I have to admit that the last few days have been a little bit tough. Not only do I have a brand new puppy who I am trying to monitor 24-7, but John is gone, well, nearly 24-7. Okay, so he isn't actually gone that much, but he's unavailable that much. He leaves each evening around 5:45 for the hospital and comes home each morning around 8:30. He tries to hang out with me and talk to me but by 9:30 is dragging and makes his way to bed. Yesterday, I laid down next to him in bed. Folks, I did not know it was possible to be sleeping and snoring in just 4 mere seconds, but JB proved it was possible. And usually, he doesn't even snore! The guy was out before I could even lay down.
He has been waking up around 4:30pm. This means that he is actually home all day with me but sequestered in the bedroom. It's a good thing our house is solid as a rock and he has earplugs to sleep through the whining and barking of our dog and the chirping of our bird. We've got a little zoo going on here now. JB hopes to have his fish tank up and running soon too.
Anyways, at 4:30 he usually eats, well, cereal, since it is sort of breakfast time for him and then heads back to the hospital.
Last night he called me about 10:30 and informed me that it was a "dead night". He said he finally felt "awake" for his night shift and had successfully flipped his sleep. He seemed so relieved to have some down-time. Compared to the night before where they were so pounded and had two very difficult deliveries, he was ecstatic! I hope the rest of the night followed suit. I haven't heard from him
Scrubs also had a good night. He went out at 10pm, 2am, and 6am -- nearly 4 hour increments. Yay!!! Yesterday he also failed to have any accidents at all. We have an appointment at the vet tomorrow. I think the hardest thing right now is "bite inhibition". "The book" said that that this reaches a peak during months 3 and 4 and will then be able to be trained better but right now, he just doesn't seem to get the difference between the bone and my hand. Any advice from fellow puppy owners?
Scrubs having a good night meant Wendi had a good night. I was blessed by an invite to Matt and Tiffany's for dinner. Tiffany made a FANTASTIC Thai meal. It was awesome! I didn't stay too long as I wanted to get the dog back out again and turn in early, but it was still wonderful since my choices were mac & cheese or some grapes back at my house.
It's now 7:22 a.m. and I just got back from a great run. I'm a little concerned as my right knee is causing me a little discomfort when I am running. I'm not sure why, and quite honestly, haven't had a chance to talk to my "doctor" lately (i.e., JB). Hopefully this isn't anything big. I'd be so bummed if now that I can run, I can't run. (Did everyone follow that?)
My headaches are also doing considerably better although I am still struggling with some bouts each day. Please keep this in your prayers. I think my body is just adjusting after four years of so much medicine. I just need to get back to being Wendi-without-drugs, and I think the headaches will go away as well. I am not taking any medication for these headaches. If I need something, I drink a Mountain Dew, otherwise, I fight through them.
Oh, another very random tid-bit to throw in there. My blog got it's 60,000th hit yesterday. Anyone want to claim responsibility?! I wasn't even paying attention to try to see if we could find the winner. Oh well. I have a feeling Josh will try to claim responsibility. It just seems like something Josh would do.
I put another post below this with some puppy stuff. I have a feeling that'll dominate my blog for a bit. Oh well. I like my puppy! Seriously, he has been the best diversion for me. I don't know what I would have done this last week without him here. It is such a good distraction and helps me to forget about infertility stuff. Thanks again wonderful JB.
4 comments:
Our boxer was a play biter at 12 months, when we got him. Nobody had ever trained him to not do it. He never hurt us, but he couldn't distinguish what was ok to bite and what wasn't.
We always made sure to have LOTS of toys, so that anytime he attempted to bite US, we'd say "No, no", then quickly shove a toy in in his mouth and PRAISE, PRAISE, PRAISE him for gnawing on that! It took maybe a week or two and he realized that chewing on toys got him LOTS of attention. Chewing on US did not. He still chewed on a few other things that didn't make me happy (new leather boots, antique chair, several pairs of flip flops, his bed), but we learned that boxers need LOTS of toys to distract them. So off we went to buy lots of doggy toys. It's worked like a charm for us.
I don't know how your doggy is, but our two REALLY respond to what we call "lovies". (Just lots of scratching behind the ears and sweet attention.)
Thanks Funky. We are doing this. We have these "kongs" stuffed with treats -- if he chews enough, he gets a surprise. Dalmatians too respond to praise. We give that big time for everything (Every bathroom use gets a treat.) I think I am going to try what you are saying and encourage him to bite on his bone more. Although the book said a dog has to do play biting to understand what is too hard. All of this is hard!!! ;)
It also helps to have doggie "playdates" so they can learn about the biting too hard from another dog. Also no tug of war games (ie: w/rope toys) seems to help.
Ingrid
My mom's puppy bit a lot and we heard that if you say "ouch" each time he bites you, he will eventually stop. They don't want to hurt you and this will make them feel bad. That's all I know about puppies!
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