Chapter I: Cider Begins Her Journey into Motherhood
Cid went into heat late October and we started progesterone and vaginal swabs on Day 6. Little did we know that Cider would want to take her sweet time. A million progesterone and vaginal swabs later, she eventually ovulated on Day 16 of her heat cycle (with a level of 5.1). Because we were using frozen semen, both her vets wanted her bred 72 hours after she ovulated and she was bred on Day 19 of her heat.
Cider had a relatively easy pregnancy. We confirmed it via ultrasound on day 28 from ovulation. She had her pregnancy blood work done 2 weeks later -- to check for things like gestational diabetes and it was normal. On day 42 of her pregnancy, she was still 170--and had gained no weight. We re-did the ultrasound on that day to make sure she was still pregnant and she was. It seems pretty soon after that visit, she started packing on the pounds. She ended up gaining 14lbs all together.
Two days before her c-section, Jamal asked me when she would start getting lazy :-) She never knew she was pregnant although she did start getting picky about what she ate. I'm not sure if this was morning sickness or that she realized early on that we were now suckers and she could get whatever she wanted. She had us trained. "Sausage, egg, and cheese muffins please!" She knew she had moved from princess to queen status -- she stopped asking to be let on the bed, she just did it. Listening became optional. She even decided her whelping box wasn't good enough and that our closet was a suitable place to have puppies and proceeded to pull down all our clothes to make her nest. We just have to keep saying to ourselves, it could be MUCH worse!
My Cider puppy is gonna be Momma....I can't believe it.
Cider at Day 56
