Confessions from a new puppy mum

General Mish Mash

By minsmash on December 6, 2012 • ( 8 Comments )

I’m tired!  I’m very, very tired!

Don’t get me wrong.  I absolutely love our new puppy Ava and am very glad we have her, but I had forgotten how tiring a new puppy can be.  I’m not the late twenties/early thirties with young kids gal that I was when we last had a puppy.   Our last puppies were thirteen years ago!  In those days, my youngest, MissM, was always up at 5am.  I was used to early to bed at night and early morning starts.  I was used to interrupted sleep.  I was younger!

These days, I have been in the habit of going to bed around 10-10:30pm, reading until I feel sleepy and then going to sleep.  Unless waking by the alarm to go to work or an appointment, I would sleep until I naturally woke.  Apart from some bouts of insomnia, interrupted sleep was a foggy distant memory of baby and toddler days of the past.

I have been used to the freedom to plan and structure my days as I please.  My children are young adults and do not need supervision, feeding or bathing (though I do of course cook their dinner).  Since the arrival of puppy Ava my time has become limited.   She is a baby and needs to be watched constantly.  I take the responsibility of pet ownership very seriously!  She is tiny and can get into dangerous nooks and crannies.  Puppies chew, so we have to watch that she doesn’t decide to investigate power cords or to taste our furniture, rugs or shoes!  She needs to play!  We also have to watch her with Chelsea because when she is full of beans and energy she can pounce and chew at her which Chelsea doesn’t like at all.  Other times she is gentle and lovely with her and they get along very well (as you can see in the photo below).

The timing of Ava’s arrival is perfect.  All my kids are on holidays so can help out…..right?   Well MissM has certainly been very helpful in the mornings and even did one night shift (you’ll read about that night further down the page) and the boys (Twin1 and Twin2) have helped on occasion but they are never out of bed before lunchtime!  I shouldn’t whinge though because Twin2 looked after little miss Ava yesterday while I went out to lunch with a friend.

With the arrival of puppy Ava, I’m re-visiting the exhaustion of those baby/toddler days.  We had a couple of nights where she slept through to 5:20am and we thought that the worst was behind us.  That’ll teach us for skiting and celebrating too early! (she originally was waking at 1:00am and then again around 4:00am). Those good nights were probably because we had been successful in keeping her awake until around 10:00 or 10:30pm so she would sleep longer in the morning.  That doesn’t always work though.  She is falling asleep much earlier (eg 8:30-9:00pm) and there is nothing to be done to keep her awake – poor baby is exhausted – but unfortunately this has meant that the last few days she has been waking around 4am.

This morning I was lucky – at just after 4:00am I took her outside to do her business and then put her back into the crate.  I have a ‘no play or breakfast before 5am rule’.   I lay there till she settled and thankfully she did so I crept quietly back into bed.  She slept until 5:30am – yay!  Then I got her up, put her outside again and then she had her breakfast and a play.  She then went back to sleep from around 7:30 until about 8:30.  At that point I handed her to my daughter so I could have a shower and get a load of washing on.

There was one night that was terrible and I was like a deranged person the next day (deranged = seriously scary – like the monkey in the picture!!).  It wasn’t all the puppy’s fault though.  It was a stinking hot night and we had lost power and were up fluffing around with candles and had to wake MrMM to go check the fuse box.  It was so hot without fans!  On top of all that, my daughter had been out and came home at midnight ….. waking Ava.  Ava then woke again at 4am and would not go back to sleep.  I was a mess…I had no more than 3 hours sleep that night.  The next night MissM had the crate in her room so that I could get a full night’s sleep.  I was so glad….I was desperate for sleep!

Since Ava arrived some things have fallen by the wayside and it makes me feel a bit guilty:

1. My blog!  I have been so tired and so busy with the puppy that I feel that my blog has been neglected.   Please don’t give up on me.  It is not lack of interest that has seen the number of my posts drop or my participation in #FYBF or #IBOT or the decline of my blog reading and commenting etc.  It is puppy-exhaustion.  This puppy phase will pass and I will be back posting more regularly and moving forward with all my plans.
2. Gym!  I have not been to gym since Ava arrived.  I am just so tired.  I am determined that next week I will be back at gym.  The kids are going to have to puppy-sit so I can go.
3. Housework!  I try to get the important stuff done but my routine has gone out the window a bit.
4. Christmas!  I have not yet done my Christmas shopping and I have yet to put some decorations up around the house!  We are not putting up a tree this year as Xmas trees and puppies do not mix.  We will, however, still be putting some Christmas cheer around the house.  Maybe even this afternoon!

So even though some things have slipped since puppy Ava arrived, I am not going to beat myself up about it.   Just like when a new baby joins a family, the arrival of a new puppy requires an adjustment period.

I may be tired….but I am loving having a puppy.   Let me list a few things I love about having her:

• The little baby sounds she makes.
• The funny little antics she does – like bum in the air and ready to pounce on something.
• The way she looks at me when I tell her she is a good girl after doing a wee outside.
• Her cry – it is not irritating – it is gorgeously human and endearing and heart melting.
• Cuddles – she is so soft and snuggly.  I love cuddling her.
• When she sleeps.  I love to watch her.  She looks so innocent.  She occasionally twitches like she’s having a dream.  She puts her complete trust in us that we will keep her safe.  She is so secure in that knowledge.  You can tell by the completely relaxed way she surrenders to sleep.   I love knowing that she sleeps with that ease.
• Her tail.  It is always wagging.  That means she is happy.  If she is happy, then I am happy.

Here are a few photo’s I took of Ava on Tuesday, the day she turned 10 weeks.  She had just had a bath and was drying off by having a run around the back yard.  See….she is gorgeous and definitely worth a short period of being tired!

Please forgive my recent lack of blog posts and please don’t give up on me! MinsMash will get back to normal soon – actually better than ever!  Also – my blog will not always be all about puppies!  There are many other things I want to cover in my blog.  I have a huge interest in health, nutrition and well-being, particularly for women in my age group (I suppose we are middle-aged *sigh*!) that as yet I have barely touched on but have many ideas for some great future posts…..and much, much more!

Ciao for now – puppy wants to play! 😉

Linking with Grace for #FYBF

Categories: General Mish Mash, Pets and Animals

Tagged as: #blogging, #cavalierkingcharlesspaniels, #ckcs, #exhaustion, #puppies, #sleepdeprivation, #tired