You know how everyone always says that as much as you love your pup, he or she will take a backseat when you have a real baby?
Michael and I never really believed that while I was pregnant. We’d look at Tessa and we couldn’t imagine that she would ever hold any smaller of a place in our hearts. We couldn’t imagine there would be times when we would ignore her. We couldn’t imagine treating her differently.
But I’m here to tell you that it’s true. So very true. As much as it may seem impossible, it isn’t.
It’s sad, really.
Don’t get me wrong; we still love Tess…a LOT. But she gets soooo much less attention these days. I’ll be busy with Nora and suddenly I’ll realize that it’s 5:00 p.m. and I’ve not done much more than give Tessa a glance or two. Forget petting, snuggling, talking to, or kissing her.
After our first day/night home from the hospital (which was a nightmare), Tessa really did adjust quickly and has been pretty great ever since. She generally leaves Nora alone, and aside from sometimes barking during naptime–which sends me into a fit of rage–she’s a good girl. And she takes her loving when she can get it. For instance, as I write this, Nora is napping in her crib, and Tessa is napping sprawled out in my lap.
She goes outside to potty a lot less often during the day.
She kinda stinks. She clearly needs a bath.
She needs a nail clipping like there’s no tomorrow.
I’m pretty sure she has a raging ear infection that had gone unnoticed up until this past weekend. (And believe me, we feel horrible about that.)
But she’s still our Tessa girl. And she’s still a big part of our family.
6 Responses to In Nora’s Shadow
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About
I'm Heather. I'm 33 and have been married to Michael for seven years. Together, we have two beautiful little girls we love more than anything, and a miniature dachshund who drives us crazy. I'm a full-time working mom who has very little time for my own "stuff" these days, like home improvement, cooking/baking, cake decorating, and photography. Despite the team not making the playoffs since 1999, I'm STILL a Buffalo Bills fan, which I think speaks to my loyalty AND sense of humor. I can't wait to pick up the pace with travel again some day... you know, when we're done being ruled by tiny fists. Welcome to my blog.
ive been a reader for a while now and don’t comment much- but this post strikes such a chord with me. i JUST wrote up a post about how we FORGOT to pack the sheepdog this past weekend.. we made it out of the driveway.. down the street, out of our neighborhood.. and several minutes down that road.. until we realized.. we forgot to bring Sheepie home with us. How terrible. I’ve never felt more like the worst mother in the whole world. i felt less guilty giving carter his first bottle of formula.. than when i realized we forgot the dog. im so ashamed. our poor little furbabies!!!
Like the previous poster, I don’t comment much, but I do read from time to time. Your little Tess, reminds me of my little Penny. My husband and I have been so busy over the past few weeks that it seems as if we neglected our furbaby as well. I just finally got around to giving her a bath, but omg, she is in desperate need of a PAWdicure.
It’s hard to believe that this can happen but everyone says it does. We bumped our doggie Duncan’s stocking down one this year too… and our baby’s not even here yet!
Love reading your blog…had my first child on 9/22 and our poor dog is going thru the same thing! Oliver really needs a nail trim…i think he could be in the guiness book of records for those things!
Curious…where did you get your stockings?
Ashley–When my brother was getting married in October, we were both in the wedding party, and we were going to be gone from our house for 12+ hours, so we had all of these arrangements to make for Nora, since she was only 5 weeks old. It seemed like we had been planning for weeks. Literally, the DAY BEFORE the wedding, my mom goes “What are you going to do with Tess?” We would never leave her at home alone that long (she would have to at least be let out to go to the bathroom!) and it never even occurred to us. We hadn’t thought about her at all. :( Bad dog parents! So yeah, it’s easy to forget about them sometimes. You’re not the only one!
Aarika–Good to know that it’s not only new parents who can sometimes put their pets on the back burner!
E–I swear, I didn’t think it was true either. But you’ll see. :)
Sue–They are from Pottery Barn (ordered from potterybarn.com). We got all new ones this year so that we could have matching ones! The nice thing about PB, too, is that they supposedly carry the same stockings year after year after year, so when we have another baby down the line, we can order one for him/her that matches the rest of ours. :) We got them when they were doing a free monogramming/free shipping deal, so be on the lookout for that–maybe they’ll do it again!
As I’m reading this, I just realized I forgot to feed our toy poodle this morning! ((tear)) It really is sad to me. He really needs a bath, too! Our dog is quite the cuddler so he’ll sit next to me when I’m feeding the baby, but I definitely don’t treat him like the baby anymore, and I’m a lot less attached to him now. :(