Tick - Tock count down time!

 

Look at the swell of this tummy as a heavily pregnant Prune takes a peek out of the window! Her natural svelte shape is still very evident despite the tight balloon of her tummy. In this image she is stood on top of the kittening box I’ve set up for her on top of which I’ve placed the storage box that the kittening box folds down into. Over it I’ve draped a throw to make the kittening box into a cosy little cubby den. While it is all standing ready for her & her new brood, for now it’s providing a great staging area from which Prune has become a “peeper”! Yes, she Peeps! 

Meanwhile, when not engaged in Peeping I’ve noticed that at the same time as the skin of her ladybits & anal area have again become dark black (as happened in previous pregnancy) she’s also spending an inordinate amount of time grooming said areas.

I’m guessing that the colour & shape change she experiences in her private areas might also come with a change in sensation too which might be at least partly responsible for driving her to want to groom those areas more, or perhaps the attention she is paying to cleansing is simply due to an influx of a maternal brain chemicals at this late stage to ensure that when Labour begins the areas are hygienic. She is very sweetly comical in a way though as clearly she is finding positioning herself & reaching around her belly to undertake her work more & more challenging. In the picture below, she had crept under a blanket I’d covered myself with feeling a little chilly. She is using my lower legs and ankles as props! 

The clock is ticking…..We have around 10 - days to go so I’m expecting to be able to see & feel little arms, legs, heads below her skin at any moment. I do try to place my hands at her abdomen during her cuddles to see if I feel a kick or a repositioning baby. No luck yet though. Space inside will be at a premium as the kittens begin to reach the peak of their pre-birth size (around 65-90g each). I’ll see a change in her tummy at some point soon as things get ready for Labour. She’s not overly huge & historically as she’s had litters of 5 & of 4, I don’t expect a huge litter, but am getting excited to be meeting them very soon. It’s like that Christmas is coming feeling you have inside as a child. The difference here being that I don’t know the exact day this particular‘Christmas’ will be! 

Cuddles-a-plenty

Dear Prune… she has wanted nothing more than to be a lap cat during this pregnancy… luckily - other than when I knitting  - I’m not adverse to this. 

Since my last post, the kittening box came… and forced a change of routine/plan.. because it was advertised in inches I didn’t fully appreciate its size and honesty 30x30 inches is much larger than I had pictured it - I won’t make the joke about all women being told all of their lives about 6 inches! Anyway, it arrived and I immediately assembled it, screwing the wooden rails into position. The change of plan is in the usual placing of the birthing box into pet crate. I have two, and the box won’t go in the large one not by some margin. Hey ho. It’s a great box with nice deep sides. In its bottom I’ve laid down both of my lengths of vet bed, though I’ll take one away when she births so that I have one in use & the other one being washed/drying. After the births I’ll place Pru’s food & water into the extra space. Because it’s so roomy, and high sided it will happily contain the kittens. I’ve even lined it with the cot bumpers, attaching them with cloths pegs since I’ve now got no bars to tie up to. I’ve put a he y throw over the top (just as I would have done with the crate) to form a den so it will still be very cozy. 

I have the bag of 10 Miracle Nipples & unearthed all of my kittening & neonatal kitten rearing supplies. A good job I checked now as the Hartmanns veterinary fluid was found to have an expiry date as May ‘22, so I’ll get that replaced asap. Hopefully, as I said the other day, I won’t need to resort to using it but I’d rather not ( if it were needed) use this one with its expiry date being right now. Better a newer one. 

That was the only item that had expired, The only other item  leith a date coming up soon Kitty Stim (a colostrum & vitamin paste useful for boosting a fading kitten) . Thar was unused last time and if it’s not needed this time round I’ll chuck it out as it expires in July. It’s not cheap to buy (at around £18-20) but it’s a handy go-to item, as is No 15+ Manuka Honey with its antibacterial & energy boosting properties - and I am happy to go ahead and use that myself it if that’s not needed so no change of expiry there!  

All I need to do now is freshly wash and sterilise the birthing bits (just in case I need to use them during births) & the feeding equipment to make up formula. 

So, I was happily knitting (just begun another dress for my littlest granddaughter for the Autumn/winter) when this little lady came & took up residence….. look how she has her soppy half closed eyes & head turned in so that I am somehow fooled into thinking she is immediately asleep having dropped in my lap (actually on my chest) … then a few seconds later, seeing I’m putting my knitting aside she’s all wide eyed ! I do love how she curls her toes in too. Sweet girl. Night night