Whelping!

Posted on 04/02/2012 by Jenny

Kate’s pups began arriving at 6:30 AM this morning.

Grandma Kat was awake most of night with Kate, giving her backrubs and trying to ease her through the uncomfortable early part of labor.

Scott and I arrived at Kat’s this morning, and got to see the 5th pup (male, red sable coat, 13 oz) born. Scott headed for work, I stayed until early afternoon. Then I headed home to get cleaned up for visiting Elizabeth.

We expect there is a 6th and possibly 7th puppy inside yet. Kat has been discussing with Dr. W and Kate may get an assist for the last of the pup(s). Kate is a very good mama dog, careful of her feet and very attentive to the pups. The pups are strong and healthy, and of good size, 13 oz – 15 oz. 3 boys and 2 girls, I think.

Update – Final count was 5 pups. Vets office recounted the xrayed pups and decided 5 was it. Kate and pups are healthy and well. Kate is eating lots, pups are nursing lots. Kate is attentive and careful with her pups. She hides them if too much attention is paid to them so Kat and Floyd are keeping the whelping room very calm and minimal handling of the pups. Scott and I are very proud of our Kate.

Posted in Dogs | 2 Comments

Elizabeth Graduates to the Big Room

Posted on 03/31/2012 by Jenny

Kate has been showing signs of impending labor. Her appetite was off yesterday morning and this morning. Kat has been taking her temp frequently as the temp tends to drop shortly before whelp begins. Kat’s also keeping an eagle eye on Kate as the temp is not always a reliable indicator. Kate’s official due date is tomorrow, so we could hear that she’s in whelp any time now. We know she is in good hands with Kat.

Bing continues to enjoy his ‘single dog’ time. One of the new things he’s developed for his cutie-boy repertoire is a new way of begging for a Mother Hubbard cookie refill of his Kong Goodie Bone. Tonight he grabbed a bone and started rooing and throwing the bone around while eagerly wagging his tail and soliciting eye contact. Yeah, you know it worked. After ‘working the crowd’ (Scott and I) for several minutes and making us both laugh (hence the shaking), he got his refill. He appeared delighted with himself and did a victory lap with the newly filled bone between his jaws.

Good corgi dogs.
(Video is about 2 MB)
BingGoodie

Elizabeth Katherine was two weeks old yesterday, and has regained the weight she lost after delivery. She is back to 3 lbs 14 oz yeah! The time went by ridiculously fast – I’ve been home for about 10 days and we’ve settled into a routine of sorts. I had my first c-section follow up yesterday and Dr. is pleased with my progress. She reminded me to take it easy, nothing over 10 lbs, no vacuuming or anything other than light housework. Walking encouraged. She said the night sweats are normal and will probably continue through breast feeding, ick. The scar is itchy. Also had the follow up appointment to have the stent removed. That was less enjoyable but glad that suckers out of me. We’ve got the x-ray of the stent inside of me, I’ll have to see if it can be scanned, kind of cool. Dr. offered to let us take the stent home, we declined. He seemed a bit surprised we didn’t want to put it in the baby book <grin>.

Today held a couple of changes for Elizabeth Katherine. Her feeding schedule changed from every four hours to every three hours. She was also moved from the ‘small room’ in NICU where the babies are usually two to a nurse, to the ‘big room’ in NICU where the babies are three or four to a nurse. She’s still receiving an excellent level of care by virtually the same nurses. In fact her nurse tonight was the very nurse that cared for her in the first hours after her delivery. The nurse not only remembered Elizabeth Katherine and Scott from those first few hours, she remembered details of my problems and commented on how well I looked. She also exclaimed at how much Elizabeth Katherine has grown. So while we’ll miss the intimacy of the ‘small room’ we have no concerns that the care will be anything less than extraordinary.

We arrived at NICU just before the nursing staff was going to move Elizabeth Katherine, so we could not hold her right away. Instead we stood at her incubator singing and talking to her, and just touching her. Her eyes were open and she was very alert. She started fussing a bit in the incubator but settled when I sang to her. I’ll have to pick up some more appropriate songs for when she develops a vocabulary – Child ballads and murderous pirates might be too bloody for her as a toddler <grin>. She seems to like Stan Rogers a lot, and ‘Field of Oats’ by The Corries.

