Arlie's Baby Shower

How lucky are we!? 

Miss Arlie girl was spoiled rotten at her beautiful baby shower. So much love was felt! Thank you to Carron for hosting, for all of your cooking and cleaning and hard work! Thank you to my Mom and Ashton for your adorable decorations and thanks to everyone for the gorgeous gifts!

The Importance of Maintenance

Horses fall into the unfortunate position of being both livestock, and pets. It's my opinion that people consider these animals to be whichever one suits them at the time. 

Many many people own horses, especially here in Southern Alberta, The Cowboy Culture we have here in Alberta encourages almost everyone both Urban and Rural to be involved one way or another with these four legged friends. Unfortunately like any big purchase, people don't realise all the things it means to take on a horse. 

When people buy a car, they spend the utmost time and energy picking out the one that suits their needs, fits their budget and their lifestyle. Most people understand that cars require maintenance, regular oil changes, new tires, washes, shines ( that's all I can come up with i'm not a mechanic lol)

What people don't realize is that Horses require this much maintenance also.  

DENTAL

Did you know that horses until they hit their senior years are constantly growing their teeth? like the tip of the iceberg when horses are born their teeth show only the very top and continue to grow not only up and out of their gums, but their teeth also grow outwards into sharp edges into their cheeks which often causes sores that can develop into ulcers. On top of that, Did you now that the shape and cut of your horses teeth can seriously affect their movement? 

Have a look at this photo below. This is a 5 year old horse who has not had his teeth done for many years if ever. See the outside of his teeth along his cheeks? there are pointy sharp edges that dig into the inside of his mouth. See the brown spots along his cheeks? Those are ulcers. This gelding was having big issues with giving to the bit, he was obviously uncomfortable with having pressure on his mouth, And in frustration had turned to bucking. After having his teeth floated and a few days off to heal his ulcers he was happy as a clam.

 These photos are of a 9 year old mare who had never had her teeth done. She too was badly tossing her head and in frustration had taken to bucking. 

The photo in the right is what it looks like after horses teeth have been floated. The certified equine dentist or Veterinarian in this case ( We use Dr.Oviatt at Ranch Docs in Lethbridge) used a very fast file that actually has DIAMONDS on the end of it. You can put your hand on this file as it is going and feel no pain so rest assured that the horse does not feel pain either. 

Maintaining your horses dental health is CRUCIAL to ensuring you have a happy and willing partner. 

BLANKETING

This tends to be a controversial subject but I will share my opinion. 

I blanket all the horses that I use on a regular basis. They wear blankets that are appropriate for the weather and the season, everything from a heavy winter to a mesh fly sheet. 

I do this for A few reasons including cleanliness, avoiding bite and kick marks from herd mates, reduced hair growth** The reason for that is in the wintertime, horses will grow big fluffy coats to keep them warm, when you take your horse with a big fluffy coat into the arena and work him for 20 minutes that big fluffy coat makes him VERY sweaty. Now if you have a heated barn this is a non issue as your horse doesnt grow a coat and has a nice warm place to go after a workout. Most people however myself included have there horses turned out year round which means no warm place for the sweaty horse to go after a ride. A winter blanket keeps your horse warm enough that they do not need to grow their big coat and therefore doesn't get as sweaty and can be turned out easily after a ride. 

CHIROPRACTIC/ MASSAGE 

"I don't even get these treatments for myself, no way I am going to be doing it for an animal"

Well! Here is the deal. A broke, well mannered, great tempered horse will still give it his all despite being in pain. but WHY!? It doesn't matter whether you are doing trail riding, roping, or anything inbetween. When you are expecting your horse to perform for you it is common courtesy to make sure he is comfortable while doing it. Not to mention the horse who is not going to react... thats a dream horse. It is very very common for even a broke horse to kick up, crowhop or buck due to body pain. But pain doesn't just present in the form of bad behavior. It can also be as subtle as your horse not picking up a lead on one side quite as well as the other. Or maybe he doesn't have the spring i his stride that he used to. 

There are many things that can cause a horse to become "out of  alignment" just like us. It could have been a little to much fun in the field, a slip, an awkward kick out to a heard mate (and guess what, horses are still ridiculous even if they are all by themselves!). It could be related to having dental work done (when the teeth are in line the body needs to adjust also). Could be from a poor saddle fit, could be because the RIDER is out of alignment. Horses are so awesome, they will do their best to compensate not only for their body problems but yours as well. 

