Q: What happened when Lassie’s pup ate a slice of honeydew?

Posted on December 3, 2009 by SP

A: She became a “melon-collie” baby.

This was the joke on my honeydew-hibiscus Hint water the other day and seems fitting. I’ve been melancholy for the past few weeks.

I think it’s all just kind of hitting me. Last year on October 28th, I found out that I was pregnant. I soon became really sick and by mid-November had lost over 5 lbs due to hyperemesis. I kept thinking it was a good sign because it meant my hormones were high. I was in the hospital the week before Thanksgiving last year and put on the Zofran pump to control the nausea and hopefully allow me to keep some food and water down.

The hardest thing to wrap my head around is that last year while in the hospital I had our baby growing inside of me. I had an ultrasound and saw the baby’s heart beating. That was the last time I would see that. We didn’t know it, but the baby stopped developing very soon after that hospital stay. I had no signs for miscarriage and went until December 8th thinking that everything was okay. Thinking that we were going to be parents. Not realizing that it was over. Then a routine ultrasound showed no fetal development and all of a sudden it was over. (Well, except for the nausea which lasted another 5 days.)

On December 10th it will have been a year since I had the D&C that officially ended my first pregnancy. I’ll admit that it still hurts. It’s not a constant ache and I’m fine for the most part, but it hits me suddenly sometimes. My due date was a really hard day for me. Appointments with the OB/GYN can be hard. Every negative pregnancy test hurts. (I thank god for Tara and booze those days.)

I know I’ll be okay, but sometimes it’s a bit much. I feel like my life has been placed on hold. I can’t make plans because I don’t know when I’ll be pregnant or when I’ll have a baby. I can’t start grad school. My control freak self is going crazy. I like to have a plan. I just want to make it to December 11th right now. In my head time is crawling to that date. Once I make it there I can dust myself off but for now I’ll just pout.

Alternate title for this post: “It’s my blog & I’ll have a pity-party if I want to”

Posted in miscarriage, Would you like some cheese with your whine? | 2 Comments

Yikes

Posted on September 24, 2009 by SP

We leave for Paris in less than 28.5 hours! I’m really excited, but have a lot to do today.
On the list:

  • Pick up prescriptions from Target
  • Type up puppy/house care instructions for your wonderful friends/puppy sitters
  • Go to our bank & take cash out then go to Wells Fargo & get foreign currency (we need British pounds, euros, and Danish kroner)
  • Find the money we have left over from other trips
  • Possibly return a jacket at Gap (if time)
  • Call the credit card companies so they don’t cut out cards off while we are in Europe
  • Get alarm codes for the puppy sitters
  • Get my eyebrows threaded
  • Buy another suitcase so we don’t have to take the big duffel bag
  • Finish packing
  • Spend as much time as possible with the girls before we leave
  • Give the girls baths and have them get pissed off & ignore me for a while (this will give me time to finish packing)
  • Clean the house, which I have destroyed in the past couple of days while doing laundry & packing

I gave up on finding boots & figure I’ll look for some while I’m there. I do need to get some flat black shoes, because I can’t wear my Chucks everywhere, but I doubt I’ll have time to look for them.

I guess I should get started. I’ve been laying in bed petting Zoë for about an hour. I’ll try to update from Europe!

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Leaving on a jet plane

Posted on September 15, 2009 by SP

The rest of this year is going to be a lot of fun. We’ve got a trip to Europe (4 countries in 17 days!), then a trip to Japan, and finally Dan & Tara try to make things kosher with Jesus. There is also possibly a trip to New Orleans for Dan’s bachelor party in there somewhere. I’m going to force my way into the bachelor party because dammit, I’m the groomsgirl.

I’ve been planning, planning, planning for weeks (okay months) now and everything is booked except for the Kyoto leg of our Japan trip. First the details from our Europe trip. We begin in Paris and have rented a gorgeous apartment in the Montorgueil area. (Click on “Large Pictures” to see all 21 photos.) I’m looking forward to finishing the things on my Paris list while we are there and Misha is looking forward to eating a lot.

In Copenhagen we got a really good deal on the Ascot Hotel. I don’t have a huge list of things to do in Copenhagen, but Misha has a huge restaurant list. He had a reservation to Noma before we had a hotel or flight there!

