I have news :)

It was a fantastic Mother's Day yesterday! I was able to enjoy most of it with the two loves of my life! And...Blaze has had a few really good days! He seems to be perking up a bit and getting back to his old self. He has even decided that it's time to rejoin us in the bed (which means, it's really his bed and we just have to take up whatever space there is left after he settles in, which isn't very much...at all!). We had lunch with hubby's family and then spent the rest of the day outside doing odds and ends in the yard (planting flowers, killing wasps, washing my car, mowing...) Now, if my Grandma could just stay out of the hospital, all would be really good!

I have also been keeping a bit of something from the lovely internet world, well mainly blogland. A will be getting a little sister or brother in November! Yay!! Complete surprise, but we are so incredibly happy! :) Now, to just figure out our space issue...our house is really small. Oh well, it will come!

Cloth Diapering is going well so far! I have yet to venture into putting them on him at night, because he is definitely a heavy wetter, but we will soon. I am still working on building up our stash so that I won't have to wash diapers every single day. And I am slowly figuring out which ones tend to work better than others (at least for us). We are incredibly happy with the Bumgenius 4.0's. I like the velcro best, but the snaps work well too (velcro is just a lot easier for my extremely active little boy). We also have a few Happy Heiny's...I am not too crazy about these. The velcro works really well, but the snaps, not so much. And of course, I have more snaps than velcro. They also seem to fit a lot more bulkier than any others. Not a big fan of that. But things are working well for us so far and hubby seems to even enjoy A's cute little colored bum :) So far so good!

When It Rains, It Definitely Pours

Things are really hectic around our household lately. Well, for at least the past week and half they have been. Our furbaby, Blaze, is really sick. He started acting strange the weekend before last not wanting to eat, not wanting to leave the couch, and not sleeping in bed with us (this is just craziness). After day 3 of not eating and barely getting off the couch, we took him in to the vet. He ran some in house bloodwork and gave us some medication to start with him and said we should see an improvement within 3-5 days. He perked up a bit the following day and was eating a little bit (but not his dog food). On Thursday of last week, things took a turn for the worse. My hubby had to literally pick him up off the couch to get him to go outside to the bathroom and couldn't get him to eat anything at all. The medicine he was supposed to take we had to put down his throat because he refused to eat what we had put it in. Another trip to the vet that afternoon. This time, bloodwork was sent off, a urine screen was done, and an ultrasound done of his lower half around his kidneys. We were given another type of medication to add to what he was already taking.

Blaze ended up having blood in his urine. The first day we took him to the vet we found out that he had severe anemia, really low red blood cells, and high white blood cells, which made the vet think he had an infection of some sort. We had to wait for the results from Thursday's blood tests.

Fast Forward to Monday morning when the vet finally called me to let me know part of what they found. By the way, Blaze is still very lethargic and isn't really eating all that much and only gets off the couch to go to the bathroom once or twice a day. So, the vet informs me that he is leaning toward Cushings Disease, which is a rest of his life disease that he would have to have medicine for. Which we can not afford, since the amount of meds he would require as big as he is would be twice the amount for a normal size dog. Which breaks my heart.

And I got another phone call today stating that they got the rest of the pathology results back and they are no longer worried about it being Cushings Disease, but that all signs are pointing toward cancer of the spleen or liver cancer...this is the news I have been fearing for a week now. I wish there was more that we could do for him, but our finances just can't do it. I hate that we have to choose like this, but we can't even afford to do a biopsy to verify which type of cancer it is. It actually doesn't really make a difference because we wouldn't be able to do anything further because Chemotherapy for a Great Dane would be astronomical. I can't even believe we are facing this right now. We have been through so much with this dog. He has been such a great addition to our family since before we were even married. He isn't even 6 years old yet. This is so incredibly hard to face right now...

Over this past weekend, we were supposed to celebrate my grandma's 80th birthday with the entire family in from out of town (state) and her closest friends and I get a phone call that she has been admitted into the hospital. They didn't know what was going on, but her bp was 90/50. And my grandma usually has high bp. Her blood count was also much lower than what it should have been which meant she was losing blood somewhere. So we all spent her actual birthday with her in the hospital on Sunday and took her cake to eat. They found out she had a bleeding ulcer...

Oh, and Aiden ended up having another double ear infection on Friday. Thank you tubes for doing your job. I know they don't totally prevent, but I was hoping for a little bit more reprieve than just a little over a month. No such luck...

If you stuck with that, wow. I feel as though it just went on and on. We are keeping Blaze comfortable right now and just letting him be and giving him all the love he deserves. Aiden is feeling much better. And my grandma is still in the hospital, for at least another night. Things might turn around soon...we shall see.

