So here is the story of Violet and the un-naturally natural birth of her litter this week.... It was: Terrifying!! lol
Violet was nesting late on Monday, but temp dropped at 6am Tuesday, so with no other signs I thought maybe late in the day... for those not in the breeding game, there are a number of signs we look for in our girls to give us an idea that the babies are a-callin'. Temperature usually drops and stays down by a full two degrees about 12-24 hours before labour onset, they nest (or root around to dig out a comfy spot), they will stop eating, and they start to get a bit of an ansy look to them and then signs of labour begin: panting, looking at their hind end.... you get the idea. Well Violet was eating nicely, and that in and of itself usually means 'not today' - I figured the game would be afoot late in the afternoon at the earliest. So, called the vet as a heads up and had her with me while I worked on the nursery.
and then I heard an "urp!"
like a burp, I mean - well, frenchie owners know this sound - kind of half vomit half burp.
and so I thought oh - that might be a contraction - best to get moving.... and I looked down ....and there was .....a thing that can strike fear into the bravest bulldog breeder's heart when monitoring expected labour....... a puppy!!!!!!
A PUPPY!!!!
just like that!!!!!
I nearly swallowed my tongue!
I do, however remember saying to Violet: 'Hey! You're not supposed to be able to do that!!"
...I grabbed a towel, and a puppy, and called Amy (the vet tech I have on staff) as I frantically grabbed keys, a stack of blankets, and my pup carrier - oh, and Violet, of course.
So, here I am driving to the Vet's office and speaker dialing to let them know I'm on my way:
"Oh, hi, Sheila! Do we have signs of labour?"
"Actually, no.....but I have a puppy!!!"
The second little shocker 'urped' out on the way to the vets!!; Now, again for those of you unfamiliar with the saga that is the breeding of bulldogs: we always do c-sections. In fact, it's standard procedure in my world for everyone to be on high alert around projected due date, but on signs of first stage labour we get in and do surgery. We are still looking at around 85% of the attempted natural births for frenchies turning into emergency c-sections, where chances are much higher that puppies and/ or mom can be lost in the process. I don't gamble, personally, and I certainly don't do it with my girls. SO, nonetheless - natural childbirth is not in the same repertoire of the bulldog breeder. Point in fact: I can watch a c-section, where all of the insides of my girl are taken outside, emptied, and then replaced back insdie again - without batting an eye. Old hat for me. But NATURAL births?? Not in frenchies. Nope. I've had one other female that birthed two naturally before the other 6 (yes oh my goodness I did say six more!!) were taken via c-section and my reaction was the same: EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWW!!!!
How's that for being seasoned? Yep, Natural birth grosses me out. Ironic....no?
So here I am pulled over in an ESSO parking lot toweling off puppy number two, whilst trying to retrieve the very active puppy number one from creeping down the sleeve of my (oh my goodness SO toasty puffer jacket). I opted to place both in the puppy carrier while alternating blankets warmed for them on the heat pouring out from my dash; eat your heart out MacGyver!
I arrived at my vets about half an hour later, looking very much (I would think) like a dishevelled backpacker lost in the Himilayas with my puppy carrier backpack draped in a blanket, covered in...well...not nice things, not a shred of makeup, oh, and a huge mama of a frenchie in my arms.... Apparently leash and collar were not on my short list of 'must haves' running out the door.
The office was seemingly calm an collected, but immediately (after a hurried 'man she's heavy! from me) I was rushed to the prepped room and the familiar orderly chaos of my vets office on b-day insued.
I popped open my laptop - Carol (Violet's mom) had the specialists that had monitored Violet's southern portion of her pregnancy put her medical info and xrays on disk for me - and Two vets and I perused the xray together whilst two vet techs took blood and assessed our momma and babies.
Now let me be clear on this point: everyone upon everyone saw 3 pups in this belly from those xrays. The specialists in the States, and mine now viewing....everyone except me. I swore I saw four. My agruement was easily challenged, however, as I am reknown for seeing one extra puppy in almost every xray. Nonetheless, the vets that were now taking my advice to 'tilt the screen waaaay back and view it in negative' were a tad suspicious about the mysterious 4th puppy that neither of them saw. SO here we are debating my need for wearing my glasses and we all stop short as we hear: "urp" from Violet.
Everyone froze.
