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:

Hmm....

Well Sophie did not eat her breakfast or lunch today. I really hope this doesn't go on for the entire pregnancy, but at least she's eating every once in awhile and when she does she eats a lot. I feel bad for her. You can tell she wants to eat, but it's almost as if nothing "smells" good to her. She will act hungry then sniff the food and back away, regardless of what it is. Even if she ate it the day before, there's no guarantee she'll eat it the next. I have to say this is the most challenging pregnancy we've had, usually this is the easy part! I did want to share something with you guys though. Have any of you seen that commercial when the wife gets the bag of dog food out of the cupboard and and feeds it to her family? Then it says something like "you wouldn't feed your family this stuff, why would you feed your pet it?" (completely paraphrasing since I can't remember what they say, but that's what they are communicating). Then they show this new food they have come out with that actually sounds pretty good. It's called deli fresh and here's the website:  http://www.delifreshpet.com/ It's an alternative to the processed crap they call dog food in a bag, and it's almost like cooking for your dog without all the time and effort. Plus they say it's completely balanced so if you choose to feed it, your vet won't jump down your throat :) Anyways, I bought some just to experiment with it and all the dogs love it even Sophie did until today. I bought a 6lb thing of it for $15 at Petco which lasts about 5 days for one dog (61-100lbs). That's really not bad it all, but I have six dogs, so it's more economical for me to cook for them. They even have a grain free formula, or a brown rice based diet and even have different meat options in case your dog gets bored.

Sophie Eats Again!

Sophie is eating again, and she's hungry! Yipee! This morning she ate a whole plate of food (apple/blueberry pancakes and goat milk cottage cheese). We discovered awhile ago that Sophie is cow milk intolorent unless it's in hard cheese. This is okay though, because we have a lot of goat's milk and it's better for her anyways :) Then for lunch she ate another whole plate of brown rice, carrots, peas, chicken, chicken liver, and eggs. Of course she has also had a couple of snacks in the form of peanut butter "cookies" (that's what she knows them by, they aren't really cookies)  Tonight we are making her a stir-fry with chicken and asparagus served with brown rice. Hopefully she will eat that too...

Random pic

Mandi modeling her flower :) I couldn't get her to look at me, but I had to take a picture because Mandi never lets us put anything in her hair. She won't even wear a bandanna!