Safe Arrival

I have been diligently taking Raine's temperature twice a day watching for the 'drop' that indicates delivery usually within 24 hours. Nada!

Saturday morning I decided I should give her a bath and brushing since her due date was only a couple more days away. I figured it would make her feel good and then she would be clean for the following week should puppies arrive.

Well, Sunday morning Raine was quite unsettled (she still was sleeping on our bed...ahem) so I got up and took her out. Once back on the bed, she still wouldn't settle and then started digging. That woke me right up so I scooped her up and off to her whelping box we went.  Once there she just gave me a funny look like 'what's the big deal...I'm fine'.  However I wasn't to be swayed by those big brown eyes.

Sure enough, about 15 minutes later the contractions started. I had already made a call to Kim & Kayleigh who wanted to quietly observe in preparation for when they become mid-woofs themselves. "No hurry", I said. "We have a while before deliveries". Fifteen minutes later I called back. "Okay, I lied. First baby is on it's way".

Indeed the first sac had presented and Raine was slowly moving the baby down to position. Suddenly Raine stood up with another strong contraction and a second sac appeared. Now we have a problem. Two sacs and two pups trying to come at the same time.

Kim arrived within minutes and as I heard them enter the house, I bundled up Raine and told everyone we were off to the vet. It's common that momma's will stop labor contractions and thankfully Raine had.

At the vet clinic, we were immediately ushered into a room where the on-call vet quickly visited. A short discussion, off to ultrasound and we knew that the pups were starting to go into distress by the slowing of the heartbeats. The decision was made for an emergency C-section.

The next couple of hours were long and hard on us. I truly can appreciate what a husband goes through in a similar case. We were kept informed that everything was going well as the waiting room starting filling up. We discussed what we thought we'd see when they finally would bring us the pups. I still believed there was one male and one female for sure. Kim guessed colors and thought how sweet it would be if there was a tan/champagne colored. I confidently said that would be the little girl, but the male would be black...after all, Itoh was black.

Finally around 11:15 am, two little pups were delivered to us while momma was still under the anesthetic. Our job was to care for the pups, keeping them from crawling out of their heated container and ensure they stay warm. Indeed, we had our champagne female and our black & white male. Kim was thrilled as the two pups matched her own two Havanese at home - even with the right color to the right sex.

These pups were hungry!! The male was vocal as he kept trying to find something (ANYTHING) to eat including his toes, his sister's ear...... We learned that it was the male pup that went into distress and tried to push past his sister. The c-section was the best and only choice.

Just about 12:30 pm the doctor was able to start checking the other patients that had come in and we heard that Raine was doing well. It would be a while before we'd see her tho. Kim and Kayleigh left for some lunch and coffee's since I couldn't (wouldn't) leave.

About 1:30 pm and Raine was brought into the examination room. A very groggy girl who immediately looked for her babies. We place the two babes into the bed with mom and within seconds they found what they were looking for.

When the doctor came back in about 15 minutes later, she was surprised and pleased that the family was doing so well.  We needed to stay a bit longer to make sure that Raine came out of the anesthetic completely and then we could all go home.

By 3:00pm we were finally given the go ahead and we took our family back home - safe and sound.

A perfect family settled in at home

Catching up

Irish Pied male - birth weight 257 grams

Champagne female - birth weight 196 grams