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| I am so sorry and I do know that this is LONG overdue. But here is the story of Kalena's arrival..
Hii!! As you guys may have already known, my doctor served my little girl an Eviction Notice for Friday, April 23rd, 2010. They told me that I will have to call at 6:30am to find out what time to come in, so I got up at 6 and called them at 6:15am to find out what time, and they told me to just come in right away. I woke my husband up and told him it's time to go, so he took a shower, and we hopped into the van and drove to the hospital. We had some car trouble (my van was leaking transmission fluid, BADLY) on the way so we ended up arriving at 9am instead of 8am like we hoped we would. My doctor checked to see if I had dilated any more since my last appointment which was on Monday (3cm, 70% effaced and station -1), I had gone up to 5cm, he didn't tell me if I had thinned more but did add that the baby's head was a little higher than it was on Monday but not to worry and that the picotin should take care of that. My regular doctor, who is deaf and uses sign language had gotten very sick and couldn't make it today to be on call, so I ended up having a different doctor. I had seen him at my very last appointment, and he said he was only there until noon and wants me to have the baby by then. So, I had a deadline to meet!! Doctor broke my water at 9:15am and the picotin started at 9:30am, contractions started coming shortly after. It was pretty far apart but pretty intense. They asked me if I wanted any medications, I told them that I wanted to do it the natural method. No medications, nothing. So I stayed in bed, and contractions kept coming 3-4 minutes part then it went down to 2-3 minutes, then it just started coming and it was very painful for me but I decided NOT to get any pain killers, and boyee, it was INTENSE until I started feeling like I HAD TO GO PEE or POOP!! I told the nurse, "I think it'll be almost time to push." They called the doctor and he came in and I was just ready to push at that time, he had not checked me but gave me the OK to push and I pushed, pushed really hard and Kalena Florence Sickler was finally born at 12:11pm after only a minute or two of pushing! Dwayne confirmed to me that it REALLY is a girl!! She weighed 8 pounds 6 ounces, and is 20 3/4 inches long. My heaviest baby! My doctor said YAY! You met my deadline!  Thank god it was a very short labor! So yeah, here she is!!
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| Rest In Peace, Weebo
January 23, 2006 ~ June 22, 2010
Four and half years old
Weebo's breed is an American Hairless Terrier. He was the most sweetest dog. I have gotten other dogs before him but they were mixed breed, and a bit too stubborn for my liking. I gave up, and had to give them away because of their behavioral issues. I tried my best with each dog but after a while, I couldn't take it anymore. When we were in Florida, Dwayne was telling one of our friends, Ernie Miller that he has always wanted to get a hairless dog or cat. It was his DREAM to get a hairless pet! Ernie listened, which impressed me. One day, we had gotten a phone call on VP from Ernie, and Ernie was telling us that there IS a three months old American Hairless Terrier (AHT) available for us to get from a friend of his'!! Dwayne's eyes pretty much POPPED OUT, his heart was set on getting this dog! Our landlord really didn't permit pets, and I told Dwayne that we are not allowed to have pets at our house. Dwayne pleaded with me, PLEASE PLEASE. I was like, *sighs* and decided to go ahead and look up this breed, the AHT, and WOW.. They really do look kinda cute. I gave in and said, OK, we'll go ahead and meet him. We drove up, about an hour and half from home and went to that breeder's place. We saw this small, wrinkly puppy in a cage on the porch. They were like, "This is the one." They had gotten him out of the cage, and Aw, he was ADORABLY CUTE!! He was as little as my hand! His whole body could fit on my hand! I didn't have to go long, petting him, his back was so small! I loved his round babyish belly! The way he ran was so cute! It kinda looked like he hopped while he ran! His face was so wrinkly, due to the fact that he was hairless! We all fell in love with him IMMEDIATELY. We decided that we are definitely going to take him. When we brought him home, we found that it was VERY easy to potty-train and to house break him. He was the sweetest puppy! We truly enjoyed having a VERY unique breed, everyone was always shocked every time they met Weebo for the first time. It always made us laugh. We moved to New York when he was 1 year old, and that poor little dog SHIVERED in the cold here! We had to buy A LOT of warm clothing for him and that helped