..since lance can't hold it in any longer..

...i will just go ahead and confirm that, yes indeed, i am preggers! lance and i are so excited for this "new chapter of our lives" (as everyone seems to call it). we were a little shocked with how fast it happened, but thrilled all the same. i am 11.5 weeks, which i know is still a little early to let the cat out of the bag, but my dear husband just couldn't seem to keep the secret in any longer, so we decided to announce this happy bit of news. baby powell is due to arrive on april 3, 2011. everyone keeps telling me he/she will probably come on april fools bc of my hilarious april fools joke this last april (when i announced on facebook that i was preggo!).

..baby powell - 11 wks..

..my little brudders..

let me just start off by saying i know i love my dogs more than is normal, and more than is healthy probably. i am super attached to them, always have been and always will be. i don't care if you think i am weird, and if you don't have pets you just don't understand what it is like to feel such love for a furry little creature. even if you do have pets, you may not understand, bc like i said, i am unusually attached and in love with my baby boys.

a couple of nights ago claus started throwing up, and it got progressively worse throughout the night. by midnight he was throwing up 2-3 times an hour, and that continued every hour for the rest of the night. needless to say, i didn't sleep at all bc i was so worried, and at one point during the night i broke down in hysterics. i was sleeping on the couch with claus (since it was closer to the door than our bedroom), crying hysterically...i was so loud it woke lance up, so he came down to see what was wrong. he told me to calm down, said that claus just probably had a bad tummy ache and that he would be fine.

well then duke started throwing up, but not nearly as bad as claus. i would doze off for a few minutes at a time, and when i woke up each time i found claus outside, just sitting in the rain. poor little guy was so SO sick. so i took them into the vet as early as i could. the dr. called me about 40 minutes after i dropped them off and said that she was really worried about claus, but she thought duke would be fine. i wasn't too worried about duke, but hearing the vet say she was really worried about claus did nothing but make me feel worse. thank heavens it only took them another half hour or so to diagnose them - they both contracted a parasite called coccidia. it is carried in the stools of infected dogs, and is highly contagious. some dogs that get it just experience diarrhea or nausea, in the worst cases - like claus - severe dehydration, bloody stools, and severe nausea. the vet said at one point she thought claus might die.

they kept both dogs there all day. they hooked claus up to an IV and had him on fluids all day long, and they had duke on fluids also. we got to take them home in the evening, but they had to go back first thing the next morning for observation, and claus needed more fluids. they are both home now and doing a hundred times better. duke is all the way back to normal and claus is almost there.

the day this happened i was the biggest wreck. i cried all day long, it was so awful! duke and claus seriously are my pride and joy! they make every day better and i just can't bear to think what i would ever do without them. i am so so so grateful that they are alive and doing better.

LOVE you drawers and phobs, more than you'll ever know!