The Pupcakes and The Baby

One of the hardest adjustments has been for our two dogs, Maggie and Viper. Jonathan and I had nine months to prepare, and knew what was coming.

All of Thomas's toys and chairs we have had in the living room for several weeks, letting the dogs smell them and become familiar. On Wednesday, the dogs met the newest member of the family. Very little warning of the actual baby, besides his blanket that we brought home from St. Peter's.

Maggie is an Akita, a Japanese breed who historically are said to be babysitters of children while their parents worked in the fields. Maggie's prior owner had two children while they had Maggie, so thankfully, she recognized the car seat. She immediately stuck her head in the car seat and gently licked Thomas's cheek. He didn't even flinch.

Viper is a maltapomapoo, and an attention hog. Where she used to sit in my lap constantly, she's adjusting to sitting next to me (due both to Thomas and the stitches). She's not terribly pleased about this arrangement, and is waiting for Thomas to return to where he came from.

Her new favorite place to sleep is in Thomas's car seat.

The first feeding, I sat down in the rocker with Thomas. Viper immediately jumped up and Maggie ran over to see what was going on. It continued this way for the rest of the night - each time I got up, so did they.

But my favorite moment came around 2 in the morning...

I had just laid Thomas back down. I returned to the rocker and sat down. Thomas let out the tiniest whimper. I barely heard it. Maggie immediately jumped up, ran to the bassinet, and stuck her head inside to make sure he was okay. She ran over to me, put her head in my lap, and kept looking back to Thomas. When I didn't get up immediately, she ran back to the bassinet and sat next to it until I came over. I knew that she would protect him.

The photo above came as we were working on Thomas's birth announcement. Jonathan grabbed the camera just as Maggie was walking over to inspect everything.

I love that Thomas isn't afraid of all 100 pounds of her, and that soon...hopefully...Viper will warm up as well. :)