a lot! LOL. When he was two years old, we had to face a situation when he was getting sick. His belly was growing larger and larger. It just wasn't normal. It was TOO bloated. We decided to go ahead and take him to the vet, and they basically told us that he has testicular tumor and that it had spread to all over of his body and that he did not have much time left. Oh, that was HEART BREAKING!! We tried to make the best of his last days. We went to Florida for Christmas Vacation, and when we returned.. We were SHOCKED to find out what we saw!! Our loving Weebo was back to being thin again! What the.. What just happened?! Dwayne's brother, Dale, explained to us that he felt that maybe he wasn't going potty outside long enough, so Dale decided to just FORCE him to stay outside, in the cold. Force him to go potty. Sure enough, he took a big poop, and several more after that.. And he had gotten thinner. Dale noticed that when he would stay outside for a very short time, his belly would grow a bit bigger again, so he sent Weebo outside again and made him stay out there again and sure enough, every time he passed a bowel movement, his belly would get smaller. That poor dog was constipated!! He did NOT have cancer of any kind!! Oh, I was so MAD at that vet that told us this!! I decided NOT to send him back to that vet and found another vet. I explained to that vet about what Weebo had just went through, they tried to look at him and found NOTHING wrong with him. They even checked his testicles and found NOTHING wrong with him. *sigh of relief!* He was basically given a clean bill of health. Fast forward to when he turned 4 years old. We celebrated that he turned 4 years old. Yay, Weebo! He is such a GOOD dog! We had given him a bone and he excitedly chewed on it! Fast forward to a few weeks before June 11th. Dwayne was telling me that Weebo's breath stinks really bad. I'm like, really? Maybe it's just bad breath. We need to get one of those mouth "cleaners" that he could chew on and clean his mouth and breath. We honestly thought nothing of it. It wasn't that bad back then. June 11th came.. Dwayne again commented that his breath smells AWFUL!! I'm like, "Oh boy." I HONESTLY thought nothing of it. I fell asleep that night. Dwayne woke me up, and explained that every time Weebo licked his own leg, the smell from his mouth would travel all over, and Dwayne kept smelling the breath, it just kept smelling worse and WORSE as each lick went on! He just couldn't stand it, and kept watching. He saw something strange on his tongue. Dwayne decided to open Weebo's mouth to take a look at his tongue, and OH..MY...GOSH!! We seriously had NO idea! The tip of his tongue was dying. It was turning brown/blackish! He was basically in disbelief! He woke me up immediately and explained what he saw. I took a look too and, yep.. He NEEDS to be seen by the vet ASAP. But it was at like 11pm. I told Dwayne that we will wait until the morning so I can call his vet and bring him in. In the morning, Dwayne explained that after I went to sleep, Dwayne had picked Weebo up and put him on the floor (to send him outside to go potty before bedtime), Weebo collapsed. His legs were not strong enough to stand! Dwayne knew something was wrong. I was concerned. I waited until 7am on June 12th and called the vet when they opened up and explained the situation. They told me to bring him in at 8:20am. We drove up there and I brought him in. The initial exam, they saw nothing too majorly wrong with him. They did see the tongue lesion. The doctor said he would like to bring Weebo out back so that the team could take a closer look at him, for second opinions and to possibly cut off that part of the tongue. I said OK. Shortly after, a few minutes later, he came back to see me and explained that when they were examining his tongue, that the dead part had came off, just like that. I asked if it bled at all, he said No and that it was already dead. Wow.. Ok. The doctor asked me for permission to draw his blood to check to see if his organs was working properly. I said OK. They brought Weebo back to me, and I brought him out to the van so Dwayne could see Weebo. Dwayne had been staying in the van with the kids. The doctor came out with a paper of his blood work result, and I could see that some of them had red color, a sign of ALARMING result. The doctor explained that those parts of the alarming RED was the things that was coming through the kidney, and said, "Weebo has a kidney disease." Hmm, OK. I was still trying to take it in. I asked if it was reversible? Treatable? He said, unfortunately no it is not reversible but they are hoping to be able to treat it and slow down the progress of the damage. He had asked me if Weebo had consumed any toxins, poisons, etc. I told him