These little claws get sooo sharp! And they grow quickly. To protect Moët's skin around the nipples, where the puppies work with their paws to stimulate the milk flow, I regularly cut the claws. It amazes me that Moët's skin can have so much of these claws without getting irritated. That's nature I guess!

A Swedish womens' magazine (Allas) this week features an article about the important role my barbets Yatzie and Moët have played in my life, to help me get back on track after some tough experiences on my spiritual quest. For my non-Swedish followers - sorry, it is all in Swedish...

During the cleaning of the whelping box I put the puppies in this little basket. I clean right after Moët has fed them so she goes to rest. But Yatzie finds it a bit worrying that the puppies are out of their normal box and stays to watch over them!

The sweet faces of the six little Miracles with their chosen names. The photos were taken on day 6. 

Row one, the boys: 
Green: Amaro de l'Esprit de bonté (Sanskrit for Strong & Native American for Forever, Immortal)
Light blue: Benoît de l'Esprit de bonté (French for Blessing)
Blue: Osher de l'Esprit de bonté (Hebrew for Happy, Blessed)

Row two, the girls:
Orange: Esperanza de l'Esprit de bonté (Spanish for Hope)
Pink: Merveille de l'Esprit de bonté (French for Miracle)
Yellow: Peliyah de l'Esprit de bonté (Hebrew for Miracle of God)

The puppies are growing so fast! Now they have all tripled their weight and Benoit (ligh blue) has passed 1 kg! Amaro (green) is very close by. In video one they have just started drinking and you can hear the peeping, sweet sounds they make as they are trying eagerly to press as much milk as possible out! In video 2 they have been drinking for a while and are getting tired. Little blue Osher falls asleep on top of the others and glides down! In video 3 Moët has just left the whelping box and the puppies are all falling asleep or looking around for their favourite place to rest. See how strong the fron legs of Benoit already got - he can lift the front of his body already!

We miss our little boy Ciélo. I can see that Moët is looking around for him. Unfortunately it is not unusual that some puppies don't make it the first week, since they are very small and fragile and can't regulate their body temperature that stays quite low. But we had not expected such a loss and it is hard to bear. We try to stay positive and enjoy his sisters and brothers and give them all the love and care we can offer. 
Today was the first day that Moët showed that she wanted to take a longer walk in the morning. Til now we made short rounds and she has clearly turned around to show that she wants to go home to her babies. While at the same time respecting her urge to be with the puppies, it is also important that you don't wait too long with starting taking longer walks again after the ddelivery, to build up her condition again. She has some heavy tasks waiting for her to feed all these hungry mouths.  

Breeding dogs is a mission full of joy, but can also be heart breaking. We had heard our purple little boy gurgle a few days. He was the lightest of the boys but gained well like the others. The vet had a look at him but saw no reasons to take measures. Last night he got problems drinking and became lethargic. We took him to the vet again and she now put him on antibiotics. His lungs sounded ok then. Back home started a long night's struggle for this young and fragile little body. I sond fed him but he developed problems breathing and finally he did not make it through the night. We are devastated. Our only comfort is that he is no longer suffering. We gave him the name Ciélo, which means heaven in Spanish - that is where he is now, in a cosy place full of warm, sweet milk where there is no pain... Rest in peace sweet darling Ciélo. 

Believe it or not: all puppies already doubled their weight -  in 6 days! That is a record in this house at least! The puppies were generally lighter then Yatzie's puppies, ranging from 206 - 322 grams, but now they weigh the same at Yatzie's puppies did on day 6! Well I am not surprised that Moët is looking thinner than she did before the mating - I increase her food daily but the puppies seem to be eating her up! I will add even more to her bowl now!

In this video the 6 days old puppies have already been drinking frantically for like 10 minutes making a lot of noise and now many of them have fallen asleep, contently wrapped in the warmth of their mother and with a full stomach. Others lay by the breast and take a few extra zips fighting against their inclination to fall asleep like the others. 

The yellow little girl got a nose kiss from grandma today! Yatzie is so sweet towards the puppies. She comes running to the whelping box if someone is peeping loudly. Sometimes she just lays in there together with Moët. And of course she helps with the duty of cleaning the pups, as you saw in the movie this morning. Today we were trying to make photos of the puppies faces but it did not succeed for several reasons. They are difficult to capture on photos and do not like to be taken out of the box for photo shots! Understandable! But I will try again tomorrow!

Yatzie is cleaning the buts of the pups while Moët is busy feeding them! What a sweet, amazing cooperation between the grandmother and mother of the puppies!

All puppies have already in four days increased their weight by more than 50 %. Is Moët making Miracle milk? The yellow girl was the lightest of the puppies when born, but she is strong and decided to take in on the others - she leads the gain weight with an 80% increase! 

These are the colours of the puppy "collars" for females and males, for those who are interested to follow one special puppy. After some weeks they will get real collars with the same colour. I already had to change the colours of most of them because they grow soo quickly!

