Happy Birth-day --- literally!

Yep, that title means that Tipsy had her pups on my birthday today!! Of course, the story isn’t as simple as that, so let me recap my lovely day :)

I was woken up to my beautiful son carrying me a rose and wonderful husband bringing me breakfast in bed (cereal…but that’s my fault for not grocery shopping I guess)  :)  He did that last year too…I’m liking this tradition Brad!

I got my subscription to Travel and Leisure magazine like I wanted, a couple other travel mags and my photo scanner I’ve been wanting for so long! It should be here next week. That was pretty great. It feels good to be remembered and loved.

So after Brad left for work Elijah and I are going about our morning waiting for Becky to drop off the girls since she has class at 10. In the mean time (about 8:30ish) Tipsy is acting SUPER funky…panting, shaking, acting really lost around her own house. I knew this was first stage of labor and contractions had begun. So first things first, I close our bedroom door, because she has been nesting like crazy under our bed (I even wonder if our carpeting is intact anymore).

I set her up in our laundry room with her food/water and whelping box I made. By 9:00 Becky is there with the girls and of course chaos is unleashed and Tipsy is freaking out. Periodically I go and check on her because she is crying out loud…all I could do was sympathize and think “Welcome to the labor-sucks club". By 11:00 I have to get lunch ready because the kids are way out of control, but Tipsy has also started pushing at this time! Take a look at her….these were taken yesterday. She was ready to birth some puppies!

I’m kinda freaked out because she manages to push out part of a sac…but it’s just hanging from her bits like a balloon. – I was present when my old dog, Aliki, gave birth effortlessly, and what I was witnessesing wasn’t like what happened with Aliki. So I called the vet and they told me if she stays in that state and doesn’t push out the puppy within 1.5 hours to bring her in. 11:45 comes around and THANK GOODNESS Becky came back from school because all the kids are not napping, not eating and just wanting to be pains. I also called Brad and told him to come home since he was debating on have a half day for my birthday.

When Brad gets home around 12ish we decided that by 12:30 we are going to take her to the vet. She isn’t making any progress and is SO uncomfortable. You can tell all she wants is to be held and cuddled. By 1:00 we are at the vet and Tipsy’s AWESOME doctor at Elm Point Animal Hospital assess that she should have an x-ray taken to see what the status was. He wasn’t too worried at that time because first time dog moms can  take longer (3-4 hours) to get the first pup out. When they got us from the waiting room to show us the x-ray, it was like their jaws had dropped. He couldn’t believe how BIG the puppies were, including their heads and how TINY her birth canal was. Take a look! I had to get pics of this x-ray!

Now it may be hard for you to see but to the right is the birthing canal and that big head is trying to get out of it. Also, take a look at how LONG that puppy is. Must be the Dachshund genes in Tipsy!

So the verdict was an emergency c-section. GOOD GREIF!!! Poor Tipsy! She has been laboring so long and now has to go through major surgery. Not to mention the cost….go ahead, guess….$1112.00. That’s right, more than a $1000. Of course there is no hesitation, Ikea shopping will have to wait.

After the news, we left her (screaming and crying for us – bringing me to tears) to get prepped.  Look at her sad face!   :(I had to go to class and prepare for a presentation, so all wecould do was wait. By the time I was done with school around 6:00 I called and they said she did great, and the 3 puppies were healthy. The offices were closed but they still allowed me to come up and see her.  I’m telling you, AWESOME place.

Unfortunately they wanted to keep her over night which wasn’t anticipated initially. She is so drowsy and out of sorts, and the puppies are not nursing well. Tipsy actually doesn’t want to have any thing to do with them. So a vet tech will stay with her over night and try to get them to start nursing. I hope they are okay right now, poor things. My poor Tooptsty Tooptst! She really is a great little dog.

Here are some crap pics from my phone of her after the surgery. They kept them all in the incubator for warmth.

Look how huge those pups are compared to her!!

They are like little bears!

Dr. Little trying to get Tipsy comfortable with the nursing puppies (my grandpuppies  :)

So there you have it! The Tipsy saga continues tomorrow when I bring them home. I am really nervous. She has staples in her belly, meds to take, puppies to care for…all of this will probably be normal right when my baby decides to make her appearance!

And as a conclusion to my day, once I got home it was great because my mom stopped by with some really nice ‘pampering’ kind of presents and Becky and Jon came by to give me my present. They (I should say Becky really) got me the Sisters Willow Tree figurine. I love that collection and I love my sister, so it really was the best present. All the while I was visiting with my family Brad was grilling dinner and we eventually sat with his parents to eat a great meal…ended with some yummy turtle cheesecake too…mmmmm.

Phew! It’s 10:00, Elijah is fast asleep so I am going to go enjoy my last night of uninterrupted sleep. That is, until I have to wake up in 3 hours to go pee  :)