We are getting into a little more of a routine with MilaMoo and the pupsters today. Mila's hormones are coming on board more and more and she digs up the bedding at the end of the whelping box. She is careful to dig where the puppies are not. She's aware of where they are and places her feet carefully when she gets up.
There's a lot more licking of the puppies going on (by her, not us) but she isn't cleaning them yet. We've been stimulating them to potty, so, hopefully, she will be doing it soon. I suspect her Mama will do it for her if she doesn't after we get home tomorrow. That will either kickstart her into doing it or she'll just leave that job entirely to others. They'll have clean faces and ears at any rate. :-)
We've held 2 weight watchers meetings today. My talking kitchen scale fell out of the box at the vet yesterday and no longer works properly so I hand the puppies back and forth and scribe the results. They've held their own. Often, puppies will lose a little weight after birth while they are only getting colostrum from the mama. I look for them to start gaining tomorrow but they weren't tiny puppies - the brown girly weighed a pound and the others weren't far behind - so I'm not overly worried.
I keep thinking of things I want to include but sleep deprivation puppy brain has already begun and I didn't make notes of them throughout the day. I will try to do better in the coming days but even though Tamara and I are sleeping in shifts and taking naps, neither of us is getting a complete night's worth of sleep yet.
The puppies had a couple of visitors today. Mila didn't protest but she did watch them closely while they held puppies. When each puppy was returned, she licked the head and face and back quite thoroughly.
I've started clipping puppy toenails. It'll be a daily event at a minimum, especially because we just take tiny bits off each time. Some of them were fussy during one of the times today and Mila wasn't thrilled with their protests so I did even less. I'll have to do a better job of choosing when to do it in the future.
I'm certain there are more things to post but Mila and the pupsters need a cuddle (or I can't resist cuddling them, it's the same result either way so it doesn't really matter which is first.)
Puppy breath all around.
Cristi Fogus Wetherholt (Blindchick)
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