2 Month Checkup – Check! February 20, 2009

Coop survived his shots this morning, but has been pretty sleepy since we left the doctor’s office – as they said he probably would.  Updated stats: 13 lbs 6 oz (75-90th %) 23 1/2″ length (50th %) and 16″ head circumference (50th %).  We don’t have to go back until 4 months!

After the doctor’s, we stopped by Sam’s house to visit – he came home from the hospital yesterday.  After visiting there, we stopped by daycare to drop off final paperwork (waaah!).  Coop is now completely registered for school!

9 Weeks, 2 Months, First Roadtrip and Big Cousin! February 19, 2009

Coop hit a lot of milestones this past week!

Today he is 9 weeks old… So hard to believe.  My time with him at home is almost over.  Monday I start working from home, and the Monday after I’m back at the office and he’s in daycare.  Will they snuggle him?  Will he sleep good for them?  Will they be able to make him smile?  I know, they do this all the time – get used to a new kid in town.  But of course my first few weeks of work are going to be hard and I know I’ll be watching the clock constantly, counting the minutes until I can hold my little man again.

Yesterday was Coop’s 2 Month birthday!  We celebrated by visiting his NEW COUSIN SAM!  Sam arrived just before 9pm Tuesday night, the 17th, and is the son of my brother Steve and sister-in-law Deb, and of course the little brother of Big Ben.  Sam is starting out with a slight lead over Ben, beating Ben’s birthweight by one ounce: 9lbs 7oz!  It will be so cool having Sam and Coop so close together – not only in age, but they only live 4 miles away from us!   So Coop is no longer the youngest cousin and to Sam he’s a BIG cousin! It will be fun to see if Coop will stay ahead of Sam size-wise.  Big Ben is much bigger than Cousin Brendan – and Brendan is 7 months older! 

And speaking of Cousin Brendan, Coop and I made our first trip to Toledo last weekend to visit Cousin Brendan as well Grandma & Grandpa and many others.  Brendan is not quite 2 1/2 and thinks his little cousin is pretty cool.  They had lots of fun playing together on Coop’s floor gym!  Owen also made the trip down to Toledo to see Coop.  Can you believe he’s going to be 6 this year?  I can’t!  He’s so proud to be the one that gets to hold Coop in all the Cousins pictures we’ve taken.

Coop also got to meet someone very, very important – GG Grandma!  GG is my 93-year-old paternal Grandma and since we didn’t make it to Toledo over the holidays, she had to wait until now to meet Coop!  Coop didn’t really cooperate when we had our photo shoot, but he really was very, very happy to meet her!

To insert photos of EVERYONE Coop met in Toledo last weekend would take up a lot of space, so please visit our photo site!  Coop also got to meet Mommy’s bestest friend since childhood, Janet, Janet’s daughter Averie, Great Aunt Barb, Great Aunt Carol, and Mommy’s cousins Sandy, Lori and Lori’s daughter Kara.

I swear we don’t keep a bib on this kid ALL the time – he had just finished eating in many of these pictures and we have been having spit-up issues lately!  Something we’ll be talking to Dr. Breen about at his 2-month checkup tomorrow.  We’ve been pre-warned that there will be lots of needles involved in tomorrow’s visit   Daddy always tells Coop “Remember, Mommy takes you for shots.  Daddy takes you for ICE CREAM!”  Hmph.  NOT FAIR!

It’s been a week now…. February 7, 2009

And it still hurts.  A night has not gone by that I haven’t woke up, jumped up because Hooch was not lying by the bed and I am looking for him thinking he needs to go outside. 

The vet’s office has been very nice about all of this.  I think theotherfoughty mentioned that they sent us a paw print with his named stamped in it.  They also took back all the food and medicine that we had purchased for a refund.  They also send flowers and a card.

A thank you also to Karen and Brian for their card.

The worst part for me has been watching Bailey.  She seems so lost.  You let her outside and she just stands on the deck waiting for her bubbers to walk her off the deck.  The other day she got one of her sparks of life and wanted to play but no one was there to play.  She tried to play with the cat, but she just cowered.  After about a minute she just gave up and laid down.