I cannot express enough the importance of these treatments and the incredible difference doing this is going to make for you and your horse. Picture this, you get on your horse and after your routine warm up you ask for a left lead and up pops his back feet. naturally you respond with a swift kick and a big ol excuse me!? but this behavior repeats day 2, 3, 4 and you start to be concerned. Do you have a bucker on your hands? I can assure you a few $100 treatments is a lot cheaper than a new saddle or a month of training! When I have a horse in my care that has shown a behavior like this the first thing I always do Is have a chiro/massage done on them. 9 times out of 10 when the horse realizes it no longer hurts to make that motion, the behavior completely stops. 

Therapists that I recommend

Adrielle Westrop - Out West Equine Sport Therapy - https://www.facebook.com/Out-West-Equine-Sport-Therapy-147461088748901/ - 403-915-5898 

Shane Bullock- Crooked Creek Ventures (Chiropractic) - http://www.crookedcreekventures.com/ - 403-752-6001

Julie Parsonage- Horses In Harmony- http://horsesinharmony.ca/- 403-807-1941

TRAINING

If you have the patience, the ability and the time to train your own horse... go for it! But if you are the average horse owner with dogs and kids and a husband who eats a lot you might not have time to see your horse daily (Here here!) There is NO SHAME in sending your horse out. I would recommend you do this not only to get a great start on your four legged friend but also yearly or as needed to keep all of his buttons operating properly. There are small simple things that can get out of hand real fast if you aren't confident in handling them. From a trainers perspective, the dream horse owners would send their horses back yearly for a month long "tune up", nothing nicer than a horse thats been kept up on! PS- this is for your sanity, safety and happiness. Trust me, a horse at his best, one that you can jump on an ride down the road or in the arena on a whim and not worry about getting planted is the horse that makes riding fun! 

The reality is I could go on and on and on with all of the things you should/ could do to keep your horse performing at his best. I challenge every horse owner to give these things a try and I guarantee you will be thrilled with the results and the change you will see in your animal! 

Happy Riding!! 

Arlie's Birth Story (long, unorganized thoughts)

I am sitting here in the waiting room of the NICU, writing this story while it is fresh in my mind. I am sure there are some things I have already forgotten and there are definitely some details that I will intentionally leave out in this version at least!

Thursday, August 25th I was having braxton hicks contractions that were 5 minutes apart. I called Mark down from Calgary and told him it was time for the baby to come. He arrived at about 9pm we went to bed and i slept so soundly through the night and woke up with nothing!

Saturday I was having timeable contractions with some nausea but same deal I went to bed and woke up with nothing.

Sunday was much of the same and Mark had to leave to go back to Calgary at about supper time. He left at about 6:45pm, I ate supper and as I was finishing I threw up ALL of it. I am a big baby when it comes to throwing up so naturally I was bawling and called Mark to tell him he needed to come home. He was passing through Claresholm at the time and said that he could not afford to miss more work from a false alarm so he needed me to wait until I knew for sure.

My dinner that ended up all over the bathtub (gross)

August 29th at 12:30am I woke up to go to the bathroom and noticed that my water had broken. I cleaned up and tried to go back to bed but my contractions at that point were ranging between 3-6 minutes apart lasting 30-45 seconds each. I had a bath which really helped with the discomfort and I was able to sleep in the tub for about an hour. Mark got home at about 2:30am and we tried our best to sleep, At 7 am my midwife Terri arrived at check me and I was about 3 cm dilated. BTW getting checked was NOT fun.

At around that time Mark set up the birth pool and Terri set up at the birthing supplies. From 7am - 5pm I laboured at home. My contractions were 3-5 minutes apart lasting at most 45 seconds in all that time I had not dilated AT ALL. Still 3 cm. At that time Terri recommended we transfer into the hospital to get some Oxytocin which is a drug commonly used to induce labour.

Important to note at this point I have total anxiety in regards to hospitals/needles. So bad that I tend to pass out and convulse as a reaction to fear/pain (a condition called vasovagal nerve reaction). So when Terri said she thought we should go in I was really scared. Scared to the needles, scared of passing out and harming my baby, scared of the medical intervention. That being said, having full faith in my midwife I agreed that we should go in.