It is startling to see how tiny she is when our hands are beside her in contrast. Scott’s hand could easily cradle her back and body, while my hand appears enormous next to her head. Her ear has a tiny fold in the top curve that I find myself wondering whether it will remain as she grows older. I noticed this evening that she doesn’t have eyebrows, and that her hair color has changed again – I can’t decide if she’s fair or dark. I recognize hair and eye color change from the newborn colors – fun to speculate, though. I hope she enjoys something closer to average height – 4’11” isn’t any more convenient than Scott’s 6’2″ when it comes to cars and clothing <grin>.

After her incubator was moved to the ‘big room’ Scott did Kangaroo Care with Elizabeth Katherine while I worked on letters. Okay, I sort of worked on letters and mostly gazed fondly at my family. Elizabeth Katherine snuggled into Scott’s chest and I listened to her soft contented little sounds between Scott’s hushed whispers. I was proud of how easily Scott soothed her when she started fussing towards the end. She was stretching and wriggling and getting set for a nice satisfying bawl, Scott dropped his voice and crooned and stroked and she settled very quickly. It was lovely to see, and a good omen for our future.

 





Posted in Baby, Dogs | 2 Comments

Kate’s Gravid Belly

Posted on 03/29/2012 by Jenny

Kate went to the vet and then her breeder yesterday. At the vet she got a belly x-ray for a puppy count. She’s due to whelp on April 1st.

Creepy and cool at the same time. How many puppies do you see? Dr. W says 6, all about the same size, no giants, no pee wees, facing more or less the right direction (two pointed north instead of south but they may turn during delivery).

All looks good according to Dr. W.

Posted in Dogs | 2 Comments

Hello Toes

Posted on 03/27/2012 by Jenny

I can see my toes again. They reappeared rather unexpectedly Friday before last. It is nice to see them again however wish they’d waited to make their reappearance until May.

Short-ish version. I woke early Sunday 03/11/2012 with nauseau and a stomache afire. This has happened a couple of times during the pregnancy so I didn’t think much of it, just tried the things that had worked to calm the pain in the past. Chalked it up to pregnancy heartburn and nausea.

About 5 hours later Scott took me to ER as the pain had grown substantially worse, worse pain ever kind of worse (not worse pain I can imagine worse, just worse pain I personally have ever felt worse).

I was in hospital from 3/11 through 3/20, scared the hell out of myself, Scott, and friends and family. A gallstone the size of a buick, a cranky right kidney, a catheter, a stint, lava piped in from Hawaii straight into my veins (they claimed it was potassium but it felt like liquid fire to me), lots of exciting pain medications and a shiny new baby girl.

Scott was my advocate, protector, helped control my pain when the meds weren’t doing it and medical decision maker. I was out of it for most of the period with pain and pain medications, not capable of making good decisions. Dear friends stepped in and took on Bing and Kate so Scott could focus on my care, other friends helped in numerous ways, helping watch over me in the night (the pain med required pushing a button every 10 minutes) and caring for me so Scott could catch a little (very little) rest.

Things started getting grim, the doc’s couldn’t do the normal treatments/diagnosis paths because of my belly full of baby. Thursday 3/15 night the decision was made to do a C-Section and get Elizabeth out while she was still doing well and before I slipped any further.

Elizabeth Katherine Anderson was delivered by C-Section on Friday, 03/16/2012 at 1:35 AM, 16″ long and 3 lbs 14 ounces. Scott was at her side shortly after delivery. He reported she was pulling off sensors as fast as the nurses were applying them <grin> That’s our spunky girl.

After delivery the docs did more medical stuff to me and I began to mend. Once the C-Section has healed I’ll have the offending gall bladder removed, soonish I’ll have the kidney stint removed too.

Elizabeth will be in Newborn Intensive Care Unit until about May (her normal delivery time). Elizabeth is doing very well, and at about a week and a half old is already down to just a feeding tube down her nose. Scott, I, or Joanne spend time with her daily in ‘Kangaroo Care’. Visitors are tightly restricted (germ reasons) and there is no viewing window so we’ll have to rely on photos to share her with you until she comes home in May.

What do we need? Cloth diapers, help with household chores and cooking, transport to/from hospital for Jenny (no driving until off the pain meds), and oh yeah, cloth diapers for Elizabeth.

We are so very grateful for the incredible and unstinting help from friends and family. we are humbled by the generousity and willingness everyone has shown to pitch in.

Posts will be sporadic and brief. We are working on preparing the house for EKA and recovering from the ordeal.

Posted in Baby | 3 Comments

Baby Registry stuff

Posted on 02/26/2012 by Jenny

We’ve kind of been in denial about the whole Baby Registry thing. We didn’t register anywhere when we got married, and I think we were kinda thinking that we’d get away with that this time too.

