Friday, March 22, 2013

NEVER GOOGLE PREGNANT DOG SYMPTOMS LATE AT NIGHT. . . .

Aud  here.  Taking  over the blog despite a pretty much sleepless night last night.  Had a long day yesterday, having gotten up at 5AM to get to work and ending up at Dad’s house to do some bookkeeping and errands after the workday.  By the time I got home, I was ensconced in my chair, catching up to my emails and facebook and I promptly nodded off.

Well, woke up at 10PM, refreshed, and instead of going to bed, stayed up with the goal to catch the news and let the dogs out while I watch the news so Keira could pee and poop outside, hopefully lasting the night before we let her out in the morning.

Well, Keira was uncharacteristically fidgety, even for her this late in the pregnancy.  She wanted out, but wouldn’t go out.  She would lie down in one spot, then immediately get up and move to another.  She was whimpering and totally distracted.  She’d come to me and her eyes were so wet and goopy, it seemed like she was crying.  And her nose – that really alarmed me, it was so dry and so hot.

I’ve got both dogs with their heads in my lap and I’ve got one hand on Riley’s nose (wet and cool) and he’s calm but clearly concerned about Keira’s agitation.  Keira’s nose –what a contrast between the two pups, hot, hot, hot!

By now, I’ve finished all my email correspondence,   have let the pups out numerous times to no avail for comforting Keira and the news is over.  Keira is wicked restless, I’m kinda worried something’s wrong.   

So I google “pregnant dog hot nose”.  Now, let me state for the record – never google that phrase at midnight.  It guarantees you won’t sleep the rest of the night.  I’m getting results that tell me that Keira, who is not due until March 30 or later, could potentially start birthing in 12-24 hours.  WHAT?!!  NO!

I have no experience with pregnant dogs.  Can dogs miscarry?  Can they have premature births?  WHAT is wrong with Keira tonight, are there complications with the pregnancy?  Is YAHOO correct that she’s going to go into labor this evening? 

So I fire off a panicked email to Rhea, asking if there’s something wrong and what can I do to make Keira more comfortable.  Yeah, nobody responds to an email after midnight most of the time, I know. 

So I break out my rusty old parenting skills (my kids are 24 & 25 years old) – what do you do with a kid in the middle of the night with a fever (and a dry nose)?  Cold wet cloth – me and the pups sat on the floor for a good half hour while I got her nose to cool off and become somewhat hydrated.  She really settled down after that but I was still a wreck. 

I gotta go to bed,  Keira and Riley have been out so many times this evening that they can’t possible have any pee or poop left in them. 

So I went to bed.  And listened to every move Keira made.  As I lay there, I mentally planned where the plastic/flannel backed tablecloths were in my hall closet were in case we needed them and I was mentally planning a shopping trip to Kohls to get a new set of fabulous towels to replace the crappy  old towels we have.

We made it to Friday morning with no birthing crises, and I got a quick response from Rhea (5AMish) advising me that Keira’s not going to go into labor before I bring her to Rhea on Sunday.   My parenting skills rule as Keira’s nose is wet and cold again, but I had to take her peeing on the kitchen floor in the loss column.  I’m good with the pee on the floor as I didn’t have to wake Bob up and make him utilize his First Responder skills to birth Keira!

It took about a half gallon of visine to remove the grit from my eyes this morning, but it was a good day!  Keira even made (very slowly)  a couple of laps around the neighborhood and she’s not as uncomfortable today/tonight as she was last night. 

She’s peaceful, that makes me happy.   My only disappointment is that I haven’t felt the puppies moving, I would love that. . .

I’ll keep y’all posted!

Aud

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