The Babies Are Here!!!!

It was late Saturday night.....I knew the puppies were coming.... only a few moments left.....

Okay - so here is the story. It's an amazing one and has become one of my most memorable moments of my life.

Earlier that morning I had taken Tink's temperature just to see if today would be the day. Her temperature was 98.3 - the exact temperature needed to know that I had less than 12 hours before delivery. Darren is out of town - of course. We had spent the day decorating for Christmas, except for trees. That evening I put the kids to bed and made a bed next to Tink, began reading a book and waited. Within 30 minutes Tink's water broke. She was in labor. She started contracting but it took an hour before her first sac came out. Still no puppy. I called my neighbor for help - her dog was the one that got Tink in trouble in the first place so it only seemed fair she helped. :) About a half hour later - she finally pushed out the first baby. It was so traumatic for Tink, she went unconscious. I started to freak out watching my dog pass out, lay limp, eyes gloss over. She had a pulse so I shook her until she regained consciousness. Because she was out, the puppy was still in it's sack and would suffocate. We took over, ripped open the sack, sucked the fluid from the mouth, cut the umbilical cord, tied it with dental floss and cleaned off the puppy. Number 1 was here and it was so exciting. I was a new Mom and was so happy!

An hour later, we delivered puppy Number 2 the same way although this one came feet first. Each time, Tink would pass out - from exhaustion I am sure. Can you imaging pushing for an hour or more for each puppy? Ugh! She did so good and we are so proud of her! Number 3 and Number 4 came the same way - an hour apart.

Then came drama. Puppy Number 5 was not coming. It was an hour and half later and still no puppy. Tink could not push anymore. You could see the contractions but she couldn't push the sac out. I could see it crowning but I couldn't pull the puppy out. This one too was breach. I pulled the feet each time she contracted but she couldn't push hard enough for me to grip the puppy better. After an hour of this - I was desperate to get the puppy out. I had assumed the puppy was gone anyway being stuck in the birth canal for longer than an hour. I did the unthinkable and went inside Tink to pull the puppy out myself. I was able to reach the belly of the puppy and pulled slowly enough to pull it out. Unfortunately pulled to hard and lost the placenta, ripping the umbilical cord from the puppy. There was nothing to tie off and the puppy started bleeding. We couldn't stop it. Scary moment - Tink was "out" again, Puppy wasn't breathing, moving or crying and it was bleeding BAD. Somehow we got it to stop, rubbed the life into the puppy and it started breathing, crying and moving! Thank goodness! All five puppies made it - ALIVE. What an amazing night. We started at 11:00 pm on Saturday and finished at 6:00 am on Sunday morning.

Since Tink was not "awake" after the delivery - she didn't bond with the puppies. Instinctively she would have cut the sack open, pulled the puppy out, cut the cord herself and cleaned the puppy with her tongue. Instead - she had no idea what these were, where they came from and why we were forcing them on her. Because of this, I had to lay next to her every hour, place a puppy on each nipple and force her to breastfeed. Needless to say - I never went to bed that day. She didn't like them at all and growled each time they came close to her. Naturally I was freaking out! There was no way I could hand feed five puppies every hour for the next 6 weeks. The next day - I confined her to a small room with her puppies and only let her out to use the bathroom. It worked! She became a mommy. She started to clean them, feed them, lick them and snuggle with them. By the following day - she growled at me if I came close. I knew she would be a good mom. It took a lot of prayers though. She has been such a good Mom since but her barking has increased due to the protection issue. She doesn't trust anyone and follows anyone who walks in the direction of her babies.

So pictures don't turn out at well as I would have hoped. Seeing that they are black right now - they look blue in pictures. They are absolutely adorable and these don't do them justice. After a week - they range from 7 to 8 ounces - the fattest being the last little puppy that gave us such a struggle. I hope to take pictures each week so that you can see how cute they get. Their hair is starting to wave a little bit at their butt and their ears and starting to lift a bit. We had their tails snipped and dewclaws taken off so the pain is now behind them.

We just love them. I wake up in the middle of the night - each time I hear the faintest cry. It has been such an incredible time and we are thinking of actually doing it again. This time with warning!

Say hello to my little babies!