That's just crazy talk!

Today my little bean is 10 weeks old! He's no longer a little bean and is now the size of a grape or a prune (depending on what website you look at). I'll still call him my little bean. :) My week by week development website says that his bones and cartilage are forming, and small indentations on the legs are developing into knees and ankles. His arms (complete with elbows) can flex already. His stomach is producing digestive juices, the kidneys are producing larger quantities of urine, and, if he's a boy, he's already producing testosterone!

I've been feeling a little better in the morning sickness department. It still comes and goes but a lot less than before. I'm still extremely tired all the time but this little bean is well worth all the morning sickness and exhaustion. On Wednesday I have my very first doctor appointment and I cannot wait!!! It has been extremely hard waiting this long. I will feel much better when I hear the doc tell me everything is a-ok!

I sure love my little growing bean but s/he is sure making me tired and keeping me up all night. Last night I swear I laid awake almost all night. I feel like I maybe got one hour of sleep. My eyes are burning and I’m going to have a massive headache later. Last night has been the worst so far but most every night I lay awake half the night. I’m exhausted but I just can’t sleep because I can’t get comfortable and my mind just won’t shut off. Oh what I wouldn’t give for a full night’s sleep!!!!! Maybe soon that will happen… Either way, s/he is worth it. :)

So the vet called me today to tell me Winston’s test results and everything came back great! Yay! What a relief. She said we still need to watch him and video tape him if his new behavior continues but the test results were normal. She said if it continues he could have a neurological issue we need to look into but after talking to her I’m thinking it’s not neurological. She was talking about how some dogs are obsessive with lights which made me think… A week or so ago I was playing with a light on the ceiling, walls and floor with Winnie (kind of like a laser). He just loved it. She said that some dogs get obsessed with the lights or lasers and even when you’re not playing with them anymore they still try to find the lights. So she is thinking/hoping that he just got obsessed over the light and is still trying to find it. Or if he sees any other random lights (from a car driving by or something like that) he goes after those too. So, we are hoping that’s the case which would mean he’s just obsessive and wierd, but that’s ok. She said we should try to distract him with toys and bones. He gets all the bones he wants but there is a lack of toys in our house right now because he destroys everything in .2 seconds and leaves quite a mess. But it’s better to buy toys and keep the pups happy than not have any because it’s a pain to clean up!

So Winston was off to the vet again yesterday for the 6th or 7th time this year. This time he has an eye infection. The vet thinks that all of his problems over the last year are all just rare occurrences, that he’s just been very unlucky and nothing is tied together. The first few times at the vet were normal appointments – he got his checkups, shots and then he got neutered. After he got neutered his balls got infected. After his balls got better then he developed a rash around his “you know what”. Then he got an ear infection (which is common for golden retrievers). And now he has an eye infection which is not common. He’s also acting very strange for the last few days. I’m hoping it’s just because his eyes were infected and he’s seeing things but the vet took blood to run tests to make sure he doesn’t have epilepsy or is having seizures. It’s hard to explain how he’s acting and the vet asked us to video tape it so she can see exactly what he’s doing. Ever since Friday he has been obsessed with the coffee table. He won’t stop sniffing the top of it and he darts his head to the ceiling or the floor and just stares into space. Then sometimes he randomly bites the air – like there is a fly and he’s trying to catch it and he does that over and over again. And he is obsessed – sniffs coffee table, then stares into space (like he’s concentrating on something) then bites at the air. He did this almost ALL day Saturday and Sunday. He doesn’t stop to rest and he doesn’t want to pay any attention to me or Phil. Usually he’s always bugging me to play with him or bugging Vader. But now he’s way too involved with whatever he’s doing to do anything else. He won’t even sit on the couch with me anymore and he always sat on the couch with me. He doesn’t even whine to go outside potty anymore or whine around supper time because he’s hungry. Something has majorly changed and Phil and I are quite worried. We are hoping it’s just something to do with his eye infection – like he’s seeing something because there is crap in his eyes. But the vet thinks it may be epilepsy or that he’s having seizures. Not all dogs have seizures like you would picture. Some will just randomly bite the air repeatedly like they are trying to catch a fly and they will be unresponsive if you try to call them. Winston is sometimes completely unresponsive and other times he will listen but you have to raise your voice. This worries me but the vet also mentioned that it could be a new puppy thing that he’s doing and there could be nothing wrong – which is why she wants to see a video. But she was worried because it’s a dramatic change from his usual personality. I won’t hear back on the blood results until tomorrow. I’m just crossing my fingers and hoping that nothing is majorly wrong. He’s my baby!