that there was nothing I could think of that he could get into that would damage his kidney. They explained that they would like to hospitalize him for three days, to try to get his kidney problem stabilized. I okayed it, and said my bye-bye's to Weebo, and told him that I would see him in a few days. I could see that he was a bit scared. We went to get something to eat for breakfast then went home and waited for our friends Kelley and Mike K to come over to our house. We thought of him throughout the whole weekend. I had gone to my appointment at Social Security that morning of June 14th, and then after that, I came back home and saw that we had gotten an e-mail from one of the vets. They explained that Weebo has been drinking and eating well. Unfortunately, with the IV treatment, his levels did not significantly improve, so the long term survival prognosis did not look too good. I explained what the vet said to Dwayne and I went to the vet and picked him up. He looked so good. A bit quiet, maybe. We thought that he was pretty much the same though. His breath still reeked badly. It lessened some, though. The vet wanted me to feed him a special canned food specialized for dogs with Kidney Failures, called "NF." 1/4 can twice a day, they said. I gave him 1/4 can at each meal. He did ok. After the first can was gone, I went onto the 2nd can, he did OK for the first half, then the second half, he started to refuse to eat it. I thought maybe he started not to like the food, so I offered him other canned food, he didn't want it. It surprised me. We tried to offer him the doggy bone treat, he did not want that either. Dwayne decided to pull out ham from the refrigerator and gave it to him. He sniffed it and looked the other way! Our hearts sunk. He was done eating. We thought, maybe, give him time. If he gets hungry enough, he'll eat. But no, he did not eat the whole day that day. Dwayne had to go ahead and use the dropper to give him water, because he was not drinking the water on his own. He was resting MUCH more. He basically stayed on the mattress in Kalena's room. Sleeping.. Resting.. Moving a little but not too much. I saw some vomit spots on the floor. Dwayne had explained to Phay (our neighbor) about Weebo's behavior on June 22nd, Phay told Dwayne that maybe it's better to just put him to sleep so he doesn't suffer anymore. Dwayne took a hard look at Weebo and reluctantly agreed. Dwayne didn't want to put him to sleep but realized that maybe, yes, it was the best for Weebo. We checked on him at 9:30pm, and I saw vomit spots on the bed as well, so I knew it was time to put him to sleep as he was not consuming any food and not enough water, and he was still vomitting. I petted Weebo, and told him that we all love him and to take it easy. After I left the room, I told Dwayne that I will call the vet in the morning to set up a time to bring him in to put him to sleep. Dwayne agreed with me. I went to bed that night. Dwayne woke me up at 1:30am and said, "Weebo's gone." I said, really? Dwayne nodded and said that his body is already cold. I got up immediately and went to see him, and yeah. He was already long gone. Looks like he died maybe shortly after we told him we love him at 9:30pm. He looked comfortable though. *sighs* I looked for a box, and we found one, Dwayne went ahead and took his favorite blue blanket, and wrapped Weebo in the blanket. Dwayne put him in the box and duct-taped the whole box shut. I wrote "Rest In Peace, Weebo. January 23, 2006 - June 22, 2010" Dwayne added "We love you so much" and drew a heart on the box. Dwayne put the box in the truck so the kids do not have to see the box like that in the morning before they leave for school. After the kids left for school, Dwayne got up and I took the box out of the truck because the day was warming up, and we didn't want his body to smell any worse than it already did. Dwayne, Dawson and I dug up a hole and buried him with his mickey mouse into the ground and put a very big rock on top of him. We said a prayer for him. We have plans to buy a permanent paint designed for outdoors weather, and paint that rock with his name on it. *sigh* so that was the end of Weebo's life. We will NEVER forget what a wonderful dog he was, and will never forget him. We truly did love him. We are just so sorry we couldn't do much for him, but at least we found out what it was instead of wondering, "What if we could've saved him?" You know. Anyway, that morning after he passed away, we saw a bear in our front yard!! We felt that it was probably a sign to let nature take its course. Then later that day, it rained a lot, then when I came out of Top's.. There was a HUGE HUGE rainbow in the sky! I like to think that it was Weebo letting us know that he's all right and happy up there.