Once we get to Amsterdam Misha goes back to work. We are staying at the Eden American Hotel because that’s where his coworker stays. I didn’t really like Amsterdam the first time we went, so I haven’t really planned much. I am going to go to the Anne Frank House and plan on eating frites at Chipsy King & pancakes at the Pancake Bakery.

London is our last stop on our European tour. Ah London, I love London. Not as much as I love Sydney, but I am glad to be going back. I have lots of plans and love the hotel we are staying at. We have a room at the Hotel Indigo at Paddington station. I got a really good deal on the executive king room (girl not included) for the days we are paying but couldn’t get the same deal for the days work is paying for. We are in a double room for those days. I get to have fun while Misha is at work during the day, so I’ll get to go to museums that he would find to be boring.

Now briefly, on to the Japan trip. Dan, Jeremy, and our friend Matt are all going with us. We will start in Tokyo and are staying at the Hotel Monterey Hanzomon (There’s a moat around the hotel!). We leave and go to Kyoto for 3 nights. I’m not certain yet where we will be staying while in Kyoto. We would like to stay in a traditional Japanese inn, I just have to locate one… We finish out the last few days back in Tokyo. I’ll probably post more details on the Japan trip (or not knowing me) once I’m back from Europe.

Posted in vay cay | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Again?

Posted on September 1, 2009 by SP

Dear Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar,

We get it. You’re fertile. Enough already.

Sincerely,

Season (still TTC #1)

Posted in things I wish I could say, Would you like some cheese with your whine? | 2 Comments

For Aunt Sue

Posted on September 1, 2009 by SP

Here are a few new pictures of Zoë the terrible before and after her haircut. She’s huge! She weighs ~ 25 lbs now!

This was taken in early August

This was taken in early August

Misha dropped her off for her first groom  a couple of weeks ago. I was sad because all of her baby hair is gone. I miss the black fringe on her chin! When I picked her up from the groomer she was apologizing because she wasn’t able to finish her face. Zoë was over the haircut and decided she wasn’t getting any more done & this was the best the groomer could do. It looks a little less Dallas now.

Sad puppy after getting her first haircut

Not at all impressed with mom and dad or the stupid haircut.

She was so distraught she cuddled with Baby for comfort. (Maggie is in front of her.)

Please Baby, don't let them leave me anywhere again! I promise, I'll stop biting your collar & having you drag me down the hall!

Please Baby, don't let them leave me anywhere again! I'll stop biting your collar & making you drag me down the hall! I swear on my nylabones!

She had a bad reacting to the grooming. The vet said it was either from her ear hair being plucked (OMG, ouch!) or having drying powder put in her ears. Either way her ears were really sensitive & she wound up at the vet the next day. She got 7 day ointment put in her ears & was a very greasy puppy. (I think she just missed the vet techs!)

Playing cute at the vet's office.

Playing cute at the vet's office.

Misha had a bachelor party to go to on Saturday night and Zoë was very sad that he wasn’t home. She decided to mope around and I found her in our bedroom laying against Misha’s pillow.

Getting ready to fall asleep on Daddy's pillow

Getting ready to fall asleep on Daddy's pillow

The saddest puppy in the entire world.

The saddest puppy in the entire world.

I’ll take pictures next time we go swimming. I didn’t think it was possible, but she loves to swim just as much as Isabell did.

Posted in my girls | Leave a comment

Baby updates

Posted on August 27, 2009 by SP

I get to pick her up at 4:00. At first the vet thought she might have had another seizure, but it doesn’t look like that’s the case. He said dogs normally have coliform bacteria in their systems but stress can cause the level to rise & result in diarrhea. They did a urine test too & found white blood cells so they think that she might have a UTI.

I have to wait until 4 to pick her up because she got some diarrhea on her fur and they had to give her a butt bath to clean it off. If you know Baby, you know she is probably humiliated right now. She gets very embarassed over butt baths and won’t even look you in the eye after she gets one. I just hope they are telling her how pretty she is!

Nasty Baby

Posted in my girls | Tagged | 1 Comment

FML poop edition

Posted on August 27, 2009 by SP

I woke up at 6:45 to the smell of poop, and realized with the smell that strong it had to be a big one. I figured Zoë had another accident but no… There was regular poop then there was a circle of diarrhea. FML. The dog that poops in a circle is:

sad Baby

When ever Baby does something bad, like pooping or peeing on the floor she will continue to pee because she’s nervous. So this morning I had 4 big spots of pee on the floor which just confirmed that it was Baby.