So off we go to the Chinook Regional Hospital where we were received very well. The OBGYN on call was not one that normally works there but she was absolutely fantastic.

at about 5pm they started me on Oxytocin, starting at 6 mg increasing by 2 mg every half hour, as well as antibiotics for group b step as I tested positive and it was coming upon 18 hours since my water broke. I thought the contractions before then were bad... they continued to get stronger and stronger. Poor Mark didn't know what to do but he did so well. It was complete survival mode for me, Grabbing onto whatever I could making all sorts of barbaric sounds, it was rough! The nurses offered me an epidural and after a few minutes of thought I agreed, they mentioned that the anesthesiologist was in a surgery and asked if I would like some morphine in the meantime to which I replied heck ya. Let me tell you my anxiety over needles was totally non existent at that point. In hindsight the morphine did absoloutly nothing to cut the pain, it only made me feel more exauhsted in between contraction which in their defense they DID tell me exactly that.

After 2.5 hours of contractions on Oxytocin I still hadn't dilated past 3 cm. When the nurse checked me and told me that I hadn't changed It was so frustrating. At that point the anesthesiologist came to give me an epidural ( they said he would be out by 7:45, he didn't arrive until 8:45 and trust me every minute counted). By no means did I want to look at the equipment for the epidural but I was so past the point of caring that I just couldn't wait for it to go in! The anesthesiologist was really wonderful at explaining everything and making sure we knew what was happening. He said that once it was in my first contraction would start the same but end very differently and they would continue to get better from there until I was only feeling the tightening with no pain.

What was causing me the most worry about accepting the epidural was that I didn't want to feel like I had failed at a natural birth. But let me tell you Mark and I truly believe that the epidural saved me and made the outcome of Arlie's birth MUCH different. You don't have to be a medical expert to understand that labouring for 20 hours with no dilation is not good!

I remember they laid me down on a pillow so that I was tilted a little but still on my back and I felt such relief that I was able to close my eyes and dose off. With each contraction I was still aware of it happening and could feel the muscles working but felt absolutely no pain whatsoever.

at about 10:00pm Mark, Terri the midwife and I were just happily chatting. It was so so so SO SO different from what was happening the hours previous! At around that time, the nurse came in and we asked her how long she thought we would be going, She said most women dilate about a cm an hour so we should expect at least another 6 hours of labour. She was SURE that we would not be having this baby today.

**disclaimer it may get a little graphic here**

At about 10:30pm all of the sudden I felt a REALLY strong contraction in my vagina which was not where I was feeling them before, I said whoa I feel something. The nurse said its all good just relax. Well the next one came and I was like WHOA this is a lot of pressure and I had to use some breathing techniques to get through it. The nurse came to check me and said Oh! You are 99% there! We just need to wait a few more minutes for all the cervix to clear away. At this point I just remember feeling surprised/excited/scared that the time was actually here!

The nurse went out to get the doctor and came back and said she would be there in a few minutes. She checked me again and sure enough it was go time!!

Terri and Mark stayed by my side to help me breathe through the pressure of the contractions. The doctor popped her head in and said i'll be at the desk when you're ready.

The nurse came back to my said and said Ok Lindsay, when you feel a contraction you are going to lift up your legs, grab your thighs, take a big deep breath in and hold it, chin to chest and push the air out of your bottom. So here we go! One big push the nurse said wow you know what you are doing, she went to quickly get the Dr.
about 8 minutes later with the Doctor ready to catch, Terri on my left leg, the nurse on my right leg and Mark by my side. The three women were all instructing me on when to push and when to stop. They were all saying go go go go go and all of the sudden I look down and see my baby! She had come out like a rocket! The doctor said give one more push and out came her legs and up on my chest.

Arlie had the cord wrapper around her neck, so as soon as they were able to cut the cord they had to take her away to try and get her breathing on her own. She was having a hard time and when they cleared out her lungs, they found a brown liquid which made them think she had inhaled some of her first poop (called muconium) although this didn't make sense to anyone as my fluids were completely clear. At this point I think I was in total shock. Mark was standing by Arlie just amazed with her, and I could sort of see what was happening over the doctors head while she was working on getting my placenta out. Because our girl came out so fast I did have a second degree tear. Once the placenta was out, The doctor said here is some freezing and started right away on my stitches, I could totally feel that, and was grateful for Terri holding my hand. I remember just feeling strangely calm while all of this was happening. Trying not to look at the doctor because I didn't want to see anything in the reflection of her glasses.


