The Birth

I somehow knew early on Saturday night that I wasn’t going to get much sleep. Anneliese had been in her whelping box all day and had slept during the evening. I knew that she would keep me up all night as she produced her offspring! So I went to bed at 8:30 in an attempt to get some rest before the critical paw holding began.

At 11:30 she woke me to go out to wee-wee. As soon as we came back in, she began digging and pacing about in her box. I lay down and tried like crazy to get just a little more sleep.

At 12:30 she woke me again and after that I was awake all night long.

Her really active labor began at 2:26 AM on Sunday morning April 26th. I could literally watch the contractions taking pace, as she worked to expel the pups, one by one!

At 3:02 weighing in at 8.3 ounces, Baby Girl Princess (Black Collar) was born. She was tiny, but came into the world mewing for her mother. I cleared her airway and toweled her off and returned her to Anneliese’s care.

April 26 011

At 4:06 AM, Baby Boy Prince (Yellow Collar) joined us weighing in at 8.8 ounces. He was quieter, but fully fit, and I cleared his airway, and then toweled him dry like I did his sister.

April 26 041

Before I could relax (or Anneliese either), at 4:26 Baby Girl Princess (Green Collar) whooshed into the world weighing 7.9 ounces. She just came flying out after Baby Boy Yellow, and I worked hard to clean her up and keep up with cleaning the whelping box in between deliveries.

I was concerned because Anneliese has a ton of milk, which has prevented her teats from popping out. She also would not nurse the babies as she continued to moan and pace.

In a panic I called the Emergency Vet to ask how long babies could go without milk after they were born? She suggested I come and get some puppy formula. Hubby got up, and he stayed with Anneliese, as I drove over and got the milk.

I arrived back and before I could get settled in or bottle feed any of the pups, Anneliese spit out puppy number 4. At 6:45 Baby Boy Prince (Blue Collar), was born. he weighed in at a whopping 9.7 ounces!

After that I was able to get the pups to alternate either nursing Anneliese or taking some formula from the bottle. Eventually Anneliese settled down and the pups appear to be nursing quite well. I will know on Monday morning when I weigh them in, if this is the case.

So as I write this, it is Sunday night and I still have not gone to bed. I am running on empty. However, I feel very, very happy, and the babies are beautiful!

More pictures to come!!!

15 thoughts on “The Birth”

  1. How sweet ! Now they are all there ! I assisted once at a birth of kittens at one of my friends and that’s why your vet surprises me. Dogs and cats don’t feed their babies immediately after birth. It sometimes can last 24 h until the mother nurses. I remember well because we went through the same panic and tried to feed the new born babies but the vet told my friend to stop that immediately nature does it’s work alone ! and he was right a few hours later she nursed all 4 kittens.

  2. Oh wow! Congrats to the Dackel Princess family! Love the photos and the updates, now I hope you can get some rest 🙂

    best wishes!

  7. Yes, yes, congrats to the Dackel family! 🙂 So cute! I can’t wait to meet the puppies!

    When will you name them?

    Looking forward to more pictures! They are just adorable!

    xo

    Love,

    Mandy

  9. I am learning sO much from this! I had NO idea that it took so long to birth puppies. I thought it would be like me… one pops out, and then the next one! (unless it gets stuck) That poor girl was in ACTIVE labor forever!!! Wow! She did great! Glad she is now nursing properly.

  10. CONGRATULATIONS!!! I’m so happy all of the puppies had a nice easy birth even thought it was pretty long. The puppies are all so beautiful as well. I’m sure Anneliese is very proud of herself.

    Happy Trails
    Ziggy Marley

  12. My hubby and I went out of town this weekend on a youth retreat with our teens (we’re the youth leaders) and I was just sick b/c there was no internet!!! I thought about you and Anneliese all weekend. Mazel Tov on the grandbabies!!!

  14. Yes, Maribeth, I’m finally getting back to the blog world! Oh! Wow! I really, really enjoyed reading about this! Imagine! 4 puppies! Gosh, Anneliese did a super job!
    I’ve never seen a dog or cat birth (unfortunately) only people births…lol…in my nursing career, so thanks for sharing all the details.
    I’m going to keep reading…I wanted to start at the beginning.

  15. Pingback: Dackel Princess » Blog Archive » Random Dozen

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.