I miss my bubbers. 

I feel bad for Diane.  For the past week she for the most part has been on her own with Cooper.  It’s not fair to her or him, but I just don’t have it in me.  I am glad she got out this week. 

After class today I am stopping at the pet store.  I am going to visit the puppies.  It brings a smile to my face for a short period of time, until I get home and realize that he still has not come home yet.  He’s not coming home. 

I struggle with thinking we could have had him around longer.  His spirit was still good, he was just so weak.  It broke my heart to see such a strong dog not be able to stand up or walk across the floor without falling down.  He was bleeding internally and there was nothing we could do. 

I need to go now, I am in class and I’m sure people are wondering what is going on and why the guy in the back of the class has tears running down his face.

I miss my bubbers….

Girls Nite Out! February 5, 2009

7 Weeks old today!

Last night I got out of the house to hit dinner and the theater with my local girlfriends – Todd has been dying for me to get out of the house for weeks now.  I’ve made Target and grocery store runs without Coop, but haven’t been away from him for more than a couple hours.  The girls and I have season tickets to Broadway Across America and get about 6 to 8 shows a year here in town.  I missed the last one because it was the night we were induced with Cooper – that was Grease with Taylor Hicks from American Idol.  The girls called me at intermission when we were still in the ‘happy’ part of labor to check up on us.  Last night was Spring Awakening – which I had never heard of before, but it won the Tony for Best Musical in 2007 – and now I know why!  The music was fantastic!  Highly recommended, but make sure you read up on it to know what you’re getting into first!!!

I celebrated my first girls nite as a mom by having my first drink in 11 months!  Yup, breastfeeding is now kaputz.  So needless to say, I was feeling my 2 drinks.  I’m now laughing at the time (back in my single days) that my doctor had me not drink for 3 weeks due to some blood tests… back then, that killed me!  I guess it’s different when giving it up matters for something!

I will admit I spent the entire evening with my phone in my hand…  There have been too many times I haven’t felt it vibrate in my pocket and missed a call.  Coop has been VERY fussy and gassy the past week or so.  He lost his shit in both Michael’s and Kohl’s yesterday afternoon when I took him out shopping and couldn’t get him to stop without picking him up out of the stroller (I know, a a bad thing to start!).  I’ve read that 6-8 weeks is when they’re at their fussy/gassy peak, so I thought I would either get a call from Todd that he couldn’t get him to chill out, or that he couldn’t find something.  The phone never rang… I said to my friend Julie, an OB/GYN, during intermission, “Should I feel sad that I’m not needed?”  Todd did a great job and Coop was sleeping soundly in his crib, completely bathed and fed, when I got home at 10:45.  We didn’t hear a peep from him until his 3:00 feeding.  Todd said to me as we were going to bed, “I’m impressed I didn’t get any phonecalls from you!”  I said “I knew you’d be fine and would call me if you needed anything” but didn’t tell him that my phone never left my hand!

The only goof, which Todd fessed up to before I even noticed, was that he didn’t brush Coop’s hair after his bath – so now we’ve got Alfalfa Boy!  The hair on the crown of his head is sticking straight up!  The cold, dry weather has reeked havoc on Coop’s hair in general.  We tried to get some pictures of hair his hair standing on end last week, but they’re hard to tell what’s going on.  The hairs on the right side of his head were standing straight out.  The static electricity is ridiculous in our house – when I wear my fleece pants to bed I can see sparks when I go to the bathroom in the dark!!!

Yesterday we got a padded envelope in the mail from the vet’s office…  They took an impression of Hooch’s paw for us.  Of course the tears started flowing again – but we were very touched at their thoughtfulness.  My trip to Michael’s was to find a shadowbox that we can put it in.  I guess I could have saved myself the frustration of getting the shot of a pawprint in the snow, but it was my way of honoroing Hoochie.

