Getting easier

Things are slowly getting easier. There is more human sleeping happening, which is a great thing, the puppies are getting larger, Clara is more relaxed. I am still quite tired though. We have nearly made it through one whole week.

Things I have learned so far

• puppies mean you don't sleep much
  
• puppies make me everyone stressed (esp. Clara :()
  
• although the ceaserian might have been good for my mental health, it might not have been so great for Clara
  
• new born puppies have little tabs for ears
• tiny little squeaking noises do wake you up
• I think the puppies are dreaming about barking, even though they can't bark yet
• puppies have really strong tongues
• there are as many old wives tails (ha ha ha) about puppies a whelping as there are about childbirth and children
• the puppies are only slowly learning to wag their tails
• the puppies like to sleep in a row, like little sausages

the vista

This has been my outlook for the last, oh god it's only been, two days.Either Neil or I are sleeping/reading/vegging in the bed beside the whelping box (thanks Eva, Agnes and Jo for the lend) Clara all day and night. We'll keep doing this for a bit yet.

P.S. The puppies are in this shot, they are just inline with Clara so you can't see them.

Red, Yellow and Blue

The puppies are here, the post yesterday was a photo taken at the vet, about 15 minutes after they had be 'born' (given that it was a Ceaserian, I'm not sure if born is the right word.)

They have been home with us now since about 3pm yesterday and we a tired already. Clara has finally started to take an interest in them, I think the drugs and shock were taking a toll on her mothering ability. She seems much happier with the situation now. Here is a little video from yesterday afternoon.

3boys

Tomorrow is the day

So. Tomorrow is the day. My poor Clara is sooooo fat. I have just been lying on teh couch near Clara, with my hand on her tummy and it's no wonder she isn't eating a lot at the moment, the puppies are moving around heaps! Really quite amazing. I get the feeling Clara is quite over this whole thing, she is spending so much ring just lying around on her side, doing a very good impersonation of dead. I hope everything goes smoothly tomorrow and we come home with a healthy and happy family.

Happy Birthday to me....

Thanks to all the nice people for the birthday texts, emails and messages. For my birthday so far, I have driven to Clayton with Clara to find out that there are 3 puppies on the way. Of course there are pictures:

So to sum up for all those who are interested:

• put puppies in Clara - Check
• Check how many there are - Check
• Get puppies out of Clara - Booked in for Monday
• Keep puppies alive - Planned for November
• Have lots of people around to play with the puppies - Planned for January

Fingers crossed there will still be three puppies by then too!