So, this past weekend I got my first taste of what early parenthood will likely be. However, I didn't experience this with a baby - no..that would have been too easy. I had this experience with a 75lb Boxer Pup named Buckley (so no shushing, swaying, swaddling, or any of the other s's here)!
My brother (Buckley's owner) was working the night shift on Christmas eve and his girlfriend was at her parents house with lots of kids and what not so Buckley could not stay there. Since J would come to my parents house on Christmas morning, it was appropriate that Buckley stay with them (where the rest of us were).
Since there were three dogs at the house (mom and dads, ours, and buckley) we had them all crated in different rooms. Buckley was in the living room and was the first to realize we were home after church. Dad took him out one last time and then put him back in the crate for the night. The problem is, Buckley doesn't like the crate (not one bit) and he proceeded to wail and bash himself against the crate as soon as we left the room.
Well, we all went to bed while Buckley cried. I figured he'd cry it out and be done with it (Macie's like that sometimes - if you just ignore it she stops). The hours pass and Buckley continues to wail. He'd cry and pound on the crate for 20 odd min and then stop for 20 min. Pound for 20 and stop for 20 and the cycle continued for hours. During all of this, I'm trying my best to sleep (DH was out like a light thanks to NyQuil - boo!) but just felt awful that he was so upset (so awful that it was making me nauseous to the point I considered getting up to vomit). Finally, around 4am I couldn't take it anymore and decided to go down with him and see if sleeping by him would make a difference.
I curled up on the couch next to his crate and stuck my fingers thru the holes to let him know I was there. He quieted down but only for a few min. I could hear him getting worked up again (he's a short nosed dog so when he's stressed he snorts and breaths really fast and it's super super loud! I thought he was going to hyperventilate himself.) So, it appeared the proxmity was not working so I decided to pull him out of the crate and try to get him to lay down and snuggle. Yea, I want to see you force a 75lb down to lay down and then try to snuggle with him - all while protecting the protruding baby belly!.
Anyways, long story short, nothing was working. I contemplated calling J at work to see if his voice could calm the pup but refrained (I did text him and ask if there was anything I could do to make B feel better). DH even came down to see where I'd gone and offered to stay with the pup instead (but I was so awake that it didn't matter - told him to go back to bed because one of us needs to be coherent in the AM:) ). Finally, I remembered that my bro always laid on the couch with Buckley watching TV. So i figured, what the heck, it's worth a try. I leashed him up and led him into the TV room where he promptly laid down and waited for me to turn on the TV. Little stinker!
At this point I was wide awake. Since I wasn't sleeping and Buckley wanted the TV on, I rented UP (why did no one tell me that it was a sad movie - exhausted pregnant women should not watch it - i was sobbing like crazy thru the entire first half). Anyways, I digress. At some point we both fell asleep and managed to get some rest. My mom finally woke around 7am and took over watching B. My brother showed up from work around 8 and safe to say, B was a happy pup! He missed his daddy like crazy.
The rest of the day was a bit of a blur because I was so tired - now I totally understand why new parents sometimes resort to coffee to keep going. A day without caffeine or sleep was brutal! However, we made it thru and are still alive to tell the tale so...
I just kept thinking that this would be so much easier if this was a baby. I could at least pick it up and comfort it....you just couldn't do that with Buckley as he's far too big!
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