Today Moët was relaxed enough to leave the puppies for a few minutes to get a quick shower. The bitch gets rather messy during the birth, as you can imagine, and it is nice to shower that off after a few days. The first days you don't want to bother the mother with such things. After the shower I let her dry up on my bed, which is right by the puppy box these first weeks, to spare the puppies from getting wet and cold. And the hungriest of them all (purple boy) got a special meal there all alone! Ooops - a small accident there on the sheets... Never mind, can be washed :-) ! 

Just a few pictures of the puppies in the whelping box. As you can see they all have a lot of white markings. All have 4 white feet, more or less white, and two have a white tail tip! Cute! I will try to post individual photos soon with a colour guide for the male and female ribbons. Enjoy these til then!

Moët has 9 nipples full of milk, and with her 7 puppies two of them are not being used. The puppies prefer the 7 lowest ones, they are easier to get to and larger aswell. Therefore the top nipples are filled with unused up milk. In most cases this milk will dry out and cause no problem, but in some cases an inflammation can occur. Moët has a temperaature on the higher end, but it is also normal the first few days after the delivery. But to be sure she is ok I asked our veterinary Renee Burger to come to check on her. She found Moët in a good state and there is no need to worry. I just have to keep an eye on those nipples to make sure they don't get too hard and inflamed.

Moët is getting used to her new role as a mother now. The very first day she did not clean up after the puppies, but now she does! And Yatzie helps her. It is so cute seeing both of them together in the whelping box, licking the little buts clean. All puppies eat well and Moët is fully dedicated to them. She only leaves the room to do "her thing" outside and then rushes back up the stairs to her little miracles. When they have eaten she sometimes lays outside the box to cool down. The temperature in the box is higher than normal through the heating lamp and it gets very warm for her. But when she hears them peeping she joins them again. 

Enjoy the sweet little puppies and their sounds in these videos! you can see that Moët is rather tired. Yatzie is also allowed in the puppy box. In the second video she is checking the puppies out very closely.

This evening Moët had met her lover Claude for the second time, in his house in rural west Wales. It had gotten late and darkness had fallen. In our vacation house a few kilometers away our family and Bart's delicious lasagna was waiting for us. The mobile connection was really bad in this area so we had not had contact with each other for many hours. I drove along the narrow, winding roads in our Volvo V70 when suddenly, in a bend over a hill, a big van appeared in high speed in front of my eyes. Within a second the two cars collided in a very hard crash. Time stopped and for a short moment I drifted away, to a place of light and peace, but then the smell of smoke from the airbag woke my senses up, and in less than a second I was opening the trunk holding my darling Moët in my arms. Shocked but unharmed we sat down along the road, cars stopped nearby and kind people came asking who we were, if we were harmed, ambulances and policevans arrived. At our vacation cottage the lasagna was getting cold and Bart was experiencing a restless feeling, wondering why we were not coming home. When he and the kids arrived at the spot of the collision Moët was just as happy as always, kissing their faces. She was totally unharmed both physically and mentally. I had some blue spots and minor pain here and there, that was gone after 10 days. The counterparty was also unharmed. Our Volvo was total loss. I dare not publish the photos - they are very scary to see but do stress what a miracle it was that we survived...

I will forever be thankful for the Miracle that happened that night, for the Angels watching over us. Now you know why this litter got such a grand name - The Miracle Litter!

Welcome to the 4 males and 3 bitches born today to Moët and Claude - the Miracle litter. Moët is doing a fantastic job!

The whelping box is filled with towels and blankets for Moët to be able to dig and prepare for the birth. This is a normal behaviour for a bitch preparing for labour. She walks around the house as well, digging here and there, but I gently show her the way to her whelping box again. We are counting the hours til the real labour starts...

Before the birth of the puppies the bitch should be cleaned well to avoid any possible bacteria in the whelping box. Here she is the cleaned mother to be!

Four years ago, on this day, a brown little girl was born to Yatzie -  her name is Moët, Yatzie's very first baby! After her came another 9 sweet barbet puppies, making my  birthday the happiest ever! Because they were born on my brithday they all got Champagne names! Today we toast on their 4 year birthday! 

What is even more special - today Moët is already showing signs of preparing for birth! Her temperature is going down and reached the bottom an hour ago. We could expect puppies within the coming 48 hours! Or maybe Moët is trying to make me and herself a special birthday gift, just like her mother did? She still has a 8 hours to succeed in that. We are very excited here and if it is today, tomorrow or Saturday these puppies are so longed for and welcome! We wish you strength and succes darling Moët in this great work laying in front of you. 

Moët's belly grows quickly now. She is handling it very well, but you can see that it is heavy for her at times. She often comes to measking me to stroke her belly, and to just hold her and be near. She needs a lot of attention - and a lot of food! This is how she looks today on day 58! 5 days to due date! 

