Here’s how exciting life can be at this moment.
H and I have tried to start a new routine for night time in the household. Since the puppies are eating every 6 hours or so now, and Count Poopula can go for more than 3 hours from time to time, we have decided to try and BOTH sleep between the feedings. Although H is primarily trying to hit the 10 pm – 2 am feedings and I’m trying to hit the 2 am – 6 am feedings.
We tried this over the weekend and although it was sort of coming together, it seemed to do a LOT for the little man to be in his room sleeping by himself at night, so we thought it best to keep on that track. Well last night was quite interesting.
As it turns out, how the schedules fell, both the puppies and the Count were to eat at 2am. We headed to bed a little after 10 pm with the understanding that we would probably both wake up about 2, H to feed the wee man and I to feed the puppies. I hit the sack and was dead to the world. About 1:30 am I hear little man whimper and get up out of my slumber to check on him (since it’s about to be my shift anyway). H stops me and says, “Don’t you know I just got back in here?” Apparently he had been screaming his head off for the past hour and a half and my dumb self slept right through it, he let’s out a little sigh though, and I pop right up. I think Heidi mentioned something like, just let him lie there for a little bit then I’ll feed him again. I say this, but I’m pretty sure I was asleep again before she finished her sentence. I thought I would head back to sleep and when she got up to feed him in 30 minutes, I would pop out of bed and go feed puppies.
At 4:15 am I wake up and look at the clock. I do the stupid husband thing and wake the wife up and say, “When do the puppies eat next” and of course get the requisite reply, “Did you not feed them in the middle of the night?” Well of course I did, however it wasn’t THIS particular night that I did that.
So I jump out of bed and head down to feed the puppies. Did I mention that Heidi has been up all night tending to our precious little boy, being selfless and feeding him when needed, while I have been snoozing the night away oblivious to the world around me?
It just so happens that last night, before we went to bed, we introduced the puppies to canned dog food for the first time. We had been mixing it with milk and giving it to them in the bottle, but this is the first time we just let them pig out in it. BOY was that fun.
As it turns out, puppies can go eight hours between meals just fine after they pig out on canned dog food … but you’re gonna pay for it.
I believe the waft hit me about halfway down the stairs. It smelled what I imagine a solid waste processing plant smells like on a hot summer day. I was literally scared to go into the room. I summoned my courage and walked into the laundry, took a deep breath to settle myself, realized I shouldn’t have taken a deep breath, and walked back out to cry. When I returned I was greeted by 8 little voiced saying “HUNGRY, HUNGRY, HUNGRY, HUNGRY!” What was once a bunch of white pretty puppies was a mass of brown hysteria. Apparently although they loved the food, it went through them like jet fuel on the space shuttle, and pretty much changed very little from input to output except for the smell.
I began pulling them out of the box one by one, trying to clean them, and putting them on the mom to nurse. There are a few things I learned along the way and I would like to pass them along to our happy little readers.
1. Although this may gross some of you out, mommy dogs clean the puppy dogs which includes licking all types of outputs from the puppies when they exit. Apparently there is an expiration date on those outputs and if it’s not fresh out of the tap, mommy dog isn’t touching that stuff.
2. Once poop dries on puppies, it’s quite difficult to get a squirmy hungry puppy to cooperate enough to scrub it off of them.
3. Once you finally clean said puppy off and put on mommy dog, you have about 2 minutes before they need to do it again.
4. Once you introduce puppies to dog food, they start looking for it EVERYWHERE when they feed instead of drinking from mommy, tracking through the new found poop.
5. Although fresh puppy poop looks a lot like puppy food, no matter how much puppies walk through and stick their face in it, it still doesn’t taste quite as good to them.
6. Once puppies have been introduced to puppy food, they tend to try and eat mommy dog. Mommy dog doesn’t like this and gets up to walk away, dragging said puppies through the aforementioned poop.
7. It takes about 1 and ½ hours to clean up after puppy poopfest.
8. I now think I have poop in my ears
So the moral of the story is, always set your alarm … and volunteer to feed the kid.