Not so much.

Anyway, we looked at a couple of things at Sears today, plus would LOVE help with acquiring about a gross (hah! I love using that term in connection with diapers) of cloth diapers.

We’d prefer cloth diapers over anything else. Either the old fashioned rectangular cloth ones – get them from a local diaper service, NOT Toys R Us or the other big box stores (Big Box stores we have discovered carry inferior cloth diapers – don’t waste your money). We’ve heard rumor that a local diaper service is going out of business and selling used nappies for a buck apiece. Cool.
(Update 3/29/2012 Tidy Tush Diaper Service has inexpensive second had cloth diapers. They can be reached at 748-1250 www.tidytushalaska.com)

If you’d like to get fancy diapers, we’ve registered for yuppified cloth diapers at Arctic Baby Bottoms
http://www.arcticbabybottoms.com/registry.htm?rgid=17&rguser=aralynne

Along with the diaper theme, a week of laundering service by Mrs. K’s Diaper Service would be very helpful (we provide the diapers, Mrs. K launders them – yeah!). And inexpensive at only $15/week.
Look for ‘Laundry Service’ under ‘Additional Services’:
Mrs. K’s Diaper Service www.mrskdiapers.com/index-1.html

We registered for some bigger ticket items at Sears. We would like to get our hands on a Jenny Lind crib – I’ve been keeping my eyes on Craigslist but the Sears registry is the backup plan.
(Update 3/29/2012 The car seat has been purchased and more eyes are searching for a Jenny Lind crib. Also – apparently Sears won’t ship the Jenny Lind to Alaska, go figure)
http://www.sears.com/shc/s/grlist_10153_12605_900040807640010101

Update: We’ll need some baby gates. This looks like a really good product. It’s clear plastic instead of mesh or wood slats which makes it stronger and safer for the dogs. It is also made in the US which makes us very happy. I’ve seen these at Once Upon a Child on Northern Lights Blvd. http://www.northstatesind.com/index.cfm/event/productview/id/116/catid/7

More soon.

Posted in Baby | 1 Comment

More virtue

Posted on 02/15/2012 by Jenny

Still warm weather. The chicken run has thawed slightly, releasing the inevitable pungency. Hovering around 30 is too warm – I’d love to see the temps drop to the low – mid twenties and stay there for the remainder of winter. I don’t get a vote, though.

The snow removal crew came thru. Streets are two lanes in our neighborhood again and the circle has less snow (we got another dump shortly after it was cleared).

The dogs have been playing ‘king of the mountain’ on the snow dumped from the roof. They can just see in the kitchen window and seem to delight in their new found height.

Both dogs are in dire needs of de-funkifying. Sheep herding Saturday was messy. I’ve gotten the car blankets washed (much less farm yard like) but the dogs have escaped their fate. At this point we will probably wait until Sunday.

The purged books have left the house. Titlewave took a few but weren’t interested in most of them. They say the hard covers don’t move well these days. I took the remainder (45 hard cover, 80 paperback) to the Anchorage Senior Center and got my charitable donation receipt.

Charitable donations – I used a nifty online tool (www.itsdeductable.com integrates with TurboTax) and plugged in our many donations for 2011 (lots of purging, remember?). We donated over $800 in items last year according to the tool. It was easy to use. Set up your charities, then select the charity, enter the donation date, and enter your items and quantities and condition. Jeans in medium condition were something like $7 each. It was gratifying – what a geek.

Tonight was 2011 taxes, cleaning the fireplace, reorganizing the laundry closet, cleaning the bathroom, and loading the dishwasher. Scott prepared dinner, cleaned up the dogs destruction of a couple of cow-pots, and picked up groceries and prescriptions. Virtuous!

The fireplace will need more cleaning before it’s fit to install the tv set. I removed the worst of the ash, pulled the firedog, and wiped down the metal surfaces. Still plenty of fine ash to make a mess of the tv. I looked like a chimney sweep when I was done, and will have black beneath my nails for days. It was fun.

Scott is working on scheduling a cable tech to come out and activate another cable drop and move it to the fireplace area. I think this weekend we will make an attempt at fabricating the structure to support the tv in the fireplace.

Moving the tv is a major hurdle to getting the marmalade room cleared so we can paint, replace the flooring, and move into the room. I am at 6 months now so am anxious to get this done!

