Friday, June 8, 2012

We have 10 Beautiful Babies

It turned out that Ivie Nesting was the sign I needed that babies were coming, sooner than we anticipated.  Ivie woke me at 1am on Tuesday night and I took her outside, little did I know that her water had broken.  She panted and just could not get comfortable.  I kept telling her to lay down and go to sleep.  I am not sure how much sleep I actually got that night but I can tell you it wasn't very much.

Anne had told me not to let her out on her own and to keep her on a leash for potty breaks, thank goodness otherwise I might have let her stay outside for a bit to stay calm and if so I am sure she would have had her babies in her hole.  As it was I was in the shower and came out to hear pink girl screaming her fool head off.  I was shocked, her temp hadn't dropped and we were a day early, OMG.  Panic set in.  Found Ivie and pink girl and another boy that was stillborn in the whelping box, and right behind pink girl comes purple girl.  I am in my bathrobe trying to get a towel and racing around collecting my supplies that I hadn't put in the room.  Trying to revive the boy and make sure that Purple and pink are ok, it was crazy.  I called my good friend Heather that lives about 3 minutes away and has bred Papillons and told her what was happening.  She came down and helped me get things organized.   I have to say Ivie was incredible, she hadn't seen Heather since she was a baby and Heather's 18 month old son came and was doing what toddler's do best and Ivie just took it all in stride.  Didn't care that Heather was in the whelping box helping her deliver her puppies or that Blake was making a ton of noise during the process.  After the second puppy I was able to call Anne and said something to the effect of "WE ARE HAVING PUPPIES NOW".  Anne had wanted to be here to assist but being 5 hours away that wasn't going to happen.  Instead she became my lifeline.  I would call and tell her when contractions had started and between her and Heather we were on a roll.

Auntie Linda came to the rescue as well.  She told work she had an emergency and just left, I am amazed she didn't get a ticket, it took her 2 hours to get here from Olympia and I can usually do that when there is no traffic and it is not summer time so I can only imagine what that road trip was like.  Linda is Miss Organization and she just came in and was able to get warm towels when we needed it and wrote down the important stuff like when puppies were born and how much they weighed and all that good stuff.  After the 8th puppy, Ivie started to get tired.  She had a contraction and then things stopped after a 1/2 an hour Linda and I packed puppies and Ivie up and took off to the vet.  As I was calling the Vet to tell them we were coming in, Anne was calling Linda to tell us to get going so we were all on the same page.. Everyone that is except the "New" receptionist at the vets office.  When I told her what was happening and we were coming in she tried to tell me that Dr. Wagner didn't have an opening until 430 and could I come in then.  I politely told her I was coming in NOW and if Dr. Wagner had an appointment, they could wait, this was an emergency, Go interrupt her NOW and tell her that I am on my way and to prep for surgery.  Apparently she did as I said because the whole staff was standing by ready and waiting.  They took another x ray and realized there were three more puppies so I told her to get those babies out and save Ivie.  Ivie was a trooper and seemed to know we were all helping her.  Orange girl was stuck and the problem child she did not want to come out and when she did Ashley the vet tech really did an amazing job reviving her and getting her moving.  Behind her was the biggest pup of the litter, Lime boy who weighed in at 1 lb 11 ounces so even if she had made it out, I am not sure he would have.

Ivie recovered nicely and we had to tube feed Orange girl she just didn't seem to have the sucking motion figured out.  Brought everyone back home and Linda made sure I had food and then drove home, because she really had to go back to work yesterday.  Wed night was a hard night, I was very worried about Orange girl and I tried many times through the night to get her to eat, tried bottle feeding and tried to tube feed her but I knew I just wasn't getting the tube down the right way.  After the 3rd time of trying and crying I told her dammit you have to eat, I am NOT going to lose you.  I put her back on Ivie and she started to suckle and eat.  I really cried then, throughout the night I would sleep for a bit when the puppies did and then check on her and she was doing awesome.  Anne showed up yesterday around noon and it was just great to have her here.  She checked on all the puppies and agreed with me they are beautifully marked.  She showed me how to supplement them to give Ivie a break and how important it was to get Ivie out of the box so she can replenish her milk.  I am not sure she is producing enough milk for these babies, but they all have gained weight with the supplement and are doing well.

Final count is 6 boys and 4 girls.  Girls are Pink, Purple, Yellow and Orange and boys are Blue, Green, Red, White, Lime and Teal.  Purple was the smallest at 14 ounces and Lime was the largest.  No wonder Ivie was as huge as she was.  She had about 15 pounds of puppies inside of her.

Anne made me go and sleep last night and whoever said sleep is overrated hasn't delivered puppies and worried about them the first night of their lives.  I am feeling much better and will take naps when the puppies take naps.  I also have a few friends that I think I can count on to come over periodically and let me take a good long nap.

I also thought I had an extra day and had planned on going into the office Wed morning at least for 1/2 the day.  I had some clients coming in for appointments and all of that went out the window very fast.  I think somewhere in the panic I did manage to call and tell them we were having puppies and to cancel my appointments.  My staff has been awesome and just picked up the pieces and taking care of everything.  I am glad I had not been working on new clients and actually had passed them all out to my employee's before I left Tuesday night.

Sorry this is such a big post but lots had happened and I just hadn't had time to write.  I will post more when I can.  Susan

2 comments:

  1. Thank you so much for taking the time to update us all! Could Ivie look any more sweet and happy in that pic with her babies? Adorable. She looks proud! I look forward to seeing how much the puppies change over the next couple of months. Those two baby girls look perfect!! I also hope you will get some much needed and desreved sleep. :)

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  2. Oh, Susan! My goodness. Miss Ivie decided to do things "her" way. Aren't you SO glad that you rushed around like crazy to get her whelping room ready last week? Little did you (or your dad) know that the whelping box would be needed a little early. We are SO happy that everything turned out well in the end, but cannot imagine how stressful 6-6-12 was. Isn't that a cool date though? It won't be hard to remember these puppies' birthdays. Ivie is incredible (as you well know). She looks like a "perfect momma". I'm sure despite having an emergency C-section, Ivie must feel better now that she's lost that puppy weight. Hope everyone continues to eat well and that all (including you Susan) are getting rest. What do Brandy, Gandolph, & Frodo think about all of these new additions to their home?

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