“Daily Cute”

At least I can try to keep it going . . . Here’s what I found when I came home from work. I think that Hannah-mom was getting a little over-heated but it made no difference to Opal and Poppy Rosie. They can hang on.  They have incredible suction-mouths. So nice to see a mom-belly without a c-section scar for a change. Ron suggested that I provide some fleshing out of details for non-breeders who might be interested.  He remembers when I first used the phrase “blowing coat” to him and he had no idea what I meant (but he sure has learned that in the last 14 years!)   At the risk of boring some or grossing out others I’ll give it a try. If it hadn’t been a holiday weekend I wonder if I would have been quite as patient. Hannah really was in early labor starting Saturday morning at around 10. Things didn’t progress past Lamaze breathing with associated trembling with digging and tearing at the blankets until 8:30 p.m. on Sunday. That’s when the whimpering and moaning started. The books will tell you that Stage I shouldn’t last more than 24 hours. But Hannah didn’t seem distressed and wasn’t leaking any fluid so I decided to give her time. I remembered my own second pregnancy which went something like that. It was the right choice. Huh?  Oh yes, bitches naturally do Lamaze breathing: nobody needs to hold a class for them.  They get a far away look in their eye as they stare at a focal point and breathe heavily and steadily.  Then the contraction will pass and they will rest. Did I mention that I stayed more-or-less up with Hannah Saturday night, delivered puppies all Sunday night, then last night stayed mostly up with her again?  Just in case anyone thinks this is all fun stuff.  I let Hannah up about midnight last night as she needed to “do her business”.  She seemed a little overly hot so I took her temperature and it was elevated.  I was a little concerned and called the vet this morning as I keep remembering our Memorial Day Litter Disaster 8 years ago, but the vet said just to watch her and that it’s not unusual.  She appears to be fine today and has plenty of appetite. The puppies were a little fussy at that midnight wake-up call, so I weighed each one.  They hadn’t gained and I wasn’t able to express much milk, so I decided to supplement each. I believe in tube feeding.  It’s faster and more efficient than bottle feeding and you don’t run the risk of aspiration.   It’s easy once you learn.  Need more details, Ron? Weighing and feeding 9 puppies takes some time.  I didn’t lay back down until 2:30 a.m. I went to work for just a few hours today and then brought papers home with me. Of course I haven’t exactly touched them yet, but I will. Tom needed to go to town and hit the Verizon store for a network extender. We require it for our new Droid Incredibles that were delivered today.  I’ll have the same cell # but I think that our house land-line is going away. I can’t wait to play with it.  And with the puppies. But I guess I really do need to do some work.