days 2-5 it's been a howler of a week!

wowee! haven't stopped, think i've slept, just not sure when, some point between feeding, but then that never stops....as soon as one rolls over, belly full, and sleeps, another pipes up and fumbles their way over for a feed. that is unless it goes off in the wrong direction and starts yelling for help, but then they're deaf and can't hear my calls, i can't move as i'll disturb those i'm feeding, nightmare!! luckily toby is always around, although in the past few days i've also had mary, bel and linda too which has been fun.

toby's taken to sleeping on the kitchen floor, with boxers and a t-shirt which makes a change, couldn't have him strutting his stuff in front of the children, eyes closed or not! but then, am i really that bothered, perfectly natural, anyway, what am i wittering on about?? it's this pesky pups you know.... point is, even through the night, he wakes up runs over and either picks up a pup who's trapped behind me, or gives me a much needed drink. too tired sometimes to get up myself...plus i end up with pups suspended in the air when i stand up, boy can they suck! but then dropping off which is not great i guess?

enjoying my moments of respite when i have a loo break, good to see the daylight, smell the fresh air and scents in mary's beautiful garden. so lucky really to have this space. better than london for this sort of thing, though i miss my friends along the river and parks. see them soon i hope?

gonna take a while to get back into shape, not sure how long i'll be feeding like this for, but at least 6 weeks...just over 5 to go!! even though i'm eating like a trojan, i feel my life being sucked out of me. apparently i need nearly 4000 calories per day at the moment, going up to over 7000!! that's around 2kg of food each day, over 4 times what i'm used to?!

pups all have collars on now, i think it makes it easier for toby to work out who's who, seems pretty clear to me?? anyway, i'll leave you with some more photos, must pop outside for a moment...

in no particular order (got to sort out some names!!) a shot of the ridge, followed by their cute little faces...such a proud mother (sadly camera run out of battery so missing the last one!!) these were taken on thursday, so no collars sadly.

day 1 - birthday

tobes was still away when it all kicked off! i'd been digging in the mary's garden and not eating, but he still did not realise what this meant, so i decided that enough was enough, walked into my lovely whelping basket and dropped a couple of pups, ha!

i heard fiona call toby on the phone almost immediately.....although i wanted to get him down, i now felt a little lost having started this without him...... oh well, he's a fast driver, he'll be here soon enough, hopefully in time to see the rest???....i have no idea how many, but they sure do weigh a lot!

a boy and a girl, one of each perfect! they felt pretty heavy.... i'd forgotten they can't open their eyes right away, but they still found their way straight onto my teats, yowzer!

3 more have popped out, but still no sign of toby, what's he doing!! blood everywhere, i'm trying to keep it clean, but there's only so much licking i can do.... fiona's doing really well helping me (not licking!!). not sure i an stomach much more of the placenta though...

i can hear the truck..... wehey, toby's here!! so excited to see him and show him my pups - oops, perhaps i shouldn't have jumped out of the basket, i've left my pups squealling! so hard not to tread on them and sit down without crushing them, they're tinie....

7 pups now

one of the pups being born....

0604 wednesday morning, well tired! tobes has been with me the whole time though, sitting on a wooden chair next to my bed. i really need the loo, too tired to move!!


9 pups, phewee!!! i think that's it? i sure hope it is! all weighing between 350-500g, that's nearly 4.5kg of pups!!