Cloth Diapering? Quite possibly

I am truly thinking about switching to cloth diapers. Everything that I have heard and been told makes it seem pretty easy. The whole getting started is what is a little intimidating to me. I know it's going to take a bit to build up a stash of cloth diapers, but I want to be prepared. And dang it, disposables are ridiculously expensive! We are looking ahead at hopefully having #2 and of course any extra money we can save would be a huge help right now. And obviously, cloth is much better for our wonderful environment. If I can just get my hubby on board :) I actually already mentioned cloth diapering to our sitter and they seem to be okay if that's what we choose to do. They just want to make sure they know what to do. Well, all but one is apparently okay with it. There are three different sitters at A's daycare throughout the day, so the one that isn't okay with it doesn't really matter much :) So, apparently all I need to do is start stocking up on everything and get the ball rolling! I'm a little nervous, but I guess I need to just jump into it. Wish us luck! By the way, sorry it's been a while since I posted, life has been kind of crazy lately. And my little man takes up my evenings with his cuteness :) And...A's molars have broken through on the bottom and he is getting a couple other teeth now too! We have been a bit fussy with the teeth. And...A got tubes put in his ears in March. He was having ear infection after ear infection and double ear infections. So, we finally got him to an ENT specialist and had tubes put in on the 14th of March and we haven't had any issues since! His ears are healing up nicely and all seems to be well with that now! Yay! Lastly, I may begin teaching colorguard again this summer, which makes me extremely happy :) and will help with the finances lol. We will see...the guard that I used to direct is in dire need of assistance since someone else took over and the band director would really like to have me come back in to hopefully get them straightened out before it's too late. If I could go back and be the full-time director again, I would, but that would mean sacrificing the precious little time I have with A and I am not willing to do that. Until next time....hopefully with some good news!

And so it begins...yet again...

I took myself off BCP's. I was having issues with them anyways. I don't think my cycle was ever where it should have been even when I was on them. That's definitely not a good thing I don't think. I informed my Dr. of this back in August, but he didn't seem to be too concerned about it. We switched my pill at that point since I was pretty much done breastfeeding (yes, my cycle started way before I stopped bf'ing). I was still having issues. Lots of spotting throughout my cycle and then when it came time for AF to show, it lasted only about a day.

At this point, I haven't had AF since December. And of course, pregnancy tests show BFN. Hubby is pretty much convinced I am pregnant, even though I keep telling him that I am not. But there is always that little bit of, 'but what if I am' looming in the back of my head. It makes me a little nervous because A just turned a year old a month ago, but I know that we need to be thinking about number two now. Heck, my Dr. wanted me to start trying again back in August! (that thought just scared me a little too much..lol)

I keep thinking, what if we have to go through all of the pain yet again. What if I have to go through another surgery (it's quite possible)? I'm not sure if I am up for all of it again. I have someone else to think about now other than myself and hubby. And he is my everything. Definitely the light of my life. He makes me smile even when he decides his new wake up time is 5:50am (all weekend...).

It's nervewracking. Hubby is ready. I'm still undecided because all of the pain and struggle is still fresh in my mind. But we aren't preventing it. If it happens, it happens and I will be ecstatic. Lord only knows what the future will hold...

A year old....

Tomorrow....the 5th....my baby turns a year old. My little man. And what the little man he is becoming :)

The Word "No"

Is apparently the funniest word in our household at this moment. A is into EVERYTHING at this point and even though we have baby proofed most things, there are still items that I feel he needs to learn not to touch. I mean, I can't put protective barriers around everything. Especially since our house really isn't that big.

A is learning the word "no". However, when you tell him no, he literally thinks it's hilarious and will crinkle his nose up and start giggling and then go right back at what he was doing. Whether it be trying to pull up on the trash can, playing with the dog food bowl, or sticking the dog's ball in his mouth (yummy, I know). However, the other night we had a little bit of a breakthrough. While at Nana and Papa's house, he was messing with something on the coffee table (a decoration) and Nana and I both told him "no" at the same time. He looked at me and immediately got tears in his eyes and stuck his bottom lip out. Of course, it literally lasted all of 2 seconds and then he was back at it and decided the word "no" was funny again.

Oh well, I am sure it will sink in one of these days. I have tried yuck and ouch also to try to get his attention, but they don't seem to work either. Like I said, I am sure we will figure it out one of these days.

On another note....A refuses his sippy cup while at home. He will drink from it at the sitter's, but will not at home. I also don't think we have any desire for juice. I have been trying and trying and trying and he just isn't having it. I have tried several different sippy cups too. The one that he seems to respond to the best is the N.u.by. Any suggestions?

I am ready for the Holidays. Basically I am just excited to be able to see family and for A to see family he hasn't seen in a really long time. And, we downgraded our vehicle this weekend. We will be saving quite a bit on our monthly payment and also our insurance! Yay!! We needed the little bit that we are saving. Times are tough and they don't seem to be getting any better at this point. It's literally one thing after another...but we are making it! And enjoying every minute with our little man!

A's First Halloween!

Hope everyone had a fantastic Halloween! I know we enjoyed every bit of it with camping and lots of trick or treating!

I'm pretty sure my little Scarecrow enjoyed himself too :)