bringing baby home from the hospital

After Jemima's rather sudden and traumatic surgery on Friday, we were told that we couldn't come visit her until the next day. It was hard waiting 20 hours to see our puppy, but we tried to keep ourselves busy and out of the house.

Jemima on the exam table, right before they took her away for surgery.

We got to visit her on Saturday, and it was great to be able to hug and hold her. She was happy to see us, but it was hard seeing her so out of it and stressed out. She was nervous, antsy and not really herself. The nurse told us that she wasn't doing as well as they'd hoped, and we probably wouldn't be able to bring her home on Sunday after all.

visiting Jemima at the hospital.

Jemima must have heard her say that and decided to prove her wrong, because the next morning we got a surprise phone call saying she had rounded the corner over night, was doing great, and we could pick her up at 11:30 that morning. We were so excited!

Home sweet home!

It was truly amazing how much happier she was the minute we put her in our car to head home. She was instantly more relaxed and Jemima-like:) They told us to put her in a small container filled with blankets that could be easily transported, so that we won't have to pick her up to carry her around and risk stretching her spine out. She LOVES her laundry basket, and seems very comfortable. 

She is still paraplegic, so she is unable to do much of anything for herself right now. I have to say: my hat is off to all of you mamas out there. This is exhausting! She didn't sleep at all last night, and kept whining, crying and scratching throughout the night to wake us up. She has to be fed out of a special little bottle because she can't stretch her neck to drink or eat out of a bowl, so I have to try and guess when she might want to eat or drink. It's not easy keeping up with when she needs to take all her meds, and she has very limited control of her bladder, so I've already built up two laundry loads of urine-soaked towels and blankets in 24 hours. Puppy diapers are on the shopping list for tonight!  Of course, it's totally worth it and I love her to death and I'm just so glad she's still with us, but if this experience has taught me anything, it's that I'm not ready to sign up for the challenge that is motherhood just yet, haha:)

I can't thank you guys enough for your emails, texts, comments and tweets. They mean so, so much to me. I even read Jemima the names of all her furry friends that wished her well in the comments section of my last post:) She said to please send her thanks and love and slobbers to all of you!


I'll get back to your regularly-scheduled white waxflower programming from now on, so if you're tired of all the Jemima-talk, hang in there! I have a fun little surprise that I'm blogging about tomorrow, so make sure you check back soon!