Winston decided to scare his mother half to death Sunday afternoon. And the story goes… Phil wanted to go over to the farm to shoot his gun (you can’t shoot a rifle where we live) and he wanted me to go with. So, I figured since we were going to the farm I’d bring Winston like I always do. Then he can play with his brother! On our way to the farm Justen said that there were already a bunch of guys out there shooting. We pulled up, got out of the car and walked about half way over to where everyone was and then the first gun shot went off – Winston was gone in an instant. Tail between his legs, scared and gone. I figured he just ran up to the house so I didn’t go searching for him immediately. About 5 minutes later after I said hello to the boys I went to go find him to put him in the shop with his brother. I could not find him anywhere. I walked the entire farm a few times and went in every shed/barn that he would be able to go into and nothing. At this point I was pretty ticked at him but I figured he wasn’t far away. So I drove over to the neighbor’s house almost right across the road and they said they hadn’t seen him but they’d help look. We then went to the other neighbor’s house and didn’t see him there either. A few minutes later we had 5 or 6 cars driving around the section looking for Winston. After about an hour I started to panic. My worst thoughts were that some weirdo saw him trotting down the road and picked him up and decided just to take him home. I had a feeling though that he wasn’t taking the roads and that he headed straight in the opposite direction of the guns. The opposite direction is a field and then about a mile up are some woods. And guess where we found him, hours later – in the woods covered in mud. Man I was happy to see him! I even let him jump on me and get me all muddy. We have come to the conclusion that even though golden retrievers are hunting dogs, Winston is not. I’m so thankful for having such great neighbors and friends to help us look for him. If it weren’t for them we would have never found him in the woods. :)

Alright, so you want to know the real reason why I haven’t been blogging much? Well, it’s because… I’m pregnant! Yes – 9 weeks today. :) Phil and I are very excited! This will be our first baby and s/he is due September 23rd (one week after our first anniversary). Well, pretty close to that date. I haven’t been to the doctor yet so I don’t have a date from him but I’m assuming I’m right on or within a day or two. I guess lots of doctors don’t want to see you until you are about 10 weeks. So, I have an appointment scheduled at the end of the month and I’m very excited. The first few weeks of the pregnancy was easy-peasy but once I hit 6 ½ weeks I started to get morning sickness. Some days are worse than other and I feel nauseous all day long and others I feel ok with a little nausea on and off. Almost all food sounds gross so it’s really hard to find something to eat. I’ve come to realize that I need to eat before I even get out of bed, I need a snack about an hour later and I basically need to snack all day long. I can’t let myself get hungry or too full otherwise the nausea hits pretty bad. I cannot wait until this part is done! And I also can’t wait until food sounds good again. I used to love eating and now I hate hate hate it. I don’t even want ice cream. Crazy talk. So, there’s my news. :) Hopefully I’ll be blogging a bit more now that I can talk about what’s going on in my life. Here’s my 8 week belly picture. Not a very attractive picture but I’m already popped out a tiny bit!

Today marks 9 weeks so here is my 9 week picture too. Definitely popped out more since 8 weeks.

You know what I think? I think my friends need to blog more. Yes, I know, I have not been very good myself at blogging lately, however, I’ve still blogged more than all of them put together. I would like something to read people! The reason I haven’t blogged much lately is because I don’t really have anything to blog about. My life is rather dull at the moment. One exciting thing that’s coming up is that Phil, Justen, Ashley and I are going to AZ in about a month to visit my grandpa. I’m excited because I’ve never been there and it will be nice to get out of the cold. I know, I know, this winter hasn’t been that cold and we are lucky – blah, blah blah. But it will still be nice to get out of this 30-40 degree weather and get off the plane to 80 degree weather. :) I know my grandpa is excited for us to come visit. He’s pretty lonely these days. He said he’s got a bunch of places to bring us to. Should be fun! That’s about the only exciting thing I have going on atm that I can fill you in on. Maybe I’ll have something better to talk about soon…

P.S. I will say this again – my friends need to blog more.