A birth story! Part Two :)

Part one can be found here. :)

Brady couldn't get comfortable. She wouldn't lay on her side, and when I would gently encourage her to lay down, she would pop right back up. Her breathing was heavy, which is expected during labour, but the quality of it was worrisome to me.

After the first puppy came, over the next four hours, three more puppies were born. Each one was in distress, and I had to stimulate them to get them to breathe. As more puppies started nursing, I expected Brady to get more comfortable, and start to lay on her side more. She wouldn't, and I got more concerned.

At 8 o'clock, she had stalled completely. The four puppies were doing well, but her belly was still huge. I knew there were more puppies in there.

At 9, I sent Ty to his Mom's to see if she had any oxytocin. I thought a little jolt would help rev her labour back up.

I decided to check and see if I could feel a puppy in the birth canal, to maybe help her out. Sure enough, there was a pup there, that she just wasn't pushing out on her own. I pulled him out, and he wasn't breathing, and didn't have a heartbeat.

I worked on him, and managed to resuscitate him, but I believe he was in a coma. He was breathing, but he wouldn't wake up.

An hour after I assisted Brady with #5, I checked her again. # 6 was there, but his chin was tucked down against his chest, and his shoulders were stuck against Brady's pelvis.

We tried to turn his head, but he was stuck fast. For those of you thinking "What the heck did they think they were doing!" Tyler and I both have years of experience working as pig farrowers, so we weren't out of our league attempting to help our dog with a difficult birth. This was something we couldn't help her with, though.

At 11:00 p.m., we called the emergency number at our local Vet's office. At midnight, we got a call back, and they