7 so far…make that 8…now 9…maybe that’s it

Started at 4 am this morning.  So far 4 girls (2 brindle 2 black) and 3 boys (all brindle).  One of the black girls is marked just like daddy, except her slash is on the show side instead of the off side.  All the rest are flashy and evenly marked so far.

#8 is another brindle girl, with beautiful markings and bright brindle.

#9 is another black girl, gorgeous markings.  Slow to start, so good thoughts as we rubrubrubrub.

And I think we’re done.  #9 has come around from limp and unresponsive to pink and squeaking, but is still gasping a bit.  I’m hopeful.

Lizzie seems to think she’s done.  2 placentas still inside

Not yet

Nope, no puppies yet.  Her temp did drop significantly today for a couple hours before going back to where it was.  She’s very, very uncomfortable and I see some other signs, but no labor yet that I can tell.

Tonite sometime?  Tomorrow?  Surely by tomorrow…

Does your belly hang low

Does it wobble to and fro…

She has gained 14 pounds.

And, just because he was there and cute:

A watched dog…

…never whelps. 

I feel like she’s getting close based on behavior and a couple other signs.  Waiting impatiently for a temp drop though!

And they called her Large Marge

I mean, they don’t ever just explode, do they?

Le Box De Whelp

So, Leslie is lending me her whelping box.  Which she’s never used, but “said” she put together once when she got it. 

Turns out, at least by the time it got to me, there was at least 1 piece missing in the floor.  The directions were…unhelpful, but no matter which way I tried things I couldn’t manage to make a complete floor.    So, off to Lowe’s I went and instead of getting 3 pieces of floor (why wouldn’t you want a solid 1-piece floor?) I had them cut a single sheet.  Then I decided that painted wood would probably be difficult to keep clean and sanitary, so I went wandering in the tile department and found these standard Armstrong commercial floor tiles.  You know, the ones you saw in your school throughout your entire childhood.    For $.66 each, I really couldn’t beat it.  16 of those, plus some adhesive and a little bio-blocking caulk to fill in the inevitable gaps since I’m not a flooring person by trade.  And voila!

It might not break down quite as small now because of the solid floor piece.  And hopefully Leslie doesn’t mind the lilac color…that’s what you get when the 4-year old helps you pick paint.  Although as Leslie did point out, purple is the color of good ribbons!

Without and with the pig rails.

Alright alright

This is the best I can do.  I made a big blank white screen on my computer and taped it to that, then took a picture with my camera and fiddled with it in photoshop.  Interesting ’cause I went back to look at Kate’s, and they are much more calcified and bright, but hers was taken 4 days before whereas this is 9 or so. The “x” marks are from the vet and mark skulls.  The “?” in the lower right is the 7th, he initially wasn’t sure but by the end we all thought it was one too.  There’s another possible “?” in the upper left that I don’t think is one.  But, there seem to be a good number of spines in the upper leftish/middle of her belly that I’m not sure have corresponding heads…

You should be able to click on them to make them bigger.  I included two different contrast settings, it seemed like I could see some stuff better at different contrasts.

Relieved

X-ray this morning says 7, possibly 8-9 puppies.  She was listening after all!

I tried to scan in the x-ray, because they don’t have digital.  No luck though, bummer!

I really am kinda sorry…

…that I chose to do this to her.  LOL  Poor Lizard, who is normally quiet but cheerful and always following me around…but it’s too much effort for her now.  Although it’s quite amusing to see that her prefered sleeping position is now on her back.  She had a few blissful moments today rolling in something in the backyard, so I snapped her picture.  It’s 85 degrees now so her time outside is very quick potty trips before she’s barking at the back door so she can come inside to station herself on top of the A/C vent once again.

A general poll…if you were going to x-ray, when would you do it?  I’ve heard everything from day 43 to day 60.  I’m impatiently tapping my foot here to find out about how many babies are in there!

Hanging out with Charlie

It's almost pornographic...

I promise

I won’t post belly pictures every few days.  But now that she’s popped, OMG she’s really popped!  Every time I look at her I’m just taken aback by how big she is, and Charlie has taken to calling her “Fat Lizzie”.    And she still has 2.5 – 3 weeks left to go??  This morning she fell/rolled down the bottom 4 stairs (she seems fine, thank goodness), so now I’m paranoid about that and will be hefting her giant bulk down the stairs myself, I guess.  Should be interesting between her and Jack, I’ll be getting my exercise this month for sure.    Speaking of giant bulk, she’s put on like 6 pounds which I have no idea whether that’s high, low, or indifferent, but it is what it is.

I’m trying to decide whether to use the whelping box that my friend Leslie has so graciously offered to loan to me, or to build one myself.  The nesting part of my soul wants the activity of building a box myself.  But seems silly when there is a perfectly good one to borrow.