Hooch Homage February 3, 2009

This was the best shot of his paw print I could get…

During my weekend of mourning I also sorted thru all our photos to make a photo montage in honor of Hooch.  It’s now on our photo website.  There are some great pics there if you have a few minutes.

The vet is quite certain that Hooch suffered of a severe case of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, which then triggered what is called Intestinal Lymphangiectasia - the latter causing the severe protein loss and the collection of fluid on his stomach.  His protein loss was what made him so weak the last couple of weeks.  When she also found that all of his internal organs had become engorged with blood on Friday, she really couldn’t offer us any more treatment options.

We received a very nice flower arrangement from the Vet yesterday - we thought that was pretty thoughtful of them.

Ok, I promise to now return to cute pictures and stories about Coop!  Thanks for allowing me a few days to focus on Hoochie.

It hurts so much… January 31, 2009

There certainly have been a lot of tears shed the past 36 hours.  The latest trigger for me was an ASPCA commercial begging me to help a dog or cat in need.  I found myself wailing “Hoochie, we tried! We tried!”  Yesterday I tried to be strong for Todd.  I know this has been worse for him - all to reminicent of losing his previous Rottweiler.  Last night when I was feeding Cooper at 3am, everything I had held in came spilling out.  So I thought blogging may be theraputic, but I’m sure it’s just going to be torture for me, and torture for Todd when he reads it – and Honey, I’m so sorry if it is…

If you’re one of those people thinking “he’s just a dog”, please stop reading now.  For the rest of you, I know you understand the pain and I hope this helps you to cherish your best canine friends, or fondly remember one of your past.

It hurts that every time I let Bailey outside I see his paw prints in the snow.  I know it will hurt worse when a new snowfall will cover them up or the sun will melt them away.  Remembering that my brother-in-law got a ceramic paw impression of their dog when she passed, I grabbed the camera to try and get a good shot of one preserved in the snow.  Unfortunately with the blinding sun, the camera refused to focus on the snow.  My tears all over the LCD screen weren’t helping either.  Once I regain composure and the sun goes down a bit, I’ll try again.  His paw prints, his leash and collar, the leftover dog food, the bottles and bottles of pills we’ve tried over the past months on the kitchen counter, his fur stuck to the bedroom carpet where his pillow used to lay that I’ll hesitate to vacuum, the chairs still pushed away from the kitchen table to make the space where he laid the last several days under it - all of them hurt.

It hurts to see Bailey so lost without her buddy.  I know that he is the reason she has made it to 11 1/2 (amazing for a dog her size!) and I know its only a matter of time now before she’s gone too.  I had a feeling we’d be losing a dog this year – I NEVER imagined it would be Hooch.  Hooch kept Bailey on her toes – kept her fiesty.  There were many a night that he’d be loafing around and she’d start a rumble because she was in the mood to play.  I can’t believe how playful she’s remained.  This afternoon, for the first time since I can remember, she hugged me.  Her arthritis has been so bad she hasn’t been able to do it.  And today she did.  It was a one-pawed hug, but she did it.  I couldn’t believe it.  As much as we’ve told her “He’s gone”, of course she couldn’t understand.  I think now she’s starting to.  She and Tiki have spent nearly the entire day today sleeping upstairs in our bedroom.  Since Todd stacked Hooch’s pillow on top of Bailey’s, and that’s what she’s been sleeping on all day, I think she knows now.

It hurts that Cooper will never know the guardian he had the first 6 weeks of his life.  When he first came home and Hoochie was still getting around fine, Hooch always had to know what Cooper was up to.  If someone was holding him, he was right there.  If Coop was in the crib, Hooch would paw at the crib and Todd would hold the crib bumper down so Hooch could see.  When I did feedings, Hooch would either curl up on the floor in front of us or scratch at the door if it was closed.  As much as we told him “no kisses!” he’d sneak a lick in here and there to give Coop a kiss.  Hoochie loved to give kisses.

It hurts to see my husband in more pain than I’ve ever seen him in before.  To hear him question if he made the right decision.  To hear him wondering if he could have had one more week or even just one more day with his best buddy.  Wondering if there were other treatments we could have tried and made him better.

