Here’s the first group photo:
To recap: 2 blue girls, 3 black girls, 2 blue boys, 2 black boys. No pinks, and only one black girl is a mismark. Tom says that Hannah spent the extra day in stage-1 labor because she was lining them up to shoot out like peas through a tube. The first 7 averaged about 20 minutes apart, with a little longer break between #5 and #6 while Hannah had some water and went outside to potty. Then we had about 1.5 hours rest while a black girl worked her way down from way up high, and another hour for the final blue boy. I was worried about the last boy because I could feel his bare feet in the birth canal for what seemed like an eternity before Hannah pushed him far enough for me to reach in and pull. He was the only one I had to go in for: the others came out on their own or at most I helped ease them out. No shot, having had bad luck with separated placentas. By now I know to just give it time. Tom was up helping and updating the blog for all except the last boy. Thank you, dear! BTW this is the first Cardigan litter I’ve free-whelped here at my house in over 5 1/2 years. That was so long ago that it was before the days of nightly hot-flashes. And since people were watching on the camera, I had to stay dressed! Individual pictures will be coming after I make some coffee!!