More Belly Pics :)

Gut Feeling

It's just a gut feeling, but I think we are going to have puppies within the next couple days. Sophie is with me practically 24/7 because I mainly work from home (we joke that we should have named her shadow. She follows me everywhere!), and she's been acting a little off. I'm just letting you know so that you can keep an eye on the blog in case you only check it once a week. As soon as Sophie starts going into labor I will let you know :)

For anyone interested....

I know, I have posted before about the way we make our dog food. However, Sophie's pregnancy and all of a sudden picky habits have made me come to some different conclusions. We no longer feed our dogs the same way, but still cook for them. If you are interested in learning about how we do it now, I have started a new blog that is going to chronicle our food adventures :) It's still a little rough and in the forming stages, but there are a few posts on it so far.
http://cooking4fido.blogspot.com/

One more week!

Here are some updated pictures of Sophie taken about 15 min ago! I shaved her belly (again) because the hair grew back so fast, and it needs to be clean for the puppies to find the nipples easier :) Let's see if I have any new updates.....well Sophie went pee on her walk yesterday! I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but this is something she has NEVER done, so the puppies must be making her go! Mandi has been grooming her...usually Mandi just cleans Sophie's ears, but lately it's been full body cleanings! I bought Sophie a new bed called a Canine Cooler. She used to sleep on a big foam pad, but she has just been too hot and been laying in the bathroom by the toilet at night. She loves her new bed, slept on it all night last night!

Kessler family: I promised you a standing pic, this was the best I could get :)

 

10 days!

Well Sophie has begun to nest a little bit. I keep finding her in my bed! If she thinks that's where she's going to have them, she's crazy (what a mess that would be!). I keep showing her the pool, but so far the only time she gets in it, is when I do. We will start taking her temperature everyday in about 3 days from now. When a dog is about to go into labor, 12-24 hours before giving birth their temperature drops from 101 degrees to 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Can't wait! :)

Only about 2 more weeks!

Sophie's whelping pool is all ready to go! I have been "practicing" with her, so she can get used to it. Which simply means I've been sitting in it, and then she climbs in  it too :) Here is a picture:

It looks kind of small in the picture, but trust me, it's huge! It's one of those really big ones that are about a foot deep

Sophie Update

Sophie is definitely eating more food now! However, she is still very picky about what she will eat. Her belly and boobs are getting so big! Here is another belly picture:

We are almost there!

Belly Status

I shaved sophie yesterday because it is getting warm, and she is getting hot! :) Here is an updated picture of her belly taken this morning:

(only about 3 more weeks!!!)

4 Weeks!

Only 4 more weeks! Sophie's belly is getting bigger everyday. At first it was almost like a pooch, but now she's more "filled out" :) So........anyone want to play a game?? Just for fun, I want everyone's predictions as to how many puppies Sophie is having, and what day she is going to have them (since they pretty much never have them on their due date!) I'll go first.......I think she is going to have 13 puppies. I know it's a little out there, but one never knows. Mandi had 11, and Sophie has been having some crazy morning sickness! I also predict that she will have them on May 5th just because it would be fun if they were born on Cinco de Mayo :)
 Ok your turn!!! Comment if you'd like to play!

Happy Easter!

We are more than halfway now! Before you know it, I will finally have puppy pictures on the blog instead of my random posts :) Until then, I'd like to share some of Sophie's baby pictures with you. I tried to find baby pictures of Koda and realized we brought him home before we had a digital camera! I was able to find only one puppy picture of him and of course we don't have a scanner installed on this computer. It is installed on my labtop that died on me (it was 5yrs old) and after searching forever for Koda's pictures, I had no intentions of hunting for the driver disk to that printer! Sophie's cuteness will make up for it though :)

Here is a picture we took when we went to go pick Sophie out/up:

If I remember right, she was 6 weeks old. We drove all the way to Sedona (it's about 2 1/2 hours from our house) to pick her up. Sophie was added to our pack as a friend for Mandi. So naturally, we brought Mandi with us to "pick" her out. We had already had Sophie (the breeder had named her "Fiona") in mind when we went up there, but were weren't 100% because all we had to go off of were the pictures on the website and we were contemplating one of the blonde females also.

However, Sophie was the only one that would play with Mandi! Both of the blonde females were afraid of her. So that settled that, and we took her home. It was funny though on the way home. My mom was holding Sophie in the front seat and Mandi was in her seat belt in the back seat. I think Mandi thought we had just gone over there to play, and she didn't realize we were keeping one because the whole way home she kept making funny noises like growling and grunts but they weren't full blown, kind of under her breath! If this is your first Labradoodle, you guys are in for a treat. They are the funniest dogs ever :) Well the animosity soon wore off  as soon as we arrived home:

(this is a sequence of events. Don't worry, they were just playing)

Mandi: "Come here you!"

Mandi: "Hey! quit biting my leg!"

Mandi: "How's it feel, you little turkey?"

Mandi: "Now I've got you!"

Sophie: "Save me!"

Mandi: "Hey, you make a good pillow"

Sophie: "I don't want to be a pillow! Get your big head off me!"

Sophie: "Hey wait! Where are you going??"

Then later on...................

Mandi: "I love my new friend"

Mandi: "She will be my baby, and I will clean her, and play with her, and teach her all my bad habits..." :)

When I was going through these pictures, this one struck me as ironic because it was soon after that she ate the arm and side of this couch. After being patched back together a couple times, it soon became the dogs' couch.

Here are a couple more random ones: