PHOEBE'S FIRST PREGNANCY
The beginning of :
CH. Dawn's Riley Reignbo JH (Sire) and CH. Brenvilla's Phoebe of Rajki JH (Dam)
8/10/01- Phoebe was at the vet on Wed. to check out a little discharge she was having. Yes, I am paranoid, but better safe than sorry is always my motto. It was only day 15 so it was too early to tell if she was pregnant but the vet said her nipples look encouraging and the discharge is common in pregnant bitches and doesn't mean they have an infection. Just to be on the safe side, she gave her antibiotics that are safe during pregnancy. The blood work came back today and her CBC is normal and her progesterone is right where it should be. Her abdomen looks a tiny bit larger and her nipples are a bit different but I don't know if it is just wishful thinking from a hopeful mom. She did throw up this morning which could be a little morning sickness as the embryo's are implanting in her uterus right about now (day 14-18). We will know for sure in two weeks, but all the signs look encouraging.
8/20/01- Phoebe is 27 days along now and I am 99% sure she is pregnant. Her nipples are pink and much bigger, her belly is getting a little bigger and she is having clear discharge. She has had morning sickness and hasn't been eating her breakfast either, all signs of pregnancy.
She will be palpated to see if she is indeed pregnant on Sat. 8/25/01. If she is pregnant that will put the due date on 9/27/01, give or take a day or two. They will be ready to go to their new homes near Thanksgiving!!! What a neat thing to be grateful for!
8/25/01- WE ARE PREGNANT!!!!!! Ok, I knew she was but it is neat to actually see it for your own eyes. The ultrasound showed at least 7 puppies but the vet said she would expect a few more. So we wont know until near the end how many, but more than 7 is great! We are both in for a lot of work. Her due date it Sept. 25. I will keep you posted of her progress.
9/01/01- All is well, and we are starting to prepare for the big day. Rob is getting ready to build the whelping box and I have ordered almost everything she needs. We have also signed up for whelpwise, a monitoring service www.whelpwise.com, because I am new at this and my vet is over an hour and a half away. I feel a lot better knowing she will be monitored and have someone there 24 hours a day to help me and answer my questions. The equipment will be able to monitor contractions and heartbeats. It will let us know if there is anything going wrong and they will help us through out the delivery 24 hours a day. As you can see she is getting a little plump, but this is just the start of that. She is 38 days along now.
9/8/01- Day 45, every thing is going well this week. Phoebe is eating a little more and is now on puppy food for the extra protein. She is getting a little uncomfortable now as she routinely wakes me up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. I feel like we have a new born in the house because the routine has become..."I let her out last time, you let her out this time..." It is pretty funny until we realize we will not be getting much sleep for awhile. She barely has a waist left and is getting pretty plump as you can see, but she is taking it all in stride. I can't feel them kick yet, but I should be able to soon. The whelping box is almost finished and I am excited that there are only 17 more days to go now!
9/16/01- Day 53. Phoebe looks huge now, and I can't believe she is going to get even bigger in the next 9 days. Wow, how time files! We got the whelp wise equipment today and have set it up. We are in the process of locating all the puppies with the fetal Doppler but it will take some practice. I should be able to tell how many after a few days of doing it. I can see the puppies actively moving and feel them kick now. It's so amazing! The whelping box is ready and we are counting down the days.
9/23/01- Well we didn't get much sleep last night since we had some contractions they had us monitor her every 4 hours. We will monitor her again tonight which will tell us if her labor is progressing. If so, we might have puppies by morning. She has been very quite today with a drop in temperature, but she is still eating.
With the Doppler, we can consistently find at least 8 puppies but most of the time it's 9. Sometimes we can find 11 but we may be picking up the same heartbeats twice. All are beating normally and are strong. So I guess we will just have to wait to see how many are in there. She sure is big though!
11 PUPPIES BORN 9/24/01
JUST BORN / WEEK 1 / WEEK 2 / WEEK 3 / WEEK 4 / WEEK 5 / WEEK 6 / WEEK 7 / WEEK 8