The Down Low on Dingle

Dingle has been having problems with her back legs since this spring. It's gotten progressively worse and has really gotten bad these past few weeks. She now has trouble getting up and down the stairs most times and she pees on the floor at least once a day, if not more. She hasn't seemed to be in any pain though. Her legs just fall out from under her and lately she just drags them at times.

I finally got her into the vet this morning just to get a clearer picture of what exactly is going on and to see if there was anything we could do for her. She had an x-ray and bloodwork done. Her bloodwork was just fine; the x-rays, not so much. She has two slipped discs and a third one that's heading that way. There was another disc that didn't look quite right (I forgot what the technical term was) that was just due to aging. She also has some arthritis in her hips. The vet said the slipped discs are what is causing the incontinence.

He gave us some non-steroid anti-inflammatory medicine and some pills for the incontinence, so we'll see if we can keep her comfortable and keep my carpets pee free. She doesn't seem to be in any pain right now, which is part of the reason I put off taking her in, but as soon as she isn't able to walk or if the meds don't work, we'll see about putting her down. I asked if this meant she was pretty close to the end and the vet just nodded. He didn't say how long she had, but I got the feeling she'll be going downhill pretty quickly. We definitely won't be prolonging her life once she's in a lot of pain.

Honestly, I've thought for awhile now that I was ready for her to go (like when I'm cleaning up pee for the third time in a day). When I actually think about the reality of taking her in and watching it happen though, I get teary. I don't want to do it because she's inconveniencing us, but as soon as she's hurting, I'll be ready. Or more accurately, I'll be ready to send Chris to do it.

How Do You Spell Fun?

J-E-E-P!

We've had the hard top on the jeep since we moved here because we didn't have anywhere to store it and we threw out our old soft top because it was damaged. We finally bought a new soft top and a hoist that allows you to hang the hardtop from the garage ceiling. A seven month pregnant wife isn't much help with a project like that, so Glenn came over to help Chris out while us girls hung out.

After they finished, we threw the big girls in the back and headed to the park for a picnic. I don't have to tell you they loved it.

They're One!

Clara and I got back last night from our last trip out west before baby. We hit Pecos, Carlsbad, Lovington and Wink. The main reason for the visit was to attend Grayson and Brody's first birthday party. They had a joint fiesta. Hard to believe the little boogers are already a year old. Here are lots of pics for now; I'll write something later.

Lunch

No special occassion or anything; just thought I'd post some non-pregnancy related photos. We went to Cheddar's after church today for the first time. Clara enjoyed perusing the drink menu.

Thirty Weeks

Ahhhh, I'm in the thirties! This is becoming more and more real every day. I'm 121.5 pounds and baby is about 3.

I'm feeling really good right now. I actually washed the car last week and I was able to get most of the house cleaned. We've had rainy, overcast days for the past week and it's been so nice. I'm so ready for fall.

I'm still having palpitations and although I'm pretty sure they're nothing to worry about, I've asked to be referred to a cardiologist. I think if I had seen one when I was first diagnosed with MVP back in 2003, I wouldn't be as anxious about the skipped beats. I was never referred to one and all I've had is an echocardiogram in which the tech was unable to see all of my valves because my heart is small and is situated in my chest cavity weird because I'm so thin. So, having a specialist run a few more tests and tell me everything is cool would really ease my mind.

I seem to go a day or two where they aren't that bad and then I'll have several days that I notice them all day long. I think they wear me out some and they tend to make me anxious and just make me feel kind of down, so I'm glad to be getting in to a cardiologist.

Here we are all color coordinated again.

Up Close and Personal

with my 30 week pregnant belly. Bear with me; I was bored and had a camera in hand.

Here's my view. Note the lovely blue veins and the little red mole. I didn't have a mole on my body before my first pregnancy. When I was pregnant with Clara, I exploded with those little red ones, mostly on my torso.


Here's a little tidbit for you: when you are underweight, you sometimes have more body hair (which I can attest to). I read about it when I was learning about anorexia (no, I'm not, nor have I ever been anorexic). It's your body's way of trying to keep you warm since you lack fat. Fortunately, I'm blond so it doesn't bother me too much.

