Rock and Hard Place

Age: 9 days

Today was the toughest day yet, but not because Wisebaby was a problem. In fact, most of our nursing issues are resolving, and he is a very chill baby. Today was tough because we finally had to make a really tough decision about our dogs.

Here's the back story: When I was in college, my parents moved abroad, so their dog became my dog. Lucie was a delight, and we loved her like she was always ours. When we bought our house, we decided to add a puppy to our family because we thought that it would be good practice for parenting, and Jeff had never had a dog of his own before. Theo definitely has proven to be excellent at ironing out some of our parenting behaviors.

When Theo hit about 6 months old, he started getting into fights with other dogs. They were little fights at first, and they got scarier and scarier. Both Jeff and I were bit trying to break them up, and both dogs have sustained injuries from each other. Thankfully, no one ever needed stitches.

Despite our conscientious behavior interventions, we could never quite get it under control. Shortly after we found out we were pregnant, we decided to give medicine a try. Theo went on doggie prozac, and it worked at first. Our dogs mostly stopped fighting for several months. Then the medicine built up in his system, and he started fighting again. The frequency was back to almost every day shortly before we delivered, and we went back to the vet to talk to her about his aggression. We thought we had a week and a half to make a decision, but by the time she consulted with a dog psychologist and got back to Jeff, I was in active labor.

We're switching Theo's medicine from the generic that can be filled cheaply at Walmart to the dog version that costs more and is filled at the vet. Neither dog has been home since Wisebaby was born, so we have been trying to figure out how to reintroduce the dogs into the house with the baby without putting ourselves, the baby, or the dogs at risk. We just couldn't come up with a solution that included both dogs living at home.

The hard place: Today we tearfully had to admit to ourselves that we could only be a one dog family moving forward for the safety of our little Wisebaby. We're sending Lucie back to live with my parents, and it is ripping my heart out, even though she's only three blocks away. I can walk to see her in under five minutes, but it is just awful. I have wept off and on all day.

So, we picked up Theo's new medicine, and brought the cute little bug home, and he has been adorable and well behaved so far. I am glad that everyone will be safe, but it hurt so much when I realized that we were swaddling our baby at the spot on the bed where Lucie used to cuddle with me in the mornings.