I know that it will hurt less and less as time passes, and we’ll probably get used to being able to have dinner without a drooling pooch at our side or coming home to him hardly letting us in the the door.  Being able to keep the bathroom trashcan on the floor, or throw paper towels and dryersheets away in the laundry room trash - but for now those things all feel very, very weird and I can’t help to think about him when doing any of those things. 

I will miss him visiting me in the bathroom looking for a hug as I sit on the toilet as he did every morning.  I will miss him begging when I’m eating anything.  I will miss him running to the door whenever I come home.  I will miss him getting a bisquit from the UPS man everytime he delivers a package.  I will miss him when I see other people with their dogs at the ballfield.  I will miss him the next time Todd and I go on a hike.

Hooch was  so much a part of everything in our lives that I know we’ll never, ever forget him.

Goodbye, Hooch… We love you January 30, 2009

Our beloved Hooch left us this morning. 

Truly the most awesome dog I’ve ever known.  I love my Bailey, but Hooch was extraordinary.  He loved everyone, and everyone loved him.  We always joked that if a burgler broke into our house, Hooch would lick him to death. 

Here’s our favorite picture of him from last March’s snowstorm that we used for our Christmas cards this year.

Bubbers, you rock.  We miss you so much already.

Back to work! January 29, 2009

Ok, not really – but I did go into the office this week, and so did Coop.  First we met a few work girlfriends for lunch near the office, and then we ventured in to see Mommy’s new office.  While I’ve been home they finished completely renovating our building and moved all my stuff to my new office on the opposite end of the building.  I have a TON of boxes to unpack when I go back for real!  The only real agenda I had this visit was to show Coop off, have a quick meeting with my boss to make sure we’re on the same page regarding when I’m coming back, and then get my laptop online to update my network password in order to restore my VPN.  We were there 2 1/2 hours – not including lunch!!!  Coop was an angel the entire time.  He fussed a little at the restaurant, but other than that was completly cool with being carried and passed around the office.  Then he ate while we met with my boss (bottle of course!) and was then wide awake to meet more people.  EVERYONE of course commented on his hair.  Everyone also asked the same two questions: 1) is he sleeping thru the night (uh, no – he’s only 6 weeks!) and 2) WHEN ARE YOU COMING BACK!?!?!

So Coop is 6 weeks old today, which means I had to go for my 6 week postpartum checkup yesterday (all clear!) , I am officially off leave and am now on vacation.  Thankfully my company has a very generous time off plan.  I’m only going to eat up 1/2 of my vacation time for the year – though I do have to accrue it month-to-month, so its going to be several months before I’ll have vacation time to take again!  I think it will be July before I’m out of the red!

I updated the post below about Hooch to now include the picture of his shaved belly.  Unfortunately Hooch has been very weak the past week or so, and the snow is not helping.  He literally has his feet slip out from under him a couple times a day and he wipes out.  He went to the vet on Monday where they did some bloodwork to determine he was not tolerating the most recent medication he was put on – so he’s been taken off, but we’re still waiting for it to work its way out of his system.  His bloodwork revealed his red blood cell count is ‘dangerously low’, but he is still eating his prescription food really well and still makes his way to the table to beg when Todd and I are having our dinner – so some of his spirit is still there and we hope to bring the rest of it back soon!

We’ve had quite a bit of snow the past 48 hours, and we’re supposed to get up to 2 more inches over the next 24.  Everything was closed yesterday due to a Level 2 snow emergency (except my doctor’s office!), and most of the schools are still closed today.  Todd was off work yesterday, so he felt better being able to drive Coop and I to my Dr’s appointment in the 4×4 Avalanche.  While I still have my Explorer, I wanted to save money when I got it by going with 2×4.  I don’t regret my decision – how often do you need 4×4 in Columbus?  But yesterday was one of those rare occasions, and Todd questions my ability to drive in the snow anyway…  I said to Todd as we were one of only 3 cars on a yet-to-be-plowed major road in Columbus, “Doesn’t this feel like we’re driving thru a deserted wasteland?”  It was kinda like a scene from “I am Legend”!  Thankfully we are babysitting Todd’s Mom’s snowblower right now, so we’re able to keep our driveway reasonably clear.

