This week in a nutshell...

There never seems to be a dull moment in the Ninneman household...(and that's probably not going to change anytime soon.)

MONDAY:


I got done with work a little early on Monday since it was Halloween and the kids I nanny for were going trick or treating with their parents.  I left work at about 4:30 and walked in the back door of our house at about five minutes to 5:00pm.  As I was unlocking the door, I heard a very disturbing sound... Marmaduke coughing profusely, struggling to breathe and throwing up.

When I left in the morning Marmaduke was fine.  My neighbor Kim came over to check on him and let him outside to do his business in the early afternoon and didn't notice anything wrong.  A million things were running through my mind and I was so scared that something was terribly wrong!

I had to talk myself into staying calm so that I could find the phone number for the vet in my phone.  I found the number, called and asked if there was still a Veterinarian there- there was- but they don't normally take appointments so late in the day- I explained the emergency- they told me to bring him in right away!

Moving as fast as I could I grabbed a leash, got Marmaduke in the car and headed to the Vet across town.  I called Luke on the way and told him what was happening. I was panicked and in tears, but I felt a lot better as soon as we got there and the technician was calm even though Marmaduke was still coughing, and struggling to breathe.

Shortly after we arrived the Vet came into the room and examined him, asked me a whole bunch of questions and said that he had a bad case of Kennel Cough!  What?!?! I know he's been vaccinated against this...twice!  I wasn't totally sure about the diagnosis until the Vet explained to me that the vaccination for Kennel Cough only covers 5 out of 9 strains of the illness.  He had all the symptoms (is around other dogs on a regular basis) of it including a fever.  Poor Pup :( He definitely had it.

Thankfully, Kennel Cough is not life threatening unless it goes untreated or in really young or small dogs with small nasal passages.  It is on the other hand extremely painful and uncomfortable and very contagious- to other dogs, cats and birds.  The vet gave us two different medications, one to treat his cough, and the other to treat the infection.  It wasn't a cheap visit, but worth every penny to know that our favorite pooch was going to be okay.  Thank goodness!

Monday night was a long night for us. Marmaduke was miserable...poor guy.  We did our best to comfort him when he was suffering bouts of coughing throughout the night, but there wasn't much we could do besides snuggle him.  Luke was on duty for the first half of the night, and the second half was all me.  With two babies expanding the size of my belly it was difficult to lean over to the foot of our bed and love him up, so I ended up sleeping the wrong way on the bed so that I could be close to him... and we all spent most of the night awake. Good training for the months to come I suppose...



TUESDAY:

Tuesday morning Marmaduke was still in pretty rough shape, and I felt awfully guilty leaving for work and leaving him home alone.  I got to work, drove Henry to preschool and then drove home right away to check on Marmaduke- I expected to find him still feeling terrible, but to my surprise he was doing much better then when I left a couple hours earlier. I was home for about 45 minutes and I didn't hear one cough which was terrific progress.  I returned to pick Henry up from preschool, and then headed back home to hang out with Marmaduke, have lunch and let Henry play (He loves coming over to our house to play with "new" toys).  While we were there Marmaduke did cough a few times but nothing like the night before... and really I think it had more to do with getting excited because Henry was there- they are good pals.

So, needless to say Tuesday night was smooth sailing compared to the night before.  What a relief to have a puppy on the mend.

Tuesday I was craving stir fry (beef and broccoli) so at some point during the day I went to the grocery store and bought everything I needed to make it- I thought about just ordering it from the local Chinese restaurant but you just can't beat homemade stir fry... and I hadn't made it in a long time.

I got done with work and headed home,  I had all my ingredients (beef, broccoli, onion, mushrooms, carrots, water chestnuts, seasonings and rice) walked in the house set the bags down on the kitchen table and said hi to Luke after a long day apart.  I wasn't really in the mood to cook anything because I was so tired, but I was going to tough it out regardless, until... Luke opened the silverware drawer to grab a spoon to dish out some wet dog food to mix Marmaduke's medicine with... He opened the drawer and out flew a slimy greasy yucky black mouse which jumped/ fell onto the kitchen floor and ran in a crack between our kitchen cupboards and dishwasher.  Luke gasped, I screamed and then I shoved the bag of groceries into the fridge bag and all and said we were going to the diner in town for dinner and decided I would cook stir fry for dinner at work during nap time the next day.  I don't like mice, especially when they poop in my silverware drawer (and who knows where else) and I wasn't in any mood to deal with it.  We had breakfast for dinner at the diner and it was delicious, and I made stir fry at work the next day and brought it home and ate with plastic silverware that wasn't contaminated with mouse poop.

