We're almost there!

I can't believe how fast the time has gone. From just a month ago when we first saw the puppies on the ultrasound screen to today, one week from The Due Date.

Satinka is due next Wed/Thurs. Her milk is coming in...from the feel of it, these puppies are going to be WELL fed :-) She's decided that she needs to be next to me at all times and woe to the dog who tries to get between us. She spends a fair amount of time demanding that I rub her belly. Last night I felt a puppy move for the first time! Holy cow was that exciting or what! Then, of course, I kept her up for a couple hours hoping to feel it again...but they must have been stretching before going back to sleep. I did hear puppy heartbeat with the stethescope too. That's way cool.

The whelping box is clean and tonight the husband is re-caulking the corners. I scrubbed most of the caulk off. Tomorrow I'll be setting up the Whelping Palace (no mere box or pen for La Diva!). She's heading into the vet for an x-ray on Thursday or Friday...Monday at the latest, but if she surprises me and goes into labor sooner than expected, I'd rather not be on the road.

I've got batteries for the baby monitor, a radiant ceramic heater, puppy pads to provide Satinka with somewhere to pee if I'm not around to let her out, blankets and towels, everything I could possibly need for the Event, including the phone numbers of some good breeder friends who I'm sure won't mind me calling at 3am in a panic (uh, right?) and a sleeping bag because I'm certain that if she can't be on the bed, I'm not going to be allowed on it either! Tomorrow I'll start taking her temp AM & PM and charting it in my very first Whelping & Puppy Notebook...not that I'm obsessive or anything.

She does think it's pretty cool getting two meals a day, I'm sure I'm going to hear it in a couple of months when she goes back to pre-puppy amounts.