*Note: I’m sharing Winter’s labor story more for my records (cause my memory sucks) but I thought others may enjoy it.

1/13/19: Winter ate a full breakfast. Because of this, when I took her temp I did not expect a drop. She has been fluctuating between 99.2 and 100.2 for 6 days. Temp was 98.8, I was surprised so used a different thermometer. and it was 98.6, tried at third time and it was 98.8. Winter seemed relaxed, and very calm. Took it again an hour later and it was 98.4. She went out to go potty, had an appetite and other then small panting sessions, she mostly napped.

1/14/19: Winter again ate breakfast. We were at 24 hours and I with no visible signs of labor (first or second stage) I began to wonder if I was wrong about the temp. Hours passed and she napped, with short bouts of panting. Around 1pm, I took her out to potty and she ran back in and went straight to the whelping pool. But once in she was very calm and continued to nap. Almost 31 hours passed temp dropped, I decided since she was in no distress to let her continue on her own and if no progress by the next morning, I would call the vet. Around 2:30 pm, Winter started to get restless, going in and out of the pool, laying down and standing up. At 3:00 pm she began to leak fluid and she started to visibly contract. By 3:13 pm the first puppy was delivered.

She was a bit frantic after the first puppy was born, I administered calcium and she was able to calm down a bit before the second pup was born. She was very attentive with each pup. She was a bit obsessive about the cords and kept wanting to chew even after they were cut. I was worried about her pulling to much on the already short cords so I gently redirected her focus when I noticed her trying to pull and chew the cords down even more. Other than that she did wonderful. About 6.5 hours between first and last puppy. She relaxed and settled downright away. I checked on her through out the night.

*This is the first litter where I had no visible sings of labor. Very different from what I was use to. If it wasn’t for the temp drop I would not have known she would be delivering soon. I use to laugh and think that taking the temp was silly because by the time it dropped, I could tell they were in labor. haha So this proves how useful taking their temp 2 times a day is. 😀