We have yet to see the mouse, or catch it in a trap.  Our cats haven't caught it either (that we know of anyway).  I thought about bringing our foster cat Maggie (who is currently living on the front porch) in for the hunt but decided against it because our house is still contaminated with Kennel Cough- which is very contagious and can spread to cats... and Maggie is old (14 I think) and she was recently treated for an ear infection so I know her immune system is still recovering from that and she probably wouldn't handle being sick again very well.  If that mouse is smart it took a hike!

WEDNESDAY:

On Wednesday I attended my very first Le Leche League support group from Mom's of multiples (twins or more) who are nursing (or planning to nurse) and it was great!  I am so glad that I went, I feel so empowered!  I actually witnessed women who were able to successfully breast feed two babies at the same time (I was told it could be done- but seeing was believing).  I am so grateful to have this resource available in my community.  I wasn't the only pregnant lady there- there were several... and most of them were much further along than I- which also gave me some insight on just how gigantic my belly is going to get in the next few months... This group was a great place to meet other breast feeding mom's, ask questions, get answers and support.  I have obviously never nursed a baby before in my life- but I am determined to do so, to nurse both of our babies, and I know that it's not going to be a piece of cake.

One really important thing I learned about breast feeding this week is that I have to stay positive if I am going to be successful... even when it's not going well. This means that you, as my family and friends need to help me by supporting my decision to do this- especially when I am struggling and I want to give up, that's when I will need your support the most. Don't try to talk me out of it... okay?!  Or my crazy hormones may take over... just ask Luke about that...

I still have a lot to learn about breast feeding, but I intend to learn as much as I can before the babies arrive so that I can be well informed and well prepared.  It seems really simple and really natural if you think about it and I think that inevitably it will be, but I plan on pumping and storing milk too so that when the babies get a good grip on breast feeding we can introduce bottles as well and put other people to work so they can bond with the babies and I can get some rest.  If anyone has any words of wisdom or suggestions on books or videos they really liked I would definitely appreciate the advice.  Just keep it positive... or else!

THURSDAY:

Thursday's are the days that I volunteer at Steven's kindergarten class in the morning during literacy hour, so I spent the morning there while Henry was at his preschool class.  The kids are so much fun.  Some of them asked me if I was the Disco Dancer who came to visit their class for the Halloween party, and still wanted to know if the wig I was wearing was my normal hair! HA! They are so silly.  I am so glad that I have the opportunity to visit Steven's class every week- I like to know what the kids are working on and learning so we can continue working on those things at home.  I am really going to miss going there when I am too fat to walk and when the babies arrive and I am busy with them- but hopefully I'll be able to make it through the month of March... I hope.

Thursday night I came home from work and Luke surprised me with candles lit and (not raw) sushi :) which was awesome.  We used to eat a lot of sushi (Thanks to my very dear friend Janelle who taught me how to make it and save a ton of money doing so) but since becoming pregnant I have to limit my intake of all fish so we haven't had it much.  That was a really nice surprise and a nice treat- I didn't make dinner twice this week... well 3 times actually because one night we had leftovers!  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy cooking it's just tough to do when you don't have the energy, especially when you don't get home from work until 6:30-7pm.  I have a much better experience cooking dinner ahead of time at work in the afternoon and bringing it home...

FRIDAY:

Friday was pretty low key.  Steven came home (which is always difficult when it's a Friday week rather than a Thursday week- the one extra day is so nice to have to spend with him ) after school and I got a kick out watching him and Henry play football with all of the 8,9, 10, and 11 year old boys in the front yard at my work.  I sat on the porch, started writing this blog entry and watched them play.  At one point I think there was about 12 boys out there- eventually they managed to throw the ball into a car parked in the neighbors driveway... it didn't damage anything but it must have hit it just right because the alarm started going off... and all of the boys took off running to the backyard... I knocked on the neighbors door and explained what happened and they turned off the alarm- then I explained to the kids that they should have taken responsibility for what happened- sheesh!  At least nothing was broken.  Soon after that it started getting pretty chilly and the little boys wanted to go inside and play so we headed in.  Henry's dad came home shortly after and then Steven and I headed home.  When we got home, we ate dinner, Steven played with some of his new birthday gifts and we capped the night off with a couple games of UNO (I actually won one this time) read some of our new books from the book order and went to bed.

