Today marks 23 weeks - time flies! Or at least it's flown since the start of the second trimester. Before that time stood still, or at least that's how it felt!
Baby boy is moving a lot these days. I've been feeling him since about 16 weeks, but it started out as tiny movements that were inconsistent. I'd feel something I
thought was the baby, but couldn't be quite sure, and then there would be nothing for a while. Gradually the movements became more noticeable, and couldn't be passed off as something else. Now I often feel him moving from the outside, and my hubby has been able to feel him a lot too. On a couple of occasions I've actually been able to
see movement, which is pretty bizarre I must say. I didn't expect that to happen until much later. Every so often there will be a fleeting little bulge, it's pretty crazy but amazing at the same time :)
We cleared out the baby's room last week, but so far we haven't bought any nursery furniture. We'll obviously need a crib, a dresser and probably some kind of chair too. We've bought lots of adorable little clothes, because I couldn't resist. Honestly I've been buying stuff for quite a while now, just a couple of little things at a time. I was surprised when I got all of the clothes out, because there was a lot more than I thought! We got some great little things last weekend, all 40-60% off. We've only bought one set of newborn things, because newborn is supposed to fit until 8 pounds and we think it's fairly likely that he'll be needing 0-3 month clothing rather than newborn. If we're wrong and he does need newborn stuff, we can buy it at the time.
Now onto the non-baby-related stuff! Our foster pug, Kineta (KiKi), was adopted at the weekend! She'll have a great life, we're very happy for her. Our pair of fosters, Lilly and Milo, who we've been fostering since March 2012, are also adopted! They leave on Saturday. A lady from Canada was interested in them and decided to make them part of her family. She has two female French bulldogs, so I'm sure they'll have a lot of fun! She's driving about 1700 miles to pick them up, and then of course driving back with them. That's dedication! We'll miss them a lot, of course. They've been with us such a long time - 10 months - and it's impossible not to get attached really. However, we know they're going to have a wonderful life and it's not like we could've really kept them anyway. With the baby coming, 2 sets of vet bills are enough!
I was asked to take a 12 year old male pug as our next foster, so we're picking him up on Sunday. I'm sure he'll probably be a long-term foster too, 12 years isn't what most people are looking for after all!
When I took Lilly and Milo to the vet yesterday, I ran into the mom of one of the other volunteers. She was there with a 10 year old black male pug who we just got out of the shelter a couple of days ago. He has numerous issues, so I stayed while they examined him. He walks funny, so they did a spine X-ray and he has a chronic issue where the joint space between 2 of his lumbar vertebrae has gone. That's not something we can change, unfortunately. On top of that, he has really inflamed/dirty ears to the point where the vet couldn't even look in one of them because the dog wouldn't tolerate it. He's also very skinny, will need to be neutered and needs a dental - badly. His skin is a bit flaky, but I think with good food that can be resolved fairly easily. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, he gets around fine and has control of his bodily functions. He's perky and seems fairly happy.
Anyway, I offered to take him home with me as the woman who was fostering him works really long hours and he's likely going to need a lot of attention, not to mention a lot of vet visits. We live about 5 minutes from the vet, but her mom had to drive 30 minutes each way. She wasn't concerned about that, but since the dog had blood-work yesterday and the results weren't available until today (they just now called, actually), I thought it was a bit mean for her to have to come back for medication again today. Also, the lady who's in charge of the rescue is coming to our house on Saturday so I thought it would be good for her to see him for herself. I know a tough decision might have to be made.
As for now, his blood results show slightly elevated kidney enzymes - it could be caused by infection, or it could eventually turn into kidney failure. He has elevated white blood cells, so there's an infection somewhere (we knew that!). His glucose was normal though, so no diabetes. We're going to go ahead and try him on antibiotics, steroids and pain meds and see how he does. I have a feeling once his infection is cleared up he'll do much better. I just don't think he's a lost cause yet, he still has a strong appetite and seems to want to live. If any of that changes then I'm aware it might be kinder to let him go. It's a tough call to make, though. I'm glad it's ultimately not my decision, really.
I'm going to incorporate fish oil and coconut oil into his diet, give him a bath and use oatmeal conditioner on him, and see if that helps any. I know he won't have a complete recovery, but I think we can help him have a decent quality of life. Even if he only has a couple of months left to live, at least he'll know love.
