  On the box it said "To Mommy, From (name we chose)".  So cute!  I got Aaron some new Pumas, a painting set, the Jeeves and Wooster Dvd box set, some stuff for his airbrush etc.  We got some really cute baby clothes, a new pots and pans set.  Some gift cards and I got some new maternity clothes.  Aaron's folks bought us a leather recliner for the baby's room, and a few other things.  So it was a really nice Christmas.

Dinner was delicious, and it was nice to spend time with family.  We also did a gift card exchange, I got a $25 Amazon gift card.

I used some of my Christmas money to buy clearance maternity and nursing clothes from Old Navy and Walmart.

Sophie sent out my baby shower invitations.  They're really cute, and I'm super excited for it.

I'll post some pictures next time.

A little whine, this and that

Aaron's been gone on a work trip for a couple days.  This will be a test, as later this year he'll be gone for a week, and then two months, and then possibly another 10 days.  It's kind of hard being on my own.  Mostly, just because of the animals.  I do a lot of the housework anyway, because his hours can be long, but taking care of four animals on my own is hard.  Especially on days like this...
I noticed that Diamond Jim (the oldest and smallest animal) wasn't eating much.  This isn't super unusual, he's tiny; small framed, and 7.5 lbs soaking wet.  But he didn't want things he usually goes crazy for: cream, wet food, cheese etc.  And he was a little dehydrated.  Aaron said to take him to the vet.  --In our division of labour, I put Aaron in charge of all things pet (buying food, vet visits, shots, etc).  One reason is that these duties are sporadic, so he can do them around his work schedule.  But the main reason is that I can't handle vet visits.  I can't keep it together when things go wrong.--  But today I put on my big girl pants and took Jimmy-Jimmy to the vet.  The normal vet doesn't work Tuesday or Wednesday (which is good because he used to be the only vet there, he worked 10+ hour days 7 days a week).  Diamond Jim barfed on the way there (just bile, since he's not eating).  And he cried and cried.  He hates being in the crate, and he hates riding in the car.  First we weighed him, he's down to 5 lbs.  That is a huge weight loss, since he was so tiny to start with.  He was very dehydrated.  Two of his teeth will likely need to be extracted in the near future (he only has 4, so he'll be down to two).  They did a blood and urine draw, gave him sub-q fluids, an antibiotic shot, and sent him home with Rx food, and more antibiotics.  $427 later we were on our way.  They'll call tomorrow with results and what we'll do next.
On the way home he started crying again.  I did too.  I felt awful, like a bad cat-mommy.  Could I take care of a baby, when I can't keep a cat from wasting away?  Plus he felt so bad, and there was nothing I could do for him.
When we got home I put him in the spare bedroom, and gave him some of his new food, which he ate about half of, and close him in.  (Otherwise, the other cat, or dogs, would eat his food and push him around).

At work today my HVAC finally got fixed.  My thermostat did nothing.  So when I'd get in, it would be 52 in the office.  The heater wouldn't come on til Mr Nextdoor came in.  Then, just when it would get to a comfortable temperature, the AC would come on, and get down to 63 or so.  Now my thermostat works, and I set the timer so it won't be freezing when I get in.  Yay!

Work has been busy.  Lots of calls to make, which slows down everything else I need to do.  Plus we're having a billing meeting with the owner tomorrow (not a big deal, just a lot of planning).  Then from that meeting I need to get a lot of stuff ready for the staff meeting on Thursday.  Medicare has a couple things they're instituting, that will likely lead to smaller reimbursements, and lots more work for everyone.  Sometimes I wonder if Medicare is worth the hassle.  If I have the choice, when I'm old (assuming Medicare still exists), I'm going to pay more for a good Medicare replacement plan, because Medicare is awful, and hard for both providers and patients to work with.  I could go on and on.

Yoie

We'd been out a little over an hour.  Visiting grandma and baby Isaac.  When we came home, Yoie was acting like she was having a seizure.  There was a lot of vomit around.  She was convulsing, and her mouth was foaming.  I scooped her up and squeezed her for a couple minutes.  (Some months ago, something similar happened, but it only lasted five minutes, then she was ok, just tired.  When we mentioned it to the vet, he said, since it hadn't happened before, she'd likely eaten a spider or bee.)  But after a couple minutes, she wasn't any better, so off to the emergency vet we went.  It was 3.45, and I was pretty sure our normal vet closed at 4.  She was very unsteady in the car.  Still drooling, still shaking.

When we got there they whisked her to the back.  After a while, they said they'd started her on an IV to replace her fluids, and given her some Valium (Vicodin?) to help her.  When the vet came in to talk to us, he wasn't sure if it was a toxicity issue or a neurological issue.  They're going to keep her overnight, and do some other stuff.

Aaron went to visit her again.  I can't do it.  I hate that I can't.  But we saw her before we left.  And she was just so sad.  She had this look that said "please, please, please take me home.  Please."  It felt awful to leave her.  So I didn't think I could do it again.  It sounds weird, but she's my dog.  I sort of consider Zelda to be Aaron's dog, and Yoie to be mine.  And she's bonded more to me, she's my little baby.  I'm her mommy.  She's always super protective of me, and I feel like I can't do anything more to help her.

The vet said she seems to be improving.  But they still don't know what's wrong.  I just want her to come home.