AND THEN THERE WERE.....PUPPIES!!!!

I'm already feeling so guilty for not posting much, and now my time will be even more compromised. As much as I love my nails, puppies trump nails. Every time.

I was getting so anxious waiting for Tinlee to have those puppies. Just excited and nervous all at the same time. Worried about the whole process going smoothly, worried about healthy pups and really worried for the Tinster. If anything had happened to her.....I won't even go there.

So on Sunday she was really getting restless so it was high alert time at my house. Between 8 and 9 p.m. it was pretty obvious that things were slowly starting. She just didn't know what to do with herself. Finally it became obvious that the only way she was going to relax at all was if I closed us both up in the whelping box. Now, it is a very nice whelping box, but it really isn't made for a person to stay in. 

And stay in it I did. From 11:00 p.m. Sunday night and pretty much non-stop for the next 24 hours, although I did sleep in the recliner from 3 to 4 a.m. on Sunday night because she managed to fall asleep on the kitchen floor for that long. 

I guess it was around 3:45 on Monday afternoon that her contractions began in earnest. She was really trying but nothing was really happening. Luckily I was chatting on Facebook with Tinlee's breeder so she was talking me through things. At one point I looked closely, and all I saw peeking out was a tail. Not good. Not only was it just a tail, it was a tail with no sac around it. Can you say "panic"?

It was at that point that the breeder told me I would have to reach in and try to pull that puppy out. This did not sound good to me at all, but I knew it had to be done. So I did exactly what she told me, and I could feel the puppy. And all I could think was that there was no way I could do this with these damn nails. 

Luckily my daughter was with me throughout this whole thing, and I just looked over at her and told her she'd have to do it. This was not something she wanted to hear. Sorry, kid....no other option. If that puppy doesn't get the hell out of dodge, we're going to lose it and very possibly the entire litter.

She got right on it. She wiggled around in there trying to find a way to grab that puppy while I massaged Tinlee's spine to bring on contractions, and after not too long a time she got that puppy out at 4:54 p.m. And he came out perfect, all 1 lb, 3 oz of him. My girl is a frickin' hero.

After that things started moving, and she had 2 more within the next hour. Then it was another hour before she had her 4th, and that one was breech, too.  The labor for her was slower because of that, but she came out just fine. And good thing because it was only 8 minutes before the next one came. During the next 2 hours she had 2 more, and then it was another hour before she had #8, another breech little girl, and she was stillborn. Devastating. I rubbed and rubbed and did mouth to mouth, but there just wasn't anything I could do.

So at the end of the night we had 4 boys and 3 girls, all healthy and happy and adorable.

All in all, it was exhausting for all of us. I think I was up for something like 45 hours straight after having about 4 hours sleep the night before it all began, and about 24 of those hours were spent sitting in a box in the living room.  I felt like I was hit by a bus. No, make that a train. 

It was all worth it, though. They are just so sweet and cute I just want to eat them. Tinlee is a great little mommy.  

I am streaming the litter live on Ustream starting pretty early in the morning until quite late at night. They aren't much fun to watch at this point, but in a couple of weeks when their eyes are open and they're playing, it will be great. Actually, a puppycam is where I found Tinlee. :)

So here's a link to my Golden Retriever cam if you'd like to check them out!

Nails will be taking a bit of a back seat for awhile, but I'm sure I'll still manage to do at least a couple of mani's a week.  Here's one I did last week.

The base teal is American Apparel Peacock, and then I stamped using Venique Pearlicious Aqua and the MoYou Sailor XL 04 stamp. I wanted the waves to have a shimmer. That Venique also has a smidge of a color change, too, kind of a pinkish tint when the light hits it. It's kind of cool.

Now I'm off to catch up on some more work. I took off Monday for the puppy birthing, and I took off on Tuesday to recuperate. I needed it. I actually need more time because those silly pups have a tendency to slither off to parts unknown away from their mom, and then they start crying because they can't figure out how to get back.

We're kind of taking turns sleeping in the living room until they can actually be left alone. I took Monday night and was up every hour. Kev has been sweet enough to take the last two nights because I had to work. Tonight I'll let him get a decent night's sleep, and it'll be me getting up every hour.

As far as sleep deprivation, it's kind of like having a real baby. Or seven.