sweet Abby

Oh where do I begin on this baby girl of ours!?

Two days after I passed my kidney stones, Friday July 15th, Abby got pretty sick. Everything was normal that day, a lot of laying around with mom. We went outside that night to look at a game AJ made and she then started acting all goofy. She laid under the deck in the dirt and was just not herself. We went inside for a while, and she was just pacing and being weird. AJ took her outside. He then came back in the house with his hand all red and asked me what Abby ate that was red. I freaked out, saying she didn't eat anything, that was all blood! I ran outside and couldn't believe all the blood Abby threw up. It was the biggest pile ever (I of course have a picture but would not do that to you!) Anyway, we called the vet. She said to give her pepto tablets so AJ went and bought some. The entire night she was just awake, feeling miserable. I took her to the vet in the morning. Her blood count levels were off. She had some intestinal infection and started to become anemic. It was a rough week. She was super weak. She had tried going to the bathroom outside, but was too weak could not get back up. Aj had to carry her back in the house. I am so glad he was there because me being pregnant (ok even if I wasn't pregnant) could not lift her! She had even fallen over in the hallway for me and hit her head on the wall because she was too weak. So for about a week and a half I nursed her back to health. We had to feed her while she was laying on the couch. We gave her water from a bowl from the couch. She had lost weight too which she was kind of skinny to begin with.

Finally she was back to herself again after 2 weeks. Until...

She was doing very well so we took her and Roy out on the boat on a nice Sunday afternoon! It was very hot out but felt great to be in the water. Abby can get fearful of the water, but with assistance getting off the boat and in she did it. Well after in the water she started throwing up foam. First we thought it was the heat. I had said we needed to take her back home. The whole time at home she was throwing up more foam and lots of saliva. She was crying and moaning super loud. She tried hiding places in the house- so not Abby. I called the vet, very nervous because Great Danes have a higher risk for stomach twisting and bloat. She said to try pepto tablets and if she didn't stop throwing up to come in. Well she didn't stop so we met the vet and Abby got a shot to try and stop vomiting. She advised us that if that didn't stop to call the Cedar Rapids Eastern Iowa Emergency Vet Hospital. So we did and ended up taking a trip to CR that night. Her stomach ended up twisting (a little less of the twisting, more shifting positions) then had the bloat. Bloat is when their stomach starts to fill with excess gas/fluid at such a rate that the dog can't relieve the pressure or keep up by belching or passing gas. 40% of cases this can be fatal.We were at the hospital a little before 8pm and at 10:30 we got to see her before she went in for surgery. At this time she was not doing a great job breathing. 11pm she went in for surgery. This was very difficult for AJ and I to wait. At midnight we talked to the surgeon. Abby made it through surgery and everything looked ok now. So we drove home and got back about 1:45 am. She had then developed aspiration pneumonia from sucking and breathing in all that foam. She was put on oxygen to help her breathe better. I got a call at 1pm Monday saying they weren't sure if she was going to make it because her breathing was not doing well and she was dependent at this point on oxygen. That was not the phone call I wanted nor expected. When we got there that night we didn't know what to expect. AJ brought her most favorite toy that she cannot live with out, her green football. We thought maybe they would wheel her in to the room to see us, but no.. she came in walking and came right up to AJ and took the football from him and walked around the room very proud!! They said she was doing much better!! The next day they said she was off her oxygen (from what I read in the reports after it said after seeing her owners she was more anxious and chewed through her oxygen line, therefore her oxygen was discontinued!! ha that is our Abby). So Tuesday evening we brought home our baby girl!! We then began the process of getting her all healed up. This time she wasn't as weak and could eat and drink on her own, thank goodness! She was put on 5 different medicines, it was a lot of work taking care of this girl!
This dog made July an interesting month for us, but we love her and so glad she is doing great now!
She used to be 113 lbs and now down to 99lbs, we are working on beefing her up :)

On our way home from the hospital that Tuesday night

Finally got settled in on one of the beds with her football!

Roy had to check her out to make sure his sister was alive and well!

This is how we spent our evening and days to follow...

She can even blow bubbles!

21 staples...

She is a little spoiled

Abby is back to her normal self, this picture clearly tells you how! This is what we came home to yesterday. I think she is mad at us for being gone so much at the hospital with her baby brother. She hadn't been kenneled for over a month, but she started back in there today!!

We still love her, so to end the night last night we took both dogs out on a long walk at the rock quarry by our house!

One Week Old!

Lincoln is one week old today. I can't believe it! This little guy has just melted mommy and daddy's hearts. We can't wait until the day we bring him home. Most likely that will be about 3 weeks, give or take. Here is a little recap of what has happened this past week:

Saturday Aug. 13: My contractions were super painful (for some days) but thought I should call labor and delivery and see what they thought. I had also just lost my mucus plug so they thought I needed to come in. I drove myself since we thought it would be a quick check. I got there at 7:30 pm and stayed for a couple hours. My contractions were about 3-5 min. apart. My cervix was still closed. They did another FFN test to see if I would go into preterm labor. I was given IV to see if hydrating me more would help. Then I was given a few shots to try and stop/slow contractions. This ended up helping so I was able to go home about 9:30pm. They said to call back if contractions got closer or pain started again. The nurse called me and said the FFN test was positive (3 days ago it was negative!!) Told me to be on bed and pelvic rest until my next appointment on Wed. Well an hour after I got home the pain was back. I toughed it through the night, not sleeping at all.

