The Puppies

Once upon a time a girl named Mia met a boy named Romeo.

Then they had TEN puppies, 2 yellow males, 2 black females, 6 black males! They are super cute! Mia was a little overwhelmed at first and didn’t know what to think of it all. She really didn’t take to them until 2 days later (even growling at them and biting one of them), but she would nurse them. She was in labor for 8 hours and didn't break any of the sacks or help at all, Dave and I did everything. The last few days we have had to watch her like a hawk to make sure everything was okay.

Now she is a super cute Mommy, whines for her pups and is taking good care of them!

When labor began…

Here they are just a few hours old….

During labor…

Two days old…

Disregard my makeup and bags, it has been a LONG three days.

Yes that is a bum on top of a head, They are hilarious!

Should I be concerned?

This BIG YELLOW tag came on Maddie’s new jammies. They are “Organic Cotton.” It also says the same thing on the tag inside the PJs. Are they safe to wear or is Maddie going to burst into flames?

She does look pretty cute, though I don’t know if they are “snug” enough. I better have the fire extinguisher close by. Maddie's face says it all. I think you'll be alright sweetheart.

Also, I am definitely NOT concerned about a clean kitchen, as long as I get to see Anna have this much fun. Did any of you grow up playing the flour/penny game? Too much fun!

One last note, This is how I am blogging, one of the best positions in the world! I love it.

Momma Mia

I took Mia for an x-ray today and to meet the Vet. He is super old school in his outdated office, but great to talk to and helped me prepare and feel more relaxed about it. I am so proud of Mia. She is a trooper. I know she is uncomfortable, in fact as I watch her get up I have flashbacks to 2 months ago when I took 30 seconds to stand up!

Well the stats are in. We can expect 9 ( I think I see 10) PUPPIES! She is 58 days today, a normal gestation for a dog is anywhere from 58-63 days, 62 being typical. So any day now. I have to take her temperature twice a day until her temperature drops from 102 to 98 degrees. When that happens she should deliver within the next 24+ hours. It can take anywhere from 4 to 24 hours to deliver the pups and Mia should be able to do most of it all on her own. (The vet told me to get a Diet Pepsi and sit and watch… Perhaps a Cream Soda, my new favorite.)

Here is a photo of the x-ray. It isn’t the best, but you can kind of see the heads and spines.

Here is uncomfortable Mia, This is her favorite spot. Look at those teats. Poor girl.

Mia doesn’t seem to have an appetite so this is how she has eaten her last couple of meals, Thank you Anna. And here is a close up of three of the puppies.

We love you Mia, you cute dog!

Preggers Mia

Well call us crazy, but we breeded Mia in December and now she will be having puppies any time next week.  I wish human pregnancies were only 63 days!  Mia is starting to look really uncomfortable!  I feel so bad for her. (recently going through it myself).  We’ll find out how many puppies on Monday.  I am excited to know and will feel a little more prepared! 

I have been doing a TON of research on what to expect. I am nervous about the whole “whelping” process, and pray all goes well.  Here’s to Mia our little (now chubby) trooper!!

I took these photos last week, I need to take some this week, especially of her underside.

“OH MY GOSH…

…I AM SOOOOO LUCKY!”

During our walk yesterday Anna gathered this bunch of leaves, after she had 4 or 5 she stated, “Oh my Gosh… I am SOOOO lucky!”   We are blessed and lucky.  I think she had heard me say this a lot this weekend as I talked with people about our accident.  She is listening to everything I say and trying to make sense of it.  It is so cute!

Then she used her imagination and found a “smiley face”, “mountain” and a “big mountain” made out of sticks on the ground. She finds joy in the simplest things, I should take a lesson from her.

A trip to Yosemite, turned Scary…

Morning Fog on the way.  We get this fog every night and day until about 2:00 or so.  These photos are actually from about 45 minutes from our house.

Then about 10 minutes later we get to this…

We were about 1 mile from Yosemite’s entrance and got to a part in the mountains where it was shady. There were “ICY” signs and slow down to 35 MPH so even though it was blue skies and about 45+ degrees Dave slowed down. 

Then we hit some black ice, fish tailed to the left then lost control did a 180 across the road and flipped over on our side.  Luckily we stopped there in the trees or we would have headed down a hill.

All of us were strapped in tight and all okay.  Both Anna and I exclaimed, “we’re okay, We’re okay.” Once we had stopped. Anna was sleeping when it happened- thank goodness- so she doesn’t really understand all that happened, which seems better.  I grabbed my phone to call 911, but we didn’t have reception.  Then I climbed onto my window and pulled Maddie out, and unbuckled Anna.  Meanwhile Dave was trying to get unbuckled, get his footing, open his door and wave someone down.  I have never been that shaky in my life.  A man named Polly opened the back of the car, pulled Mia (in her crate with a soft pillow- thank goodness) out, took off our headrests, and Anna and I climbed out to him.  Dave climbed out his door.  We didn’t have reception to call 911 so we asked a car heading up to Yosemite to get the help we needed.

Two super great families stopped to help us, this is only 4/9 people who helped us.  These great guys stuck around for a long time, allowed us to use their cars to take car of the girls, helped give Mia, our 49/63 day pregnant dog, some much needed attention. The other family was on “holiday” from Ireland (my Dad’s Mission) and had an adopted daughter from Australia ( my brother’s mission).  They were really great in helping with Anna and kept her happy in their car.

The tow truck was able to pull it back upright and they she it was drive-able.  So being 1 mile from Yosemite we drove up to have lunch, check out the car some more, feed Maddie, and use the restrooms, and show Anna her promised waterfalls and mountains.  We were nervous driving on the wheel which had popped a bead, but it held up.  My door was damaged, but other than that the car seemed fine.  We’ll see what the insurance says later this week. They said it could be considered a total loss.  We are trying to find new car seats and possibly start looking for a new car… yikes!

Here are our photos of the couple hours we were in Yosemite. It is so gorgeous!

So thankful to be Alive!

Some of the damage…

Pregnant Mia…

A look back at the site through the broken Mirror.