The Last Few Days

The day began at 3:45 AM. Yes, Anneliese is having trouble sleeping. Remember your last days of pregnancy, girls? When you began to think that your baby had taken up permanent residence in your womb, and wasn’t coming out anytime soon?

Well it is the same for Anneliese. She waddles when she walks, and her belly hits the ground when she squats, and I think the babies kick the heck out of her when she tries to lie down at night and go to sleep. I know I can feel them and these guys are strong!

Today is day 61. A normal gestational period is 62 days! Greta went 63. So we are getting close.

My birthing kit is all ready. I plan to move my mattress into the puppy room today and get everything all ready. Last time I tried to kneel over the whelping box to aid Greta and I have to tell you, I was truly in pain with a sore back for several days.

It’s hard to believe that in just a few more days Anneliese will be a mother. It’s gone by so quickly (although, I admit at 3 AM it doesn’t feel that good or fast!) since those two cold days in February when I took her to meet her “husband” Isegrim!

Now we wait. We wait for the children of these two wonderful dogs to be born.

Getting Ready

Monday was my “go to town and get the errands done” day. I’m trying to get everything ready, so that when Anneliese pops out those puppies, I can just stay home with her.

I was also able to pick up the last items on my puppy list. Some fresh styptic powder, and some new scissors. So now my birthing kit is complete and I am ready to roll.

Last night on National Geographic they had a show called “In The Womb, Dogs”. Wow it was so fabulous to watch it and see the puppies from conception to birth. 62 days! I kept looking at the growing fetal pups and crying.

Yes, I know, I am a big softy!

I also did a big grocery shopping. Hubby is great doing the shopping, but I wanted to prepare as much as I could. Then he will only have to pick up fresh vegetables and juice and eggs while I am at home with Anneliese and the new puppies.

By the time I was driving home, I was already a little tired. My right shoulder started bothering me yesterday and I didn’t sleep too well because of it last night. What did I do to it? Absolutely nothing! I’m just getting old!

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Here are two pictures of Anneliese. The first was last fall before she became pregnant. The second one was taken on Sunday. You can see that she is now as big as possible before she literally pops! She sleeps or rests in her little bed in the kitchen most of the time, but does come in to see us when we are having lunch or dinner.

Sleeping at night is tough for her (and me!) and we have been getting up at 5 or 6 AM every day. I am pretty sure I will not get a good night sleep now until the puppies all leave to go to their new homes.

Oh I am so excited right now. The next few days just will not go fast enough for me!

Greta, Anneliese and Arnie

My day started at 5 AM, when Anneliese woke me to go out. I crawled out of bed, put on my robe and slippers and coat and walked her in the yard and then returned to bed, hoping upon hope to sleep another hour or two.

Forty-five minutes later I was awakened, and gave up all hope of sleeping in. The robe and slippers came back on, and my jacket once again. I put Arnie and Anneliese on leashes, but left grown ups Greta and Fritz to walk freely, as they are usually good.

Not today! Greta and Fritz raced off, up the hill and before I could get out a good yell were gone!

I finished the walking of the two pups and brought them in. I grabbed the keys for the Jeep and headed up our driveway. I got half way down our street and there were Fritz and Greta walking along like they owned the road!

I yelled (quietly, after all it was Sunday) at Greta and Fritz, put them in the Jeep and drove back home.

As I came in the door I caught sight of myself in the window and cringed. Thankfully it was still very early, and hopefully no one saw me in my robe and jacket and slippers, with bed-hair and the sleep still in my eyes!

The day progressed and eventually I did shower and do my hair, but even then I wasn’t feeling too great. I definitely need a hair trim!

Enough about me. I know you all want to hear about Anneliese.

She is 22 pounds now and literally waddles when she walks. She doesn’t want to run around playing right now, she wants more than anything to lie in her little bed, with her ducky baby and rest.

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Do you see the ducky under her? She just loves that thing, and hardly leaves it at all!

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Occasionally she leans forward a little and nibbles on some dry food. Of course we keep the dish nice and close to her.

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I love to look at her big fat belly! I used the clippers and shaved it today, to make it easier for the babies to find a teat.

She seems to enjoy all the attention, but then Arnie started to feel badly. Poor guy needs some attention! He was lying in the new doggy bed posing for me, so I simply had to take his picture.

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No doubt at all that this is Arnie! lol! He sure knows how to make himself comfortable!

Her Baby Is A Duck?

Anneliese spends much of her time now in this little bed in the kitchen. She seems content out there where it is quiet and she can monitor her food dish.

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Anneliese received a stuffed mallard duck today as a “shower gift”! How sweet it was, to watch her with this ducky. She has it on the little bed and snuggles it and keeps it close.

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In some ways it seems that the ducky soothes her and brings her some comfort as she gets bigger and bigger. The days are slipping by and more than likely, by this time next week she will have several squealing newborns to contend with.

But for now, her baby is a duck!