Seriously. The whole room. It was shortly after this that I realized that it's not just me that is surprised by Violet's dumbfounding ability to pass puppies without even standing up let alone actually PUSHING!! I was, though, ahead of the game (having seen it twice already), and therefore managed to break out of the shock shortly before anyone else. I frantically looked back and forth from my hands to around the room, and one of the techs, realizing that someone was in action - albeit not really firm action - asked me regarding the gloves I was looking for, gave them to me, and then all watched as I picked up this perfect little puppy that just magically urped it's way onto the blankets.
So now we ARE at a strange spot indeed, as we now have the three puppies everyone has seen (but me) and we have to actually determine whether our dear Vilolet is done for her day. Bloodwork in process, an xray was prepped - so we could make certain all were out as well as placenta etc. I figured now was the time to update my hubby, as he'd been texting for updates but lets face it, hands were full. Now that our 3 lovely babies were here and nested in with mom I took the minute. And that's all I got, really, as just as I was explaining that there were only 3, but no c-section, thankfully ( as a litter of 3 or less spell L-O-S-S in our world with c-section costs included) out 'urped' wee tiny number four. Where most puppies are around 8 or 9 oz at birth, this little girl was only 5.4oz. "Now there!", I thought to myself as I hung up on poor hubby to grab the new baby and help out, 'That's why no one saw her: she's so little!!'.
... Momma went a few minutes afterward to do the xray to confirm placenta's were passed, and everyone was happy and learning to eat with mom, who was all settled and realxed now that her toughest work was done.
And then the tech cams back from the xray results....."how many more would you like??" "Ummm......Sorry??"
"we still have two more to go!"
I'm pretty sure that's when Violet called the game for rain. Because number 5 was NOT coming out without pushing, and our dear Diva Violet was more than a little sure that pushing is not a part of the birthing process! - I mean lets face it - only number 4 had any push needed and that scared Violet so badly that she yelled out in an almost human voice. Truly! I had two people look in thinking it was me that had yelled!!
So oxytocin was on the menu and eventually Violet begrudgingly pushed out number 5. And then promptly went on strike. So much so that we started prepping the operating room because an hour went by since number 5 and we started to see meconium after the water broke. Meconium is a greeny colour that is basically a babies first bowel movement... but it's usually only seen in fetus distress. But Violet was certain she was done. No more pushing, thank you very much!
At this point we started to use more urgent techniques: mama would push when being examined, so she was examined ALOT. The baby did have some slight movement, just not mearly fast enough. So hear I am, mother of two children (both also, incidentally born via c-section) trying to act all slick and ...well....not shell shocked over my having witnessed gruesome natural birth, and *yack* mom's eating of *ick* placenta *ugh*. I figure what all silly inexperienced people do: regurgitate some barely applicatble tidbit mentioned to you by someone in passing years ago that you're pretty sure was backed up in an article somewhere we once read, I think....and give it to the people who do it every day. Yep: brilliantly I share, "when I was in labour (eight years ago ;/), they told me to go and walk around to speed things up! We should walk her around...?" About 30 seconds later one of the vets enters the room and suggests taking Violet for a walk to get things moving....hey! wasn't that MY idea?? You mean I'm NOT brilliant? Well there's a surprise...not.
So walk we did. An Violet just heeled besdie me and my Vet Tech backup like 'oh, walk time...cool, now that I'm done I wouldn't mind smelling every blade of grass I can find through the snow.' Yeh: no success there.
I was also told that maybe a car ride might get things back in gear (ok, I know: punny - but I haven't slept since Tuesday and it's Sunday so bear with me). The car ride, I thought, was a brilliant idea as there is a coffee shop 500meters from my vets office and at 3pm I hadn't eaten or had coffee yet. And for those who know me you know coffee is one of my food groups!! So there I am in the drive through contentedly ordering my coffee as Violet started nesting again as soon as we got in the car: great news!!! Nesting should mean no c-section after all in order to get that last baby out! And then I hear it "I'll have a medium black coffee with a" "URP!" "Holy Mackeral!!
"I'm sorry??" said the speaker box in response.... Yup - you got it: "Tim Horton" was born then and there: number six.
And that is the end of the story.
Nope.
Add to that my cell phone dying and having to stop at a corner store to call my husband to find someone to meet the kids at the bus because number 6 was waiting on coffee.
There. Now that is the BEGINNING of the story....
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