I always know when Hazel is within 24 hours of delivery, because she leaves all her food in her dish. Wednesday morning I noticed she hadn't eaten any of her food from the night before. Wednesday afternoon Hazel because increasingly more uncomfortable. She did lots of pacing, sitting, pacing, laying, and more pacing. About 9 o'clock in the evening she was doing lots of scratching and "nesting" in her whelping box, so we knew it was going to be soon. We decided to head to bed early on Wednesday evening, knowing it was probably going to be a long night. We set our alarms for 1 o'clock...nothing. Reset it for 2 o'clock...nothing. Thought about setting it for 4 o'clock, but decided 3 o'clock would be safer. Woke up at 3 a.m. to a very wet yellow male puppy! We went back and looked on the webcam that we have on her 24/7, and saw that he was delivered at 2:57...missed it by 3 minutes. We quickly threw on some clothes and headed out to the shed to congratulate the new mommy! She was busy taking care of her first born and we could see that number two was going to arrive shortly. Hazel continued to deliver puppy after puppy in a very timely manner over the next three in a half hours. At 6:30 she had delivered three yellow, and three black puppies. I could hardly believe that she was done, but she took a big drink of water and proceeded to fall asleep. At about 7:45, as we were getting kids ready to head out of the door for school, we could tell she was getting restless. She delivered puppy number 7 at 8:00...guess she just needed a little breather. I had to teach my morning preschool class, so Bryan (my husband) texted me at school that she delivered puppy number 7 alittle after 8:00, and he thought the litter was complete. We had our dad (who is a veterinarian) come over and check all the puppies and also confirm that Hazel was finished. He thought everything looked great. The puppies were a perfect size, and Hazel was recovering nicely. He palpated her abdomen and did not feel any puppies. He stayed and observed her for about an hour, and then confirmed that she was done. She was sleeping sound and all the puppies were busy nursing. Bryan went to work and I finished teaching my morning class. We both watched all morning on the webcam, and there was very little activity except lots of nursing and squeaky puppy sounds. We both arrived home at noon and went out to the shed. As soon as we opened the door, Hazel hopped out of the whelping box and was ready for a walk. I walked her down the waterway behind our house. When we got back to the shed she ate her bowl of food and got a big drink of water. Bryan and I decided 7 was a great number and were so happy they were all alive and healthy. As we were having the conversation, Hazel jumps back into her whelping box and starts scratching! I knew right away another puppy was on it's way. By 12:25 there was another beautiful black female in the litter. We texted Dr. B and let him know that his year of retirement must have made him out of practice. He told us that with big litters those puppies can get so far up in the abdominal cavity, that it just takes that long for them to work their way down. I had a hunch that if there was one up there, there was probably more, but when the entire afternoon came and went, I assumed my hunch was wrong. I went and picked the little girls up from school and they couldn't wait to get out to the shed to see all the new puppies. As they were telling me how disappointed they were that they didn't get to see a puppy delivered this time, because she did all her work at night and after they went to school, Hazel started getting restless again. I didn't say anything to the girls because I didn't want to get their hopes up, but I had a feeling she had another puppy in there. I made Hazel come out and take a little walk with me. On our walk, I told her that it would be really nice if she could produce one more puppy for the little girls who love her most:) Sure enough, at 4:45 Hazel delivered her final puppy (a black female) with all the little girls around to watch! I can't even tell you how much excitement was in that shed. This is Hazel's 4th litter and I wondered if the kids would be as excited about this litter number 4 as they were with liter number 1. I can tell you for certain the answer is "YES".
A full 24 hours later, we are still amazed at how the whole labor and delivery went down, but we are so grateful for the end result. Hazel has been an amazing mother, as usual. The puppies have visibly grown in the last 24 hours and are proof that Hazel has plenty of love (and milk) to take care of the all:)
Here is are my notes I kept in my phone as the night...and morning...and day progressed. I thought it was the best way to keep JJ informed! I would love to see a screen shot of JJ's text messages from us that day. "She's done", "a yellow male", "Dr. B says she's done", "she just had another black female!", "I am thinking she is done now", "another black female!!"
Picture of puppies just minutes and hours old
The birthday girl (Amirah) and her puppy. She celebrated her birthday on Friday. Our daughter Willow celebrated her birthday on Wednesday. Hazel delivered her puppies on Thursday. It was "birth" day party madness at the Bleeker house!!!
What we thought was a completed litter
The completed litter!!!
This was the picture I put on Instagram..."The yellow's missed the memo that it was feeding time"