Speaking of snow and cold weather (which I’m done with BTW… I’m so ready to take Coop out for a spin in his stroller!) here’s a funny picture of our kitty Tiki hanging out in Coop’s room (apparently on a day that we had made a Target run for necessities!).  What you can’t see is that she’s on top of a heating register.  Um, the kid needs heat too, CAT!

But seriously, we’re ready for Spring.  Todd’s ready for softball, Coop and I are ready to get out and walk, and we’re ready to have the yard back so that Bailey will stop peeing in the snow on the deck!  Sersiously dog, you’re not that short – the snow is not going to hit you any less in the yard!!!

Oh what a night! January 23, 2009

Cooper only got up once last night!!!  I know I’m going to curse this by saying so, but has he decided now that he’s 5 weeks old that he only needs to eat every 4 hours?  Could it be!?  Yeah, I know I’ve just jinxed tonight…

Todd gave Coop his bottle at 10:15 and then I nursed him to sleep at 11 (Hey, I  had to watch Private Practice!  Why did they have to move it to 10pm???) getting him successfully into his crib by 11:15.  We didn’t hear a peep from him until 3:15!  I fed him, got him back down by 3:45 and then he slept until 7:15!!!  It was tempting, but I did refrain from peeking in his room to make sure he was still breathing… I’m quite sure he would have sensed my presence and an eye would have popped open.

Lots of folks have been asking about Hoochie.  His spirits are definitely up and he’s eating his new (and freakin’ expensive!!!) food up like crazy, but we think he’s still retaining fluid.  I didn’t mention before – he was quite bloated last weekend, so one thing they did do on Monday, in lieu of surgery, was to drain fluid that had built up on his stomach.  It took them an hour and a half to drain the fluid!!!  So even without surgery, as you can see, Hooch got a fabulous new haircut.  But we’re afraid that the belly is starting to come back – and the Doc though it may, stating another medicine may be needed.  His existing meds have been doubled and his diet has been severly limited – he eats prescription Venison & Potato dog food only.  This dog is used to getting the last bite of EVERYTHING, so its been hard telling him “No” as he drools through our dinner.  Todd accidentally tossed him a bite of pizza the other night and actually pryed Hooch’s mouth open to retrieve it and then gave it to Bailey!  It’s such a habit!  I also have to break it to the UPS man (who makes more frequent stops to our house than I’d like to admit!) that Hoochie can no longer accept the bisquits be brings him.  But all-in-all he does seem to be coping better and he goes back to the Vet on Monday for his weekly shots he’s now getting and hopefully we’ll see some weight gain.   We did see something this week we haven’t seen in a LOOOONG time – SOLID POOP!

Watch your mailboxes for Cooper’s announcements!  I finally got them in the mail yesterday – 5 weeks (given the holidays fell in there!) ain’t so bad, is it???

Update from a Slacker… January 20, 2009

We’ve had a couple of whirlwind weeks so I’ve been slacking on the blogging… So here’s the update!

Cooper had is one month checkup with Dr. Breen today – ONE MONTH ALREADY!!! He’s now 10 pounds, 12 oz and 21 1/2 inches. Todd and I think he’s starting to lose some his hair, but we’re quite sure the red hair will make a return if all he was born with falls out.  Doc was again pleased with all of Coop’s progress and quickly squashed any concerns and questions I had, assuring me that everything I was questioning was quite normal:  Cooper’s eyes will not stay crossed, nor his legs bowed.  Someday he WILL sleep through the night and not want to eat every 90 minutes.  I’m not ruining breastfeeding by giving him a bottle now and then and its expected that breastfeedng wears him out to the point that he constantly falls asleep while eating.

