1:15 p.m. Take Rose out, she seemingly empties her bowels, her entire rear is quite soft & pliable, but still she has to give a bark or two at a passing golfer.
Carry her back in, and note that her water bag has broken. We're getting serious now, heavy panting, nesting, shredding, a few looks back at her rear.
Emptied her stomach, and transitioned to heavy labor by 1:30 pm.
Contractions come and go, with frequent rest periods for up to 15 minutes.
2:45 pm Can see that first puppy is nose first, lots of grunts, and groans, hope that the first one isn't the biggest!
3:15 pm Puppy one is out, Rose immediately begins cleaning up, I'm able to whisk the placenta out of there, take care of the cord, and let Rose clean up the puppy, who's squeaking almost immediately.
Assist Rose with getting this one dried, get a quick weight, 8.1 oz, check sex, male, black.
See if Rose will let him nurse for a few minutes. She's unsure of that part, so puppy one goes into the warming box while we wait for the next arrival.
Change the papers, Rose has a drink, and takes a breather.
3:51 p.m. Steady contractions, can feel that puppy two is making the bend over her pelvis, Rose responds quite well to my coaching.
Several good pushes, and puppy two is out at 4:05 pm.
Rose is on this puppy before I can stop her, cord cut, cleaned up and ready to be checked. 8.0 oz, another male, black, with the tiniest of milk chins.
Rose still not interested in nursing, put a nice warm, dry puppy two into the warming box with his brother.
Rose is right back to business, barely time to change the papers
4:45 p.m. Puppy three is out. Rose has the drill down pat now, about 1.5 minutes from the time the puppy slides out until she's got them spit cleaned and ready to weigh.
Big big boy, 9.0 oz, looks to have some brindling, still damp, so it could be an illusion, or the sweat stinging my eyes, and clouding the vision.
Give puppy three a quick rub down, and put him into the warming box, only to have puppy four out and Rose in cleanup mode, again!
4:58 p.m. for this one, he obviously was hot on the heels of big boy. Weight 7.0 oz, another black male.
Rose wants out, so we grab a towel or two and carry a much lighter load out front for a quick break.
Back in, Rose settles down a bit, so I do a quick tummy check, and can feel definitely one puppy, way back, no where close to the rear exit!
Hoping to stimulate more contractions, clean up the box somewhat, spread a fresh towel and put the 4 boys in with Rose.
Doesn't take long for all four to find a faucet, and commence to filling their tummies.
6:00 p.m. Rose is in hard labor again, fifteen minutes later puppy five is out, sack is especially tough on this one, Rose is working the wrong end, so I intervene to get the sac off, and get this puppy breathing.
Brisk rub down with the towels, nose pinches, nothing works to get this puppy going. After almost 30 minutes of steady work, I get a weight, 6.0 oz, and sex, female. My heart sinks, as even a single girl would have been wonderful, but to lose the only one so far, was almost too much.
6:45 p.m. Rose is resting quite contentedly, so I clean up the box, assume that the iffy 6th puppy on the xray didn't exist, and get mom and her boys settled and comfy.
8:00 p.m. Still sitting and watching Rose, and notice contractions have started again.
Quickly redo the hot water bottle, and get the boys into the warming box.
Hubby arrives home, pops his head in the door in time to see Rose spinning with two tiny paws and one tiny tail out.
No sac, so we've got to work fast. By now Rose is tired, and she's pushing but this puppy is stuck at the rib cage.
Lube up time, and I'm thanking my lucky stars that I read and re-read every whelping book!
A quick finger around the puppy, lots of manipulations on poor Rose, then a push with a steady pull from the outside, and puppy six is finally free at 8:15 pm.
This one is big, tongue is pink, there is hope. We work fast with him-brisk rub down, all the tricks I knew, but could not get this one breathing either.
This is the hard part, no doubt, seeing a full term puppy that you cannot revive.
After almost 45 minutes on this boy, to no avail, we got his weight, 8.4 oz, color, black, and switched our attentions back to getting Rose & her boys settled back in.
Moved them into the family room, into the puppy pen, now that the heat and humidity has subsided.
