Sorry that I have not gotten to this sooner.  I can't believe it has been a week already.  It did take a few days for "recovery" and then a couple more to catch up.

But for those of you interested I will give a run down of the events and I will get some more pictures up today.

The monitoring equipment arrived late in the day on Wednesday, May 7.  We did not do any monitoring until the next morning.  Emma was pretty good about it, but ideally they have to lay very still for 50-60 minutes to really assess.  She was not having any contractions.  On Saturday (5/10) she had some uterine irritability but still no real contractions.  We did do an extra monitoring session and all was quiet. 

On Monday 5/12 we monitored twice and she was still not having any activity.  She also had no change in temperature yet.  (Temperature will usually drop a couple of degrees 48 hours before onset of whelp).  But by the time we were ready for bed she was acting a bit restless and a had a couple of panting sessions.  She got me up a couple times to go potty and continued to have panting sessions but would then settle in and go to sleep.

5/13 She ate her normal breakfast in the morning but was acting very restless.  It was hard for me to get her to lay down to monitor.  A about 8:30 am her bag of water broke and I knew it was time.  I put in my call to Tina Moodhart at 9:00.  Tina had very kindly agreed to be one of my backup helpers.  I was really happy because Tuesday was the only day that Bill was not going to be able to leave work to come home.  I didn't want to do this myself.  Tina arrived at 10:oo am and first puppy - male came at 10:15!  I did not have to assist much as Emma knew what she was doing.  He was a bit slow to get going but once he did, he was great.  He had a nice ridge and some white on his chest.  He weighed in at 12 oz.  We continued to monitor and did give her some calcium and oxytocin (to help contract the uterus).  And at 12:17, puppy #2 a girl arrived.  She came out kicking and screaming and was very active.    We waited again and around 2 pm, puppy #3 came, also a girl.  She was also very feisty at birth.  The girls were 9.5 oz and 10 oz at birth.

Then the long wait began.  We continued to monitor but there were not a lot of contractions.  Fetal heart rate on the last puppy remained strong.  We gave her quite a bit of oxytocin (all this per vet instruction).  But she just was not really contracting anymore and we were getting worried.   At 8 pm, my reproductive vet recommended a c-section for the last puppy.  Since she was going to do the procedure, I was very willing.  I would not have been as willing if I had to go to the emergency vet clinic.  But she is about 45 minutes from home.  We packed up the puppies, Emma and some supplies, just in case puppy started to come on the way and headed off.

When we arrive they took an x-ray and determine that he was laying very  low in her uterus and had not progressed at all up the birth canal.  So the c-section was going to be necessary.  The other pups were put into warm incubators and Emma was prepped.  At about 10:15 pm, boy #2 was born.  He was very vigorous and was the largest at 14.2 oz.  The use a very short acting anesthesia and Emma was awake and nursing the new boy within a few minutes of the completion.   We packed them all up and headed home.  It was around midnight when we got home.  It was not a bad night although Emma does lots of licking and kept knocking the pups off the nipples.  but they were all eating and doing fine.  I am sleeping in the room with the whelping box and did not get much sleep.  Every little peep had to be checked on.

Since Tuesday, I am happy to say the pups have all gained weight at every weigh in.  I do it once in the early morning and once in late afternoon.  It is not unusual for pups to lose an ounce or two and/or stay the same.  But this group caught on quickly and gained well.  It is expected weight should double in the first 7-10 days.  By Saturday (5th day) they had all doubled their weights.

On Friday, 5/9, we went to the vet to have dew claws removed.  Both Emma and the pups did very well.  No problems with that at all.  Emma's incision was checked and she is also doing great. 

Emma is a good mom and the first 4 days would only leave to go potty.  I even fed her in the whelping box because she would not get up to eat.  But her appetite remains very hardy.  Since yesterday (5/19), she is willing to spend a bit more time out of the box.  She came up on the bed with me twice last night (not for more that 10 minutes) and went out this morning and sat in the sun in the yard for about 10 minutes. 

So that brings us to their first week birthday today (5/20).  As of this morning both of the boys - now called blue and red for the ID ribbons they are wearing are over 2 lbs.  The girls, pink and purple will likely be there tomorrow.  Today they will get their little claws clipped for the first time.  Even though they are tiny, they are sharp and they are really using them to knead Emma for milk. 

One last note for now.  While I am thrilled to report that at this point, they all appear to be show quality and will go to show homes, I am sad that I had to disappoint some really nice pet homes.   That is the hardest part of all this.

That's it for now.

Carol