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| Hey! Guess what? I'm back and I still don't have the little one yet! Today I'm 5 days over due and I'm still waiting for the little one to decide to make her appearance. Boyee! Dwayne's sister, Maybelle flew in from California on April 10th and she flies out on April 18th she is hoping to be able to meet the newest addition to the family. I hope that we do have the baby before she leaves. My van is still doing very good. We got rid of the Chevrolet Diesel truck though. We now only have the van, Dwayne's Ford truck and the Jeep which Dwayne is thinking about selling to get a bigger Jeep. That's all we have for now. We've been living in this house for 4 months now! YAY!! We're still LOVING life here at this house. We had a cook out on the 10th for Maybelle it was a combination of Coming Home/Early Birthday Cook Out for Maybelle, it was a very good cook out. Chicken, Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, pork beans, 4 bean vegetable salad, regular lettuce salad, along with some other food.. Very nice cook out. We stayed at Dwayne's mom's house from like 12pm to 8:15pm that day. We also had another cook out at our neighbor's house, at the trailer that we were originally going to buy through CornerStone until CornerStone decided they don't want us to live there due to the space it has in the trailer, and we have 3 boys. I am grateful that happened because we ended up getting a much much bigger place. But anyway, the people who lives there, Phay and Sarah are very nice people. They have two girls who Dawson always enjoy hanging out with nearly every day now. Dawson is also in Baseball now, he has practice every Monday. Baseball games will be in May and June. UHMM.. I guess I'm pretty much out of news for now. Oh well. I'll post again probably when the little one makes her debut!! | | |
| Heeeeyyyy!! I'm pretty excited about my pregnancy as time nears! There's only 13 days left to the due date for me to meet my little Princess!! I just hope that she is INDEED a GIRL when she comes out! LOL My pregnancy has been pretty much uneventful. I'm currently at 38 weeks, and as all you should know, pregnancies lasts 40 weeks. I've been going to my appointments and everything is going smoothly so far. I also had a WONDERFUL Baby Shower that my sister and mom helped to throw for me at my house, it was truly wonderful. Thank you soo much to my families and friends for coming to my Baby Shower to make it happen/successful! I got so many AWESOME and CUTE outfits for my little Princess. We also got a whole BUNCH of Diapers!! YAY!! We now have a count of over 1,000 diapers so it should last 2-3 months or a bit longer. We're very thrilled with that kind of help! We've been loving life here at the new house. We have been living here for 3 months so far, and we LOVE it here. We just can't wait until spring/summer is here and the driveway is all dried up and it's more warmer so we can spend more time outside. My boys have been spending A LOT of their times playing outside with Daddy but it's a bit too much of "BRR" weather for me right now, LOL. We just gave up our Polaris 4 wheeler to trade it in for a family vehicle, which is a VAN!! YAY!! We now have a Chrysler Town and Country 5 door van, it's actually a very nice van. The kids LOVES riding in it! It really feels VERY nice to finally have a family vehicle again. AND obviously, it's very important to have a family vehicle by the time the baby is actually HERE! I was actually thinking that we will probably NOT get a family vehicle until after the baby is here but YAY Thank God, I was wrong! My boys have been doing pretty well. I went to the Parent/Teacher meeting for Dawson and they have been very impressed with the pace he is improving at, and the same thing goes for Dominic. I had not gone for a Parent/Teacher meeting for Dominic because it seemed not to be necessary so I am just going to his school for the annual IEP meeting. Derrick has also been doing very well in school. Derrick seems to be ready to start potty-training, YAY!! He's been showing A LOT of interest in the toilet, and I do admit sometimes it's a bit tiring because he shows a lot of interest in it but doesn't start GOING in it. GRR!! LOL I know I just need to give it time. Dawson will be going to summer school for four weeks this summer to help assist him with his reading/writing and schooling skills. His teacher feels he will do all right but it would be good for him to have some schooling over the summer time so he does not forget the materials that he learned throughout the year so the second grade won't be as hard for him. Dominic will be going to summer school for six weeks this summer, as I know it would be good for him to get reinforcements. Derrick will continue going to summer school for three weeks this summer. Oh boy, a variety number of weeks!! Heh. That's all right though. The kids have been good, generally for the most part. Okay, I think I will close with this for now. I will probably have my little Princess by the next time I add an entry on here. Thanks for lookin' and being my loyal fans!
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| Heeey! Not too much has been happening. I'm now 33 weeks pregnant which means I only have 7 weeks left until it's time to start waiting for our little girl to arrive. Her room is not even ready yet. It's currently being used as a storage room. UGH! Not fun. I need to sort through the things, and start actually putting them away! Not fun. LOL! We're still collecting baby girl clothes, we don't have too many right now. We're actually having a Baby Shower on March 14th here at my new house so if you're interested in going and haven't gotten an invitation, please do let me know and I'll let you know the information on it. The baby shower is a co-ed one. Right now we already have a high chair (I'm actually hoping to find a better one later on but this one is still nice for now), a playpen, baby swing, baby changing table and baby bath tub. We need to get a bassinet, crib, carseat, more clothing for newborn and up, diapers and wipes and other baby necessities. We're pretty much excited about the arrival of this Princess! My green Lumina car is GONE we traded it in for Dwayne's new Truck. Dwayne got his 4 wheeler and he gave it up to get the black truck as well so right now we have a Chevrolet Diesel pick up truck and a Ford Heavy Duty truck. We'll work on getting a family car very soon, hopefully SOON! Heh. I'm going to close with this for now because we are heading out for a little bit so I'll add more later on. | | |
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