Sunday Aug. 14: I called the nurse at 7:50am and she said I needed to come in. AJ drove me this time, but dropped me off because he needed to finish some concrete work he was doing!(We laugh about this now!) I got checked and was dilated to 4+!! Holy cow I couldn't believe it. I was admitted, talked to my neo-natologist about all the complications of a preemie, given a steroid to help develop baby's lungs, given more shots to try and stop these contractions. The plan was to try and stop them and hopefully keep this baby in me till 36 weeks but would be on bed rest in the hospital until he arrived. It was kind of a long day dealing with contractions. My mom and AJ were there with me. I started having some really bad ones about 4pm which sent baby's heart rate down to 60 for about 2 min. then stabilized. This happened a few times. I was checked at about 8:30 pm and was at 6cm. I was given oxygen to help baby and me. Had epidural, broke water and was told was going to have this baby! 11pm started pushing but then stopped because just wasn't quite ready. My dad was in Florida for work, but my mom, AJ and his parents were there. My mom and his parents waited in the waiting room!

Monday Aug. 15: 1:40am started pushing with nurse and at 1:55am brought Dr. and everyone in. 2:16am Lincoln James Manfull arrived into this world with a nice loud scream:) 4lbs 6oz, 17 in. long. I couldn't hold him since he needed to get checked right away. I touched his leg then he was in the room for 15 min. getting looked over. Then AJ went with Dr. to the NICU with Lincoln.

How he is doing now: Great! He has lots of beautiful blonde hair! Last week had a breathing tube to give him a rest from working so hard, then had CPAP, then was breathing all on his own! Friday Aug. 18 started Bili lights and blanket for jaundice but as of today (Aug. 22) off that for now! AJ and I love to hold him during his feedings which is every 3 hours. So we usually hold him for 2-3 hours a couple times a day. I spend the night about every other night and am here all day. AJ comes after work and was here all weekend.
Saturday Aug. 20 we had a family baby shower and got some great things. Last night Danielle came over and helped us in Lincoln's room (we didn't really have anything ready because we weren't expecting Lincoln to come 9 weeks early!) I am not not as stressed as things are falling into place.

In order to come home: They said he needs to have 3 things mastered which are breathing on own (doing good!), holding his own body temperature (that's been good past 2 days but waiting a little bit to be in an open crib) and eating all on his own. Right now he has a little tube down his nose for breastmilk that I pump. The hard part can be doing all 3 of these things at once!

AJ made a video of his first 5 days but I am having trouble loading it on here so will keep working on it. Here are some pictures for now :) The little circle taped on his face is what his cool shades for the bili lights were stuck to!

October came early!

Lincoln James arrived Monday August 15th at 2:16 am. 4 lbs 6 oz, 17 inches long. Precious as could be.

More info to come later. He is doing well and making progress in the NICU. I finally got to hold him last night and have skin to skin contact for about 45 minutes- that was truly amazing.

down to single digits

Well here we are with 9 weeks left! WOW! He is going to be here before we know it. I am now getting anxious and just ready to meet him and cuddle him!

This last month has been a little interesting. Starting in the middle of June, I was having blood in my urine. I was put on antibiotics for UTI, however tests revealed it was never a UTI. So this happened again July 2nd. I was told to come in and get checked out and to make sure I wasn't having contractions. I was suppose to be on the monitor for 20 minutes but then that turned into about an hour and a half because I actually was having contractions. The doctor had thought there was a chance I had kidney stones so decided to do an ultra sound on my kidney and bladder. Nothing showed on that, but they can be small so they don't always show. So they said just to monitor things and I was put on antibiotics again.

Then a few days later, on our way home from the Ozarks I started having some back pain. The next day (Tuesday) the back pain was very severe and painful. AJ drove me up to Covenant. They said this had to be the passing of the kidney stones. I was in tears pretty much the whole time there because my back pain was so intense. I had to be have a test to see if there was a chance I would have preterm delivery. Luckily that was negative. So I got put on Vicatin...once that kicked in I felt so much better. However I then started throwing up the rest of the day and the next day as well until finally that Wednesday night I PASSED THE KIDNEY STONES!!! It wasn't overally big, a little smaller than a pea but oval shaped. And then had a few that looked like grains of sand. It's crazy how small these things were but yet caused soo much pain.

My contractions have continued. They were all painless until this week. They now feel very crampy in my lower abdomen and in my lower back. It is starting to be uncomfortable and the only thing that makes them feel better is a heating pad. Sleep has been horrible! I had to be checked again to make sure I wasn't dilated or having a chance of preterm later. That all turned out fine again so just have to keep an eye on things. Let's hope this lil babe can hang out a few more weeks in there!!



31 weeks!