I have to say that breastfeeding is the one thing that my girlfriends and sisters didn’t completely warn me about before Cooper arrived…  I went into this totally believing it was completely natural and easy.  I honestly think that women block out the early days of motherhood…  Otherwise, who would have more than one kid?  When I start talking details with them and ask specific questions, then they say “oh yeah, I had that problem too” but they didn’t tell me about it until I was all stressed and broken down over it!  So once I got thru that first week of HELL and felt assured our kid was able to eat successfully, I then began to get frustrated not being able to know how MUCH he was eating, and being able to predict when he’s going to eat again.  At first he was like clockwork – every 3 hours.  Once he hit 3 weeks, things changed.  Again?  You want to eat AGAIN?  So a couple weeks ago we began to introduce some formula into Coop’s diet.  The first time was on a Saturday night when Todd was rocking him around midnight, after I had nursed him but then couldn’t get him to settle in his crib.  After 30 minutes of Cooper’s wailing, Todd said we were either going to give him a bottle of formula or take him to the ER – it was crying we had never heard before and Todd was sure something was wrong.  I somewhat reluctantly went down to the kitchen and cracked open a free sample of Similac we had received.  Cooper drank it down and slept until 4:30 am…  I haven’t been so reluctant since!  Now we work in one bottle of formula each night so we get at least one nice stretch of sleep.  We also use formula to feed him anytime before taking him out of the house.  It’s just too risky with breastfeeding - he may want to eat again before we get to the end of the driveway!!!  I’m in no way opposed to formula, but I just wanted my baby to benefit from breastfeeding for as long as I could support it.  It was a personal choice.  I always assumed I would buy a breastpump and keep it going until he was at least 6 months, if not a year.  Now I’m not so sure I’m going to make it to 6 weeks!  I have definitely made the decision that he will be off the breast before I go back to work.  Thanks to expansion at work I’m going to have a private office when I return and would have a convenient place to pump, but I just can’t see fitting it in with my typical meeting schedule, and to be frank, I hate it.  Pumping sucks.  (HA! Get it?)  So we are selfishly starting to transition from what is best for Baby to what is convenient for Mom & Dad, even though all the baby websites and breastfeeding message boards make me feel guilty as hell over it.  I feel truly, truly sorry for all of the women out there who desperately want to breastfeed and can’t.  I feel bad that I can and you can’t, but more than anything I feel bad about how guilty and insufficient society is making you feel.

So one thing that assures me that we’re doing okay with Coop is that he’s starting to smile.  When I told Todd that I got a smile the other day he said “it’s gas”.  Then a couple days ago Todd got a smile.  Of course he said “gas” again, but I know on the inside he thought it was pretty damn cool.  Most definitely cool to have your kid smile at you.

I mentioned in my last post that at 3 weeks I had already lost all my pregnancy weight - one thing I DO like about breastfeeding!  So last weekend I swapped out the majority of my maternity wardrobe for my standard wardrobe that had been packed up in the basement.  I didn’t try to put on anything right away, but a few days ago I had to get out of the house and felt a pair of jeans were warranted.  I was afraid, but sure enough I was able to get them up and even buttoned!  It felt nice to have real pants on for a change.

Well, Coop is starting to stir.  I just want to be sure to mention that our prior baby, Hooch, is in a lot of need of good thoughts and prayers right now.  He has been quite sick the past few weeks, refusing to eat and having non-stop diarrea.  After unsuccessfully trying various medications for allergies  and viruses from his vet, we decided to take him to Bailey’s vet for a second opinion, and see if our uneasy suspicions that something serious was actually happening to him.  Unfortunately there is.  He’s lost nearly 35 pounds in the past 6 to 8 weeks due to some issue with this GI tract.  He was supposed to have exploratory surgery yesterday to confirm exactly what kind of issue, but surgery was cancelled because he is not strong enough to get thru one.  The vet says he either has a very severe case of a GI disorder that is common in Rottweilers, or cancer of the stomach or intestines – neither of which are curable.  So he is being treated for the GI disorder, but it is just a mitigation, not a cure.   So please think pleasant Hoochie thoughts.  He is such an awesome dog and its just heartache to see him so skinny and feeling so awful.