my sweet little family: December 2012

the birth of Winnie's puppies!

4:28 PM

Well, I began taking Winnie's temperature the 20th of December. The normal temp is around 101 and when her temp drops to 98, that means that labor will start in 2-24 hours.

On the 29th her temp was in the 99's, so we were excited! She was a little restless and "nesting" a lot. Avery cuddled with her and calmed her down a lot!

To celebrate, Livie finished off her tub of ice cream :)

Around 10pm, it was 98 and we then were soooo excited! We got the room ready, and all of the supplies. Winnie was acting REALLY crazy....she would nest, and then lay down for 10 seconds, and then nest again...she even went and hid under the bed...

Nana and I were "on call" all evening. We camped out around her birthing area. Nana didn't sleep at all, and I think I had around 3 hours of sleep.

Her temp stayed down, but no other NEW signs were coming...

Avery was glad to greet her in the morning...

Winnie LOVED when we brought her bowls of snow to eat!

Winnie loved having Nana near her...

I wasn't sure if Winnie would go into the 2nd stage of labor while at church, so I took the girls, and then came home with Nana. The girls, here, are cuddling with Winnie before they left!

The rest of our day was spent camped out in the bedroom....lots of waiting going on...

until....I went to put Livie to bed at 9pm. I came back into the room, and Nana said that Winnie was acting a little off. She was only sitting up. Sure enough. After watching her for a bit, she was totally in the second stage of labor. She was zoning out, closing her eyes, and breathing hard. She also began to shake, too...that started at 9:40 pm.

She was finally able to lay down and start to push. Her water broke at 10:20pm, and we couldn't believe it was time!

First puppy was born at 10:24pm. A boy, who wears the green necklace, and we named him Gibby, after the girls' favorite show, iCarly. He was 8.86 ounces at birth :)

Winnie didn't really know what to do, so it was good that we had done a lot of reading on what to do. I wasn't planning on getting gross and bloody, but I just did it! For Gibby, we had to tear open his sac, and cut his cord for him....Winnie didn't know what to do! We also suctioned out his nose and mouth. When we gave him to Winnie, she kept moving away from him. Worried at first that she wasn't going to love her puppies, but she came around!

After that, things kept going very fast! Avery was brave enough to be in the room with us, and she was great at recording when they each came out, their names, colors, etc for us!

Puppy #2 came 19 minutes later...another boy who wears the blue necklace, we named Freddie. He was born at 10:43, and was 9.5 ounces.

Puppy #3 came 18 minutes later feet first...a girl who wears the purple necklace, we named Gracie Rose. She was born at 11:01 pm, and was 8.4 ounces.

Gracie Rose was a little gurgily at birth, so we had to rough her up a bit and suction her out really good. She got some alone time with Avery, who was so excited to have a GIRL!!!

Puppy #4 was born feet first at 11:20, 19 minutes later...a boy we named Charlie. He wears the orange/yellow necklace, and was 9.75 ounces.

Winnie so far is an excellent mother. She doesn't like to be away from her babies very long at all, and would prefer us to not handle them too much :)

It's so interesting to watch them eat. Their little mouths get so big and just suck and suck, and they use their feet to push on Winnie to get the milk out, too. They are noisy while eating, too ;)

Here is Winnie and her new family after a long night! Winnie cleaned them all-night-long, because I heard her doing it all-night-long! They were a noisy bunch, for sure!

Here's Freddie!

Here is Charlie!

Here is Gracie Rose!

Here is Gibby!

Here are a couple of videos we took of them:

We moved Winnie and her puppies into their home this afternoon. Nana was helpful to explain that it will be nice to have Winnie and them in a closed in area for night time, and when we are away.