In labor, no puppies yet...
"For this sort of uncomfortable mess, the box just won't do! I think I'll just creep up on to mom's bed..."
BACK TO THE WHELPING BOX! I felt bad for kicking her off the bed, so I laid in the box with her for a (long) while...
Pup 1 arrives! Blue Boy!
An hour(ish) later pup 2, "Pink Girl" arrives, and in another hour comes pup 3, "White Girl"!
In another hour (are you sensing a trend?) pup 4, "Gray Girl" finally works her way out, and while we're tending to her, pup number 5, "Green Girl", is born and goes momentarily unnoticed! We weren't expecting them back to back! I guess that's what happens when one of the largest in the litter is followed by the smallest! An hour after that, number 6, "Brown Girl", is born and then we are just waiting on the last little one!
I suppose he was trying to make up for the speedy arrival of Green Girl, because the last little bugger took 2 1/2 hours to arrive. "Black Boy" was born a little traumatically, but he's doing well now. When his bag ruptured indicating his immanent birth, we were unhappy to see that it was thick and dark, dark greenish black (meconium). My main concern was getting the pup suctioned before it attempted to breath. OF course the stinker had to come breech, so I couldn't even slow his birth and suction his mouth and nose... but there was another problem. His feet were coming out - not in any sac (even with the previous puppies who's sac had ruptured, they were still encased in it). I helped guide him out and realized something else... his cord had already severed from the placenta. We rushed him to the warming area and immediately started suctioning him and were rewarded with paw movements. After we were happy with having removed a lot of gunk from his airways, rubbing began and he started breathing. At this point, Harlow still hadn't birthed the placenta (all the others were born with the placentas immediately following). In fact, we had Black Boy all pinked up and nursing before the placenta was birthed - it was separated in two, and foul looking and smelling. I'm still not quite sure what the heck happened in there... but I'm just happy that Black Boy is alive and doing well, considering. He's weaker than his siblings and is being supplemented as needed, but he's definitely a little fighter.
No pictures of his birth, unfortunately... I was a little preoccupied!
Once I can get my iPod hooked up to the computer, I even have a video of blue boy being born!
And here are the close ups of all the puppies I promised!:
BLUE BOY
PINK GIRL
WHITE GIRL
GRAY GIRL
GREEN GIRL
BROWN GIRL
BLACK BOY
And just a few random ones of Harlow and the babies...
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