Being In the NICU 

Mark went with Arlie to the NICU, and the doctor finished cleaning me up. Once she was finished they said I would have to wait 1 hour to make sure that my legs would be strong enough from the epidural to get out of bed to see my baby.

In the meantime, Arlie was swept off to the NICU and Mark with her. He says they tried to get him to leave but he refused so there was a great nurse who stayed with him and explained everything that was happening. She was not breathing on her own so they hooked her up to the CPAP machine, which is a machine that pushes air into the lungs. They mentioned that because of the brown fluid they found in her lungs they would be treating her with antibiotics for an infection.

Once I was up the nurses helped me rinse off in the shower, got me in a gown and wheeled me down to see Arlie. When I got there it was 1am and she was tucked safely into the incubator with the cpap machine on her nose. I am not sure what was going on with me, after all the action and being awake for 25 hours I was not worried about her and just wanted to go to bed. I said hi to her and off to bed I went, across the hospital in the maternity ward and Mark slept on the couch in her room.

In the morning when I got up and went to see Arlie, she still had on the cpap machine but it was only on room air which was great. Very shortly after that they removed it so she could just be on her own. The nurse explained that Arlie was looking Jaundice, and that when that happens in less than 24 hours it is cause for more serious concern. They did bloodwork on her and discovered that she was DAT positive, meaning that we had a blood incompatibility that was causing her to have some issues. They put her right away on the phototherapy lights which meant we couldn't hold her. They also put her right away on the antibiotics as well as inserting an NG tube into her nose they could feed her directly into her stomach.

Arlie was on the phototherapy for 24 hours. That night they brought another lady and her newborn into my room on labor and delivery ward. That was really tough, listening to the happenings with them and being alone made all of my emotions come flooding in. I went into Arlie's room to sleep on the couch and had a good long cry. It was like I had just realized then that our baby was not healthy and that we had such a different beginning that I hoped for.

The next day things change dramatically for us. She came off the phototherapy which meant we could finally hold her. I was able to start trying to breastfeed her. It took us until we were almost out of the NICU to get to where I could feed her from breastfeeding only. In the beginning she was either being bottle fed pumped milk or having it through the NG tube. I think it was day 4 that they switched her from the incubator to a crib which was exciting

Not going to lie overall is was a ROUGH week. The next two days Mark moved our entire house from Lethbridge to Calgary. He was so exhausted and It was hard to be there dealing with all of this by myself.

The day before we left, our nurse mentioned that there was talk of us being discharged. I was so thrilled because at that point it seemed like we didn't need to be there anymore. No more tubes no more lights etc. The Doctor came in and told me that he was transferring us up to the pediatric unit so they could weigh her in the morning as well as do a car seat tolerance test. I am not the kind of person to argue with a Doctor but I was basically like... WTF. After he left my nurse admitted that she thought it was too bad, because we could have had both things done by now. I went up to see see the pediatric ward and to check the sleeping situation. Not pleasant. There were (obviously) a lot of loud sick kids, the unit was old and the only place for me to sleep was in a chair. I went back down and asked my nurse if I could discharge her against doctors orders (thank you grey's anatomy lol) but of course she didn't recommend it, So I went back into our room, called Mark and bawled by eyes out. It was just overwhelming and seemed like such a waste of time.

Shortly after, our nurse came in and said she had pulled some strings so we would be allowed to stay in the NICU for the night, but that they were taking her off the monitors and we would not have a nurse for the night (They were understaffed). That was MUCH better and totally fine with me as I had already been caring for her by myself. So off the monitors she goes and my next task is to make sure she gained weight overnight. When the nurse weighed her in the middle of the night she had lost 12 grams. I was freaked. AND on top of that at the time I thought I was just so exhausted turns out it was the start of the stomach flu. I called Mark and said babe, I need you to come back from Calgary tonight if you can because I can barely stand up. He was in the same boat and didn't feel like he could drive without falling asleep so we agreed I would have to tough it out. What I decided to do was pump and feed her right from the bottle. Which ended up being the best thing I could have done because little munchkin gained weight! She tolerated the car seat perfectly.

The next morning I was soooo sick. Unbelievably sick. Mark needed to drive another vehicle so Drew & Shiela came down to help with some last minute things and to drive me back. Poor Shiela, seriously. She totally took care of me! Before getting sick I was totally prepared to drive myself. HA!

We quickly visited grandparents and headed home. It was such a long week and I am SO grateful for everyone who helped us and it still helping us. We are so glad to have our little girl home at last.