SATURDAY:

That's today!  We finally were able to have a slightly lazy Saturday morning as soccer ended last week (until spring anyways).  I slept in until 8:30am which was so nice while the boys built Legos and played downstairs (I'll have to get up early tomorrow...ugh) took a shower and got ready to take Steven to gymnastics.  Auntie Michelle (my sister) met us at gymnastics and watched Steven's class for us today so that Luke and I could go to a class called "The art of safe baby wearing".  As you can imagine I was thrilled, and Luke was less than thrilled- but inevitably we were both glad that we took the class.  For those of you that are unfamiliar, baby wearing is "wearing your baby"not "what your baby is wearing".  The class focused on slings and wraps and backpack style carriers to assist parents in holding their babies... which will be especially beneficial to us with two babies and a busy 6 year old.  I was already familiar with the Ergo baby carrier and the Moby wrap

Moby wrap

Ergo carrier

but I was definitely unfamiliar with some of the other options that are available- such as the Kangaroo Korner and the Mayan Wrap sling.

Kangaroo

Mayan Wrap Sling

I looked on craigslist for the Kangaroo Korner and found a great deal on a used one that we are going to have shipped from Minneapolis this week, and I would still like to find the Mayan Wrap Sling used if I can.  Some of these baby wearing contraptions are better for certain ages than others, and some babies prefer one over another so we want to have options for different ages and stages.  

The Ergo we plan on getting two of (but we really want to get their newest "performance version"which we tried today and includes every improvement you could possibly ask for compared to the earlier versions so it's really unlikely we will find it used) will be great for hiking and camping and going places we can't easily bring a stroller.

The Moby works well for little babies that aren't too heavy- and you can put two babies in one Moby at the same time (when they are little).  We already have one of these that we bought awhile back on craigslist, but might consider buying or borrowing another one once the babies arrive if they really like it.

The Mayan Wrap Sling apparently is the best option for breast feeding while wearing your baby and the kangaroo is a good option too.  Both can be used for little babies through the time that the kids are too heavy to carry around- which is awesome!  

So we learned all about our baby wearing options, got to try them out and hopefully we will both feel very confident when the time comes to use them :)  if you weren't familiar with "baby wearing" before I hope that I have helped educate you with my recent education!

After our class was over, Autnie Michelle and Steven met us at the store where our class was held (Happy Bambino) and from there Michelle headed home and the three of us headed to Delafield to meet Luke's Dad and Step-Mom (Bob and Lisa) for lunch to celebrate Steven's birthday since they weren't able to make it to the family and friends party last weekend.  We had a really nice visit and a nice lunch and Steven was thrilled to open another birthday card and more gifts... and shucks I just realized that I completely forgot to take any pictures :( boo me what was I thinking?!  Guess what? Steven got MORE Lego's... imagine that! :)  

After we finished having lunch, we went to Target so that Steven could spend his birthday gift cards which were burning a hole in his pocket... he picked out some more Legos' and an Optimus Prime costume from the clearance Halloween section.

Next we headed towards home but stopped at the outlet mall in Johnson Creek, I had to get a few things from Motherhood Maternity and then we made a quick stop at Toys for Us (as Steven calls it) so he could spend his gift card (from Uncle Matt and Auntie Cindy) for that store... he picked out a bumble be transformer Lego guy (the character he was for his Halloween party at school) and another BeyBlade top.... and he still has money left to spend!

We stopped for treats at Culvers (Steven likes Oreo cookie topping mixed with blue sprinkles) and headed home- ate some dinner, relaxed, Steven worked on his new Legos and Luke watched the Norte Dame football game (they won) and then Steven got ready for bed we read some more new books and tucked him in... then I finally had time to finish this :)  

Now I'm going to bed- and hoping tomorrow we will do something fun and mostly uneventful, maybe we will catch the mouse- that would be a great event! :)