H and I have tried to start a new routine for night time in the household. Since the puppies are eating every 6 hours or so now, and Count Poopula can go for more than 3 hours from time to time, we have decided to try and BOTH sleep between the feedings. Although H is primarily trying to hit the 10 pm – 2 am feedings and I’m trying to hit the 2 am – 6 am feedings.
We tried this over the weekend and although it was sort of coming together, it seemed to do a LOT for the little man to be in his room sleeping by himself at night, so we thought it best to keep on that track. Well last night was quite interesting.
As it turns out, how the schedules fell, both the puppies and the Count were to eat at 2am. We headed to bed a little after 10 pm with the understanding that we would probably both wake up about 2, H to feed the wee man and I to feed the puppies. I hit the sack and was dead to the world. About 1:30 am I hear little man whimper and get up out of my slumber to check on him (since it’s about to be my shift anyway). H stops me and says, “Don’t you know I just got back in here?” Apparently he had been screaming his head off for the past hour and a half and my dumb self slept right through it, he let’s out a little sigh though, and I pop right up. I think Heidi mentioned something like, just let him lie there for a little bit then I’ll feed him again. I say this, but I’m pretty sure I was asleep again before she finished her sentence. I thought I would head back to sleep and when she got up to feed him in 30 minutes, I would pop out of bed and go feed puppies.
At 4:15 am I wake up and look at the clock. I do the stupid husband thing and wake the wife up and say, “When do the puppies eat next” and of course get the requisite reply, “Did you not feed them in the middle of the night?” Well of course I did, however it wasn’t THIS particular night that I did that.
So I jump out of bed and head down to feed the puppies. Did I mention that Heidi has been up all night tending to our precious little boy, being selfless and feeding him when needed, while I have been snoozing the night away oblivious to the world around me?
It just so happens that last night, before we went to bed, we introduced the puppies to canned dog food for the first time. We had been mixing it with milk and giving it to them in the bottle, but this is the first time we just let them pig out in it. BOY was that fun.
As it turns out, puppies can go eight hours between meals just fine after they pig out on canned dog food … but you’re gonna pay for it.
I believe the waft hit me about halfway down the stairs. It smelled what I imagine a solid waste processing plant smells like on a hot summer day. I was literally scared to go into the room. I summoned my courage and walked into the laundry, took a deep breath to settle myself, realized I shouldn’t have taken a deep breath, and walked back out to cry. When I returned I was greeted by 8 little voiced saying “HUNGRY, HUNGRY, HUNGRY, HUNGRY!” What was once a bunch of white pretty puppies was a mass of brown hysteria. Apparently although they loved the food, it went through them like jet fuel on the space shuttle, and pretty much changed very little from input to output except for the smell.
I began pulling them out of the box one by one, trying to clean them, and putting them on the mom to nurse. There are a few things I learned along the way and I would like to pass them along to our happy little readers.
1. Although this may gross some of you out, mommy dogs clean the puppy dogs which includes licking all types of outputs from the puppies when they exit. Apparently there is an expiration date on those outputs and if it’s not fresh out of the tap, mommy dog isn’t touching that stuff.
2. Once poop dries on puppies, it’s quite difficult to get a squirmy hungry puppy to cooperate enough to scrub it off of them.
3. Once you finally clean said puppy off and put on mommy dog, you have about 2 minutes before they need to do it again.
4. Once you introduce puppies to dog food, they start looking for it EVERYWHERE when they feed instead of drinking from mommy, tracking through the new found poop.
5. Although fresh puppy poop looks a lot like puppy food, no matter how much puppies walk through and stick their face in it, it still doesn’t taste quite as good to them.
6. Once puppies have been introduced to puppy food, they tend to try and eat mommy dog. Mommy dog doesn’t like this and gets up to walk away, dragging said puppies through the aforementioned poop.
7. It takes about 1 and ½ hours to clean up after puppy poopfest.
8. I now think I have poop in my ears
So the moral of the story is, always set your alarm … and volunteer to feed the kid.