The last changes were made today to the whelping box and it is ready for its new inhabitants! This time I have enlared the box, and it measures appr 120x120 cm. I also added safety bars on the sides, to prevent the puppies from getting stuck under Moët. These keeps the bitch away from the very corner so fthe box. Under the cosy washable teddy material (I made two of those), with elastics, lies an orthopedic matras, covered with washable nylon. Since Moët loves to have a roof above her (her favourite place in the house is under the stairs, see below) I also made a construction for a roof, where I hang a wollen blanket. This is a cosy and safe whelping box, that also became very stable with the safety bars added. 

During our walk today Moët was pointing towards a mole - first with her front paw (first photo in the series), and then with her back paw (second photo)! There are lots of moles in this area and the dogs find it so exciting to sniff around for them and dig in their holes! Both Yatzie and Moët point with theirs paws. 

Two short movies from today's walk. Moët is just as happy and alert as always with her big belly. She does run a little less wild though. Lovely weather here today. We have really sad weather som now we are enjoying the sun very much! In the second video Moët just took a dip to cool off!

My new professional puupy scale has arrived! This is a great digital scale, where one quickly and to the exact gram easily can weight the puppies. Earlier I was using our household scale but found it very tricky, since the puppies get very lively and don't cooperate on the scale very well ;-) ! This puppy scale has a hold function that allows you to hold the result on the display so that you quietly can put the puppy back in the whelping box and then note down the result. 

I add a photo of Moët where she is laying right now under my desk! Always nearby this sweetheart!

Moët is getting rather picky about what she wants to eat. When your darling dog is pregnant you do all you can to make sure she gets enough nourishment. A few weeks ago I started adding wet food to the high quality dry food she has been eating lately, of the same good brand, to increase the level of protein and fat. I mixed dry with wet and she loved it. After a while she realized the wet was tastier and that she could lick it off the dry correls.... Now we have come to the state where she eats only wet... And she decides which tin she wants as well :-) ! And if she is tired she will get her food in a bowl where she is laying down and to get that little extra I even feed her with a spoon! She eats three or four times per day, and Yatzie gets small portions that often as well, to keep it fair. I serve Moët with love and she is happily carrying these sweet babies around and getting larger and larger! We are a good team!

I made the whelping box for Yatzie from a Billy bookshelf from IKEA that we did not need any longer. It worked out perfectly for her. Now that Moët is getting her first litter I am wondering if maybe Yatzie will be spending some time in there too? So I decided to enlarge the box. Fortunately I had a few spare shelves from the same bookshelf and at a local do-it-yourself store I had the shelves cut into the correct sizes. I added 40 cm to the width of the box with the help of brackets. Then I drilled some new holes to be able to mount it all together wth the IKEA screw system. The size is now 120x120 cm, and it looks perfect to me. I have ordered a new foam matress with waterproof, washable cover. When it arrives I will present what will be the first home for the much longed for little babies! 

When Yatzie saw the whelping box she sniffed it for a long time. I can imagine many sweet memories are coming back to her now!

Two weeks to go before the birth I found it was time to cut Moët's fur off. It will get very hot in the puppy box and I don't want to bother Moët with shaving much later tín the pregnancy than this. In general one can see that Moët is going through some heavy times, the puppies growing quickly now, and she is often panting.  Moët is so relaxed during shaving, and since she is very heavy now, I let her lay as much as possible during the process. One can now see the sweet tummy muh better!

Yatzie is also taking the chance to rest a lot, now that her daughter is so lazy with her big tummy. Moët gets a lot of extra nice food these days, and of course not to make it too unfair, Yatzie gets some of it too. She is after all the number one big mother in this family! 

Today was the first day that one could feel the puppies moving inside Moët! It is such a grand feeling. Small, small, kicks, difficult to distinguish but with some patience and focus you know it is the puppies movement you feel. Moët is also showing a big difference in behaviour now. She is very quiet, wants to sleep a lot, and it seems to me that she is now finally realizing what is happening inside her, that she is going to be a mother. She has a more serene air about her, she seems to be more wtihin her self so to say. Those of you that have carried a child may know exactly what I mean... This is a great responsibility and I have a feeling that Moët knows now. 

Every second day I pass by the local veterinary to weight Moët. Her belly is growing in perfect speed and today the scale showed 26,55 kgs. Her normal weight is 23,5 so that is a 13 % increase so far. By the end of the pregnancy she should be just below 30 kgs "according to the books", that state that the ideal is a 25% increase of weight. She has good appetite and gets extra protein rich food now. This is the period when the puppies grow enormously and Moët needs to rest a lot between meals to allow for all these miracles inside her to develop well.

When I have finished making our bed in the morning the dogs immediately jump up to enjoy the soft velvet! And that is fine with me! We have a barbet safe coloured bed spread that we just can throw in the washing machine!