It all began with a car ride with my human... nothing so unusual there. We sometimes go and stay with my humans mum for a few days and I quite enjoy it there because she has some great views from her windows - squirrels I'm told they are. I plan on catching myself one of those! Anyway this day we went to another place we'd not been before. I was in my fancy-schmancy cat carrier and we go in. From out of nowhere come all these other Sphynx ladies. I'm strictly a one cat household right now so natuarally I wasn't keen on all these critical eyes looking at me - and I let them know to back the hell off.
So, after a bit my human gets up and leaves me there. I get taken to a room by this new human and thankfully away from those ladies (fine looking as they are) and I was let out of my carrier. Into the room struts this really hot and handsome Sphynx chap looking mighty fine - Ladies, c'mon you know what I'm talking about, right? But, I wasn't gonna let him know it. I might have been hot to trot, but I'm not that kind of girl.
Next day, though he won me over. Sweet, sweet man, he'd kept a careful watch of me all night long meaning I could get my 8 hours of rest while he made sure those ladies didn't come in and disturb me. What a gent. Some girls apparently always to go for the bad boys, but not me! I like a guy with a polished exterior and a bit of swagger for sure, but I like him to have sophistication and a kind and tender heart.
Suffice to say then that we spent a few hot 'n' steamy days together before my human showed up again to take me home.
Almost right away I knew I felt physically different to how I usually do. Was it that I'd been away from home and from my human, or was it the experience of mating? All I know is that something in me had changed and it kept right on changing. I didn't feel my usual self at all and I let my human know all about it.
Over the next weeks I felt a bit sick at times, but I was also really hungry. Seriously hungry. Good job I'd started on a high calorie diet just before I met my fella. I gotta tell ya, for a normally streamlined babe, over the weeks I piled on weight until I was over 3 kilos.
The last few weeks were the hardest of all. I could not get comfy and none of my favourite spots were quite right to get the rest I needed. Worst of all was that I couldn't curl up and suckle my skin as I sometimes do. Yes, I know it's baby-ish, but it feels so nice and besides I don't do it in front of anyone but my human when I am in full on purr mode.
I suddenly got a rash all over me so I took a trip to the vet. Because I could not so late into my pregnancy take tablet treatment there were not many options open to me. But imagine my face when he prescribed more baths - every third day. I was NOT happy with that. I know as a Sphynx that I have to have baths and when it is just one every 8-10 days I can put up with it, but this amount of baths was ridiculous! Everytime I heard water turn on in the bathroom I tried to hide (with this barrel belly!) ... most of the time it wasnt on for me but for my human. But I was on high alert. At least she managed to keep the soaping up with the special shampoo and wash off down to minutes...
To add insult to injury I also had a real bad tummy too.
Frankly, wanted this whole thing to be over.
As we got to days 63 onward I had started to pace about the house and sometimes I was compelled to try to dig - hard and fast just as if I wanted to bury something. I ripped into a new bed I'd been bought and literally was shredding it with my claws. I knew doing it was making a hell of a mess but I just had to keep doing it. Like I said, no one tells you what to expect.
Next thing I knew was that during the early hours of day 64 I'd woke up feeling a little uncomfortable....there's no other way to put it, I had a feeling like I'd wet myself. Can you imagine how embarrassed I was??? I did what I could to clear it up and bless her, my human helped and was really accommodating to my quirks over these odd days... but when after a time nothing had changed she called the vet. After describing my symptoms the vet wanted to see me right away. It was blue lights (well it wasn't, but you get what I mean)
I'm a popular girl at the vet and with the calling "Noodle's here" I was whipped in to see Emily. I looked at her with my pleading eyes which I hoped to god said "Do Something" . Thankfully she understood.
10 minutes later, forms signed, I was being given medicine and went right off to sleep. When I woke up I felt woozy and had an almighty cut down my belly, but was told by a veterinary nurse human that it was all over. It was indeed, as I was not pregnant any more.
An now I am a mum.
I'd wanted a natural birth at home with my human. We wanted to do it the old fashioned way. OK, so a water birth was not in my birth plan (not after all those enforced baths recently) but I had places laid out to nest and my human was there to offer her support. It just didn't work out that way (this time.)..
I have one kitten, a daughter. And as a new mum I am learning on the job. No manuals and no one to ask. Just me, my kitten and my human. She is being pretty good actually....I've had hot towels regularly pressed onto my sore belly and chest which really, really helps and eases the pain of milk excess and my operation wound especially since for some reason my kitten thinks it needs to suckle right there.... I hope it doesn't think it is getting back in there! Sweet girl, she has a permanent blood encrusted nose and muzzle.
There should have been other babies - the vet says there were signs there had been others and I know that my human would have liked there to be more and is disappointed in this outcome, especially because surgery cost so much... but she looks really happy to have me home fit and well and is always congratulating me on doing a good job.
Natural instincts are driving me....(maybe this is why no manual?).. my daughter mews and I roll onto my back giving her unfettered access to my onboard feeding station. The feeding thing has not come easy... for one thing my daughter is blind and cannot open her eyes yet and two, since I have no hair and all my skin has the same feel all over she struggles it seems to find the teat.
Her suck too has been very weak. Luckily we went to the vet again for a check up after 48 hours and the nurses advised my human to start supplement feeding and this has helped no end... in just a few hours things became so much easier for me, my daughter and my human. My baby soon began to feed from me and fill her tummy without any human help and I seemed to have developed a need to lick her back end like mad to clean her up thus encouraging her to poo and wee so she doesn't need nappies like human babies apparently do. It sounds gross I know but it's what us cats do, its just how it is - so deal with it!
So my baby is now 5 days old and has grown twice her original size already. Things happen fast in pregnancy and in the after birth development too
You want to see her... ok.... hold on a moment...
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| Taken at the vet following my op! |
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| Small in my human's hand. |
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| Home on her BIRTH day. |
This is me just out from theatre. See how drugged up my eyes look? My kitten was zonked right out and took a lot of encouragement to get going at first.
Look at those sharp little claws. Over the coming days they were not pristine white but like her nose and muzzle became blood covered as she kept suckling into my stitched wound.