Posted in Baby, Dogs, House | Comments Off on More virtue

Roof, muscles, and effort

Posted on 02/11/2012 by Jenny

Hartley and Jimmy cleared the snow from our roof yesterday. Our house is a ranch, footprint with garage is 36×50 more or less. Snow was quite deep, guessing 2 feet or more and the snow closest to the roof was heavy granular junk.

We’d watched as the neighbors cleared their roofs but two things, three things, really decided us. 1) Our neighbor whose intelligence and smarts we respect did his; 2) The chicken run roof was really bowed by the weight; 3) It’s not the likelihood, its the consequence.

Hartley and Jimmy showed up with shovels, big muscles, and a willingness to expend a fair amount of effort over a brief period of time. Took them two hours working hard and steady. They were very accommodating with our requests (please don’t block access to the chickens, leave a walkway to the house, clear a foot or so in front of the garage door so we can sandbag before breakup). We sent them home with eggs and beer in addition to their modest charge. It was worth every penny to have someone with bigger muscles take care of the work. I’d like to think that Scott and I could have gotten the job done but we certainly wouldn’t have it taken care of in two hours. We would have been too tired to do the ground clearing that Hartley and Jimmy did after.

The roof looks weirdly naked and a little indecent. Like a proper victorian lady clad in a cocktail dress. The snow piles are most impressive and oddly exciting. This evening Bing and Katie tore around the front yard in sheer corgi glee, high centering and careening around corners and over mounds. If they had a mind to, they could easily scramble up one of the snow piles and over the fence. We’ll keep an eye on them when they go out over the next few days in case that thought floats through their devious lemon brains.

Weather is still warm – high 20’s which is a great relief from the -10’s we’d had for several weeks previously. The days are noticeably longer. Breakup is still months away. We’ll see crocus in late March/April, by May parts of the backyard will be clear. I’m afraid the snow piles are going to take their time to melt, though.

The snow to the right of the house is nearly roof height. Whuf.

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Diaper Registry

Posted on 02/09/2012 by Jenny

If we can acquire about a gross of diapers, we’ll have enough to subscribe to a diaper laundering service for $15/week instead of washing our own nasty nappies.

We are registered for diapers with Arctic Baby Bottoms.

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Last Chance Books – Gone this weekend

Posted on 02/08/2012 by Jenny

The great book purge is more or less done.

We’ve finished going through the bookcases, and have posted all of the discards to PaperBackSwap. 209 books left to get rid of, we’ve already shipped or given away 60 or 70. Wow! I am so proud of us!

This weekend we are taking our discards to Title Wave.

This is your last chance. If you are family/friends take a look at our PBS lists. Email us if you want a book we have listed, we’ll give it to you.

Jenny’s PaperBackSwap list

Scott’s PaperBackSwap list

209 books to go (plus a double stack on the hearth of books to read…)

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Warm and sunny

Posted on 02/06/2012 by Jenny

Scott cleared the chicken roof this weekend. The snow was not only deep, it was very dense.

We took a closer look at the roof of our house and are thinking perhaps it would be prudent to shovel our roof as well. 

The mighty Scott also shoveled the drive and re-cut the snow steps down to the house. The snow steps are really keen. The snowpack is deep the drive and yard are a couple feet above the house walk and step. It’s going to be ugly come breakup. I’ve threatened to sandbag the garage door but the more I consider gravity and water, the less outlandish it seems.

We also completed weeding the final bookcase. Woo hoo! I need to post a dozen or two books to PBS. We’ll give them a few days, and Saturday we’ll delist the books and haul them down to TitleWave. What TitleWave does not want we’ll share with Bishop’s Attic or the Senior Center. It’ll feel good to have that big task off the EKA to-do list.

Next on our hit list is the DVD bookcase and perhaps prep-work to move the TV to the living room. The DVD’s got out of control during our Friday night pawnshop routine. They’d have all these cool looking movies for $2 or $3 bucks…

I’m going to really miss having a separate room for the TV.

I surprised Scott Saturday by installing the under the cabinet toaster oven bracket we picked up at a thrift shop a few years ago. Scott wanted to avoid putting holes in the bottom of the cabinet so I had to honky hack an alternate installation. I drilled 4 small shallow holes in the vertical bits under the cabinet. I used that to mount a shelf  in nearly direct contact with the true cabinet bottom, then used that to mount the under the cabinet toaster oven bracket. Hah! My carpentry is amateurish so don’t look close.

It was a very very busy and productive weekend. We have all been invigorated by the fine weather and longer days. 25 F when I got home tonight, glorious blue skies, and still very daylighty outside. The moon was full and large, hanging low in the sky just over the trees. Gorgeous.

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