You also grow more hair on your belly when you're pregnant. So I'm pretty much a hairy beast right now. But, like I said it doesn't bother me. Obviously or else I wouldn't post these frighteningly close up shots.

Have you ever wondered what the inside of your belly button looks like? No, well then you can just skip this next picture :)

Twenty-Nine Weeks

I'm 120 pounds now and baby is 2.5 pounds and a little over 15 inches long.

Not a whole lot of change this week. I retook my glucose screening on Friday and finally got my results last night. I am so relieved that I passed and didn't have to take the 3 hour.

I'm still sleeping pretty well, though it's painful to roll over and sit up. I've been waking right around 4:00 almost every morning and it usually takes an hour or so to get back to sleep. My hips hurt really bad all night and I'm constantly switching sides trying to relieve the pain. As soon as I get up in the morning they stop hurting.

I had a baby dream a few nights ago. I was having twins and I had just had the first one, a girl. I didn't dream about the actual birth though. Someone was holding her and I was about to have the other one, a boy. You could see him wiggling all around from the outside. I started taking video of it when it came time to have him and then my dream went straight to me holding him and then I woke up because it was 4:00.

I got two things out of this dream. 1--I have no motherly intuition about what sex this baby is going to be. My subconscious took the easy way out and gave me one of each, and 2-- I seem to not want to think about the actual birthing part of this whole having a baby thing.

Passed!

Just a quick post to say I got the call last night and I passed the 1 hour glucose test! Yay! She said my numbers looked really good, so not even borderline. Now if I could just get my heart to cooperate. It's been on the fritz again, but I'm hoping it was just the stress from waiting on my test results. I've been pretty anxious and cheating on my diet left and right. I'll try to post more later.

Daddy's Girl

Recently Clara has become a Daddy's girl through and through. She wants him to wake her up in the mornings before he leaves for work so that she can tell him bye and give him a hug and she squeals with delight upon his return. She even calls for daddy during the night sometimes, which I've not minded one bit.

I took a picture of them on the way out the door this morning for daddy/daughter breakfast and thought I'd post a picture of them heading to the first ever DDB when she was 2 months old. She looks slightly concerned that I won't be accompanying them on their outing. This was probably the first time Chris took her somewhere by himself. She wouldn't take a bottle until this point, so once she mastered that, he was good to go.

Prenatal Appointment- 28 Weeks

I was 119 pounds at my appointment on Tuesday which puts me up 20 pounds this pregnancy. The midwife said it feels like the baby is head down and although she thought I looked a little on the small side at first glance, I measured exactly on track yet again. I had my glucose screening test done at this apointment.

I asked lots of questions about the heartbeat thing and diet and I left feeling pretty good about my current state. The skipped beats have really diminished and although I get them off and on, they're not bothersome at all. I'm taking some supplements that should be keeping them in check.

I told her that they started a day or so before Chris left for Brazil for two weeks and I thought that the stress may have brought them on. She agreed. I wouldn't say I was outwardly stressed, but I think in the back of my mind, I may have been a little more than I'd like to admit. When Chris was in Rio back in May, that's when the plane leaving Rio crashed into the ocean. And then right before he left this time, there was the emergency landing of a plane from Rio to Houston because of turbulence and lots of people were injured. I made him promise to keep his seatbelt on from now on. Anyway, I don't think those incidences were a great help to my psyche.

She did ease up on my diet restrictions some. The other midwife is very health conscious and vegetarian, so I think her goals were a bit unrealistic. I'm still cutting out caffeine and sweets and doing whole grains most of the time. I'm getting a little sugar here and there and I'm not worrying about trying to only eat unprocessed whole grains like sprouted wheat bread and quinoa. Yuck. She said to try and be good 6 days a week and take one day to cheat. I can live with that.

Or at least I could until a couple of hours ago when they called me back about my glucose screening test. Yeah, I failed. My breakfast may have affected my results, so I'm going to take it again in the morning, this time after having only had protein for breakfast. Hopefully that's all it was and I won't have to do the three hour test.