Chapter 3 -- We have puppies!

Actually, we have 10  puppies!!!!  Yes, it's true and yes, we feel a bit overwhelmed.  But at the same time we feel incredibly blessed because they are all doing well and thriving under the watchful eye of their wonderful mother.

Tuesday (10/19/10) evening about 10 p.m., Lucy's water began leaking.  So we all took her to the whelping box and we ALL started nesting.  Our daughters prepared to sleep on the floor in the living room in between puppies while Ken and I got comfortable for what we were sure would be a relatively long night.  Lucy got comfy in her whelping box and alternately rested and paced in the pen we put around the whelping box.

About 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday (10/20/10) morning, puppy #1 was born.  It went like clockwork -- as did all of the puppies after her.  There were several breech puppies, but they all were born with only a little assistance from Ken or me. 

The girls stayed up through puppy #2 and then went to get a little bit of sleep.  I stayed up through puppy #4 (around 5:00 a.m.) and then I went to get a little bit of sleep.  Ken handled puppies #5, 6, and 7 by himself.  The only issue he had was with puppy #5 -- when he took too long weighing and tying the cord, Lucy got a little inpatient with him and started barking!  For puppies #6 and 7 he worked much faster!!!

Around 8:00 a.m., I got our oldest daughter, Meagan, up and moving and we took over for Ken so he could sleep.  By 9:10 a.m. we had puppies #8, 9, and 10 delivered and snuggling with mom and their siblings.  Lucy was wonderful and alternately kept track of her new babies and panting through contractions.

They are all doing well, eating, sleeping, gaining weight.  All of the puppies weighed between .62 and .79 pounds -- good size puppies for such a petite little mama!!!  We have no idea (yet!) what the daddy was, but we are having fun speculating.  Lucy is a great mom and we are constantly amazed by how well she is handling all ten puppies.

We are a "theme" family -- we like to have themes for things -- parties, events, and puppies!!!  We had a theme all picked out (Charlie Brown characters) before the puppies arrived, but when we had so many girls, we had to find a new theme.  So, we decided on characters from musicals!  Thankfully we can keep Lucy -- it's from the musical "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown."  Can you figure out which musicals the rest of them came from?

Mama Lucy resting with all the puppies.  10/20/2010

Puppy #7 Girl -- Elphie

Puppy #5 Boy -- Emmett

Puppy #9 Girl -- Belle

Puppy #4 Girl -- Glinda

Puppy #3 Girl --Nellie

Puppy #10 Girl -- Cosette

Puppy #8 Boy -- Zuko

Puppy #1 Girl -- Dolly

Puppy #6 Girl --Sandy

Puppy #2 Girl -- Millie

What better day to premier the puppies than on a Saturday Pet Blogger Hop?!?  These are all great blogs and this is a wonderful community of pet lovers.  We are proud to be a part of the Hop.