Friday’s Happenings

Friday was such an emotional day. Taking Anneliese to the Vet’s and seeing the babies on the x-ray, makes it all so real. In another week they will be here and then the fun begins!

We also went out after lunch to see the movie “Doubt”. It’s with Meryl Streep. I will tell you, it is a very well done movie, and Meryl Streep is totally fabulous in her part as usual! I wasn’t really looking forward to the movie, but in the end, I admit I enjoyed it!

A dear friend of mine passed away this week. It was sudden and unexpected. She was a young woman, pregnant with twins. She was happy and full of life and the promise that the future held for her and her husband. Rest in peace, dear Louise with your little angel babies!

Now the week is over. Next week at this time we will be awaiting the arrival of the puppies. New life. Sweet life.

Have a great weekend everyone!

The Big Day

Here we are. The Big Day! I will be taking Anneliese in to the Veterinarian’s Office at 9:30 this morning for her x-ray! I’m beginning to think that she has a few babies in there! She is huge, and she still has 10 days left to go!

I started to take her temperature today. You see a normal doggy temperature is 100-102 degrees F. When the female’s temperature dips down to 99 degrees, it means that delivery is imminent.

I also got out my delivery kit, and will be washing out all the towels and doggy blankets over the weekend. I also have the warming block for the whelping box. It’s simply a pink disc that you can put in the microwave, wrap in a towel and place in the whelping box with the babies to keep them nice and warm the first few days. If we have a cold snap, I’ll break out the space heater.

Once I get back from the Vet’s office, I will post a picture of the x-ray. So check back later on to see the x-ray and find out how many little ones we have in there!

Protest!

I attended my very first protest rally. I’m 50. I was a little too young to protest the establishment, in favor of flower power in the 1960’s and I actually thought that Saddam Hussein needed to get his butt kicked, so no protesting there. However, today, I felt very strongly and despite my migraine, I went out with Hubby and we protested.

What The Tea Parties (Taxed Enough Already-Protests) Are About.

It’s about spending — too much spending, to be specific. Too much taxing. The idea that a business is too big to fail is anti-American; we’ve always been for the underdog, but why should we be bailing out AIG or GM or Ford, etc.?

It’s about putting my family — my children and grandchildren — under $12.8 trillion in debt; all it took was two presidents and six months.

It’s about power — too much power going to federal government.

It’s about corruption — too much corruption, in both parties.

So we went to the State Capital and stood with our fellow New Hampshire-ites to protest the craziness in Washington. I don’t think it matters if you are a Republican or a Democrat.

Today I was an American, who was fed up with what my government is doing, and because I still live in a free country, I protested!

I love my country, but right now, I am not happy with the way it is being run. Come on people, you can do better than this!

The Belly Girl

I’m sure you all think I am a little bit crazy for being so focused on Anneliese’s belly right now.  I swear that she grows by the moment and I can hardly wait until Friday when I take her in and find out how many little babies she has in there!

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These were taken this morning and you can see how big she has gotten!

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Did I mention how crazy I am about this little girl?

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Doesn’t she just look adorable?

She is pretty quiet now and sleeping a lot. She looked at the puppy room and checked it out, but isn’t at all certain that she likes it in there. In fact, she seems to prefer Hubby’s side of the bed! I have told her, however, that I will sleep in the puppy room with her for the first few weeks and help her out, the same way I helped her mother out when she had her first litter of babies.

The Puppy Room

I took big old Fritz in to have his yearly shots today at our Veterinarian’s office. He was an angel and even though he is strong, he did obey me when I told him to sit, to wait and to get into the car. In fact the command to get in the car was hardly out of my mouth when he leapt into it!

Dr. Chris asked if I had the puppy room set up yet, and he also asked how Miss Anneliese was doing. I mentioned that she was doing well, but pretty much stays in the kitchen now stretched out on the throw rug in there.

So Dr. Chris mentioned I might want to set up the puppy room so that Anneliese has a chance to get used to it.

I came back home with Fritz and once I settled him down, I looked at our mud room to determine how to go about this transformation.

I have a table in there that we use under our mirror to hold our hats and gloves in the winter. Okay, that would go into our dining room. Check!

Then we have a bench that holds all the yard toys for the dogs, and extra gloves and hats. Okay, that goes into the dining room too. Check!

We have pegs on the wall that we hang up our jackets on, so all those jackets needed to be moved into the front hall closet. Check!

I got out the vacuum and cleaned everything with that, and then got out the disinfectant and washed everything down. Floors, walls, etc. Check!

I sat down long enough to watch “All My Children” (yes, I know, no snickering please!) then got out the kiddie pool and washed it down with disinfectant too, dried it and put it in the puppy room. Check!

I brought out the towels, all my birthing supplies and placed them in a tote bag which I hung on a peg. Check!

So in just 12 or so days we will be welcoming little bundles into our home and they will settle in the puppy room, with their Mommy, Anneliese and their Granny, Maribeth.

I can hardly wait!