SURPRISE!!!!!

  The last thing I said to Sadie on Thursday night was, "have your babies tomorrow if you must, but not on Saturday, I'd rather you didn't on Sunday, but Monday would be great"!  I went to bed, confident that nothing was going to happen--after all, she ate a huge dinner (finally found the right menu!), her temperature was normal and her tummy hair was firmly in place.  Both David and I thought puppies were not a possibility until Monday, at the very earliest....boy, were we wrong!  Sometime between 3:30 a.m.--when David peeked in before going to work--and my getting up at 6:00, Sadie had gone into labor, delivered four puppies and cleaned everything up!  She started barking when she heard me moving around and I hurried to her room, thinking the  remote possibility she might be starting labor but expecting she must really need to potty.  What a shock when I opened the door--two puppies in the crate, very vigorous, one puppy lifeless on the cold floor, another puppy barely moving behind the crate.  I quickly gathered up all the puppies, hoping that I could help all four.  I got the heat lamp on, towels to rub the puppies, newspapers on the whelping box floor but unfortunately, only the two pups from the crate survived.  I then sat with Sadie in the whelping box, hoping another puppy or two might appear.  We were at the vets by 9:00 for an x-ray to show that the two pups would be it.  The good news was that each was in terrific weight, one 10 oz, one 9 oz.
  The rest of the day was spent getting Sadie adjusted to her new status.  She is a terrific mama!  At least, until David got home about 7:00, when she began to get anxious and started picking the puppies up, trying to move them out of the box.  She settled back down after David went to bed, so we thought she wasn't comfortable with extra noise, however slight.  I spent Friday night on the sofa bed, checking on the new family every couple of hours.  In the morning, as the activity in the house increased, Sadie became more anxious, even frantic, which made her temperature start to spike.  I quickly got her to the vet and after a thorough exam, we decided to play it safe and Sadie was put on an antibiotic and a mild sedative.  What a difference!  We don't trust her to not accidently hurt the puppies, so she's in a crate for periods when we can't monitor her with her boys.  She's quite accepting of this, but when she's with the pups, she's the wonderful mom we had expected.  The pups are nursing well and now weigh about a pound each.  We're giving her longer and longer periods of time alone with the pups (always with one ear open to some squeaks) and she does well, as long as the house is quiet.  I made the mistake this afternoon of letting our son and daughter in law sneak a peek at the new babies, then spent the next couple of hours "apologizing" to Sadie.  I expect by Tuesday that all will be well.
  Here are some pictures from the last couple of days:

A few hours old

  Sadie and her sons

Two days old