Me vs. the dog . . . again

When I was about 37 weeks pregnant with Kayla, I went over to my parents house to make them dinner and I took our dog with me. Max was about 60 pounds and a nightmare on a leash. He was always pulling and tugging but I thought since I was only going from the car to the house, I could manage. When Max got out of the car he immediately started pulling on the leash. I went to yank on the leash to get him to stop except for the exact moment I yanked, he decided to come back to me. The result was that there was no 60 pound weight at the end of the leash when I tugged so I fell backwards onto my bottom. Luckily my dad had just pulled up so he helped me up and helped me get everything into the house. I called Kurt who thought we should call Labor and Delivery just to see what they said. Of course they said to come right in to have me checked out. So instead of cooking my parents dinner, I spent the evening in L&D being monitored (and trying to convince them I landed on my bottom and didn't hit my stomach at all). Kayla was fine and me - I just had a sore bottom.

Well, last night I had another run in with our dog; except this time it was 90 pound Cody. Now, Cody is better on the leash then Max but does have moments when he forgets to behave so you have to watch and make sure you see other people or dogs first and then he will sit and watch them go by.

Well, here's what happened: We went to go for a family walk but only made it 2 houses before we stopped to talk to a neighbor. The husband needed a tool to work on his bike and so we walked back to our house to get tools out of Kurt's truck. His truck was parked in the street so they were working on the bike on the driver's side of the truck (kind-of in the middle of the street). Kurt handed me the leash and I was standing at the back, drivers corner of the truck talking to Evan who was across the street on the sidewalk wanting to cross. I saw the girls cross the street in front of the truck but it didn't register in my brain that their friend was with them and that Cody would be excited to see her. I was focused on my conversation with Evan and was totally unprepared for the dog to take off.

It is amazing to me how something can happen so fast yet you have time to think a million thoughts. Cody took off around the passenger side of the truck so I got spun around and yanked toward the sidewalk. The leash must have been wrapped around my hand because I couldn't let go. He pulled me to the sidewalk, over the sidewalk, over some grass and over our sidewalk going to our front door before my hand was free (sounds farther than it was but my point was that the level of the ground kept changing on me).

I felt like my feet should have been flying out behind me the yank was so hard - my shoes literally flew off (you think I'm kidding, don't you? I'm not. Kayla had to go and pick them up - they went in 2 different directions). I have no idea how I managed to keep my feet under me. I was thinking: if I fall, I need to get my knees under me to take the brunt of the fall, except I can barely keep my legs going right now, I won't be able to pull them up enough to protect my stomach. Okay, so I need to get my hands down first to stop the fall from hitting the baby, except my right hand is being held in front of me by the leash and I can't pull it back. So I need to roll onto my back so I don't fall onto the baby, except, again, my hand/arm are being pulled forward, how am I going to get my body to turn?

I then realized that if I fell, with only my left hand available to help me, I would probably take a direct hit to my front side. Someone up above was looking out for me, or my guardian angel was right there holding me up because I still don't know how I managed to keep my feet under me just enough to prevent a fall. I felt like I had been shot out of a rocket - it was crazy. It scared me so bad.

I went inside, sat down, calmed down and took inventory of all my parts. Everything seemed to be okay. My thumb on my right hand hurt, probably what the leash was caught on, but it was okay. My hips and a muscle on my right lower abdomen were sore but they had just got yanked pretty good so what did I expect? Overall, everything seemed okay; except my heart was still racing a mile a minute.

Once I was calmed down, we proceeded on our family walk and man, Kurt was on that dog like no tomorrow and boy, did he behave! But it is safe to say that I will not be holding the leash the rest of the pregnancy.

I keep thinking of all the things that could have happened, especially if I had fallen on the baby but I stop myself and say a prayer of thanks that everything is okay and that the baby is okay. I am so blessed!

And today is the day! Come on 3:00!!!! I can't wait!

Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day! Hope your day is filled with love!