Misha called the vet and he is dropping her off today. I swear I keep them in business. She’s feeling really sick and really guilty even though I keep telling her it’s okay. I’m fairly worried because when I was cleaning up the pee the towels had a reddish-brown color on them. I hope my carpet is just dirty, but we’ve been here before and it was blood in her pee. I’ll do a Baby update later.

Posted in my girls, Would you like some cheese with your whine? | Tagged | 2 Comments

Well, hello there.

Posted on July 21, 2009 by SP

Yeah, it’s been a while. Have you missed me? I’ve missed you. You look lovely. Did you get a new hairstyle? No, wait, it’s your weight! I knew it! Well, you look amazing! Yes, yes, it’s good to be back.

Wait, never mind, only 6 people read this… although I could come up with a million (really super) excuses for not blogging let’s just move on, shall we?

I will say that I’ve started numerous posts but haven’t completed them. Some were too painful to write and others that I just can’t seem to get around to.

I could write a post about someone dear to me who is going through a divorce and her (thankfully soon-to-be ex) husband is acting like a… wait for it…wait for it…this is going to shock you…like a fucking tool.

I need to write a post about commencement (Did you know that my mom & the boy came down & surprised me?) but there’s so much to write about.

I could do a post about how stupidly hot it gets in our house but that’s changing (hopefully) come tomorrow when we get new insulation & gables fans!!! (Hurrah!)

I could do a post to complain about how my French class @ Rice got canceled & the one @ HCC was such a joke that I dropped it to save myself $400.

I need to do a Zoë update (the girl is already tying her shoes and was thisclose to her first pregnancy scare) and a travel trip post (We’re about to go around the world, yo!)

However, I think today is a good day to get all of the heavy emotional shit out in the open. Perhaps my motivation will come back after that. I’ll actually do the post during the day. I need a stiff drink before I start and 2am is not the right time to start drinking.

*Did you notice how I made everything into separate paragraphs? Doesn’t that make it look bigger? It almost looks like a real post!

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Brokedown puppy

Posted on June 12, 2009 by SP

Zoë got spayed yesterday and had to stay overnight. We were able to pick her up at 10am and I have spent the entire day saying things like, “you can’t jump on that! Don’t you realize that you’ve just had surgery?!?!” and “Damn it Zoë, stay down and leave your sisters alone! You can’t play, you just had your uterus removed, now sit down!” and “Stop licking your tummy! I need new contacts and can’t tell if you are licking the surgery site!”

For about 2 hours she walked around with an e-collar on because I was tired of her licking. I am glad that we had her spayed though. I’m too young to be a grandma (and am not sure if I could handle the dog getting knocked up before me) plus I don’t think Misha wants his puppy out whoring around.

Meanest mom ever.

Meanest mom ever.

Posted in my girls | Tagged | 3 Comments

A happy memory

Posted on May 29, 2009 by SP

There was a post on my old birth board today that actually made me smile. I don’t know why I go to the July board, but I can’t help it. Today they had a post titled “How did you tell your SO that you were pregnant.” It made me think about how I told Misha back in October. I don’t think I’ve posted about it yet.

Last October 28th was a crazy day. I had stayed up almost the entire night writing a paper for my comparative revolutions course and was exhausted. I was supposed to meet the president of PAT to work on our flier at 5pm but he was late as usual. I had to leave about 20 minutes after he got there and went home. Misha was in LA so I was on my own for the night.

When I got home (around 6:30) I realized that I was due to start that day and decided to test. I was on the phone with Misha while I did the test and could not believe it when I saw the faint line. I was in total disbelief. It was really light so I drank a bunch of water and I did another test. There was another faint line but by then the line on the original test was a little darker.

I was so excited and so was Misha although he sounded like he was in shock. I hung up the phone and a little while later he called me back. He spent some time driving around just absorbing everything and was really excited. We were so happy and hopeful and even though it ended 6 weeks later with a miscarriage, it’s still a nice memory to have. With the way Misha is traveling right now I may have to tell him through text message next time!

Posted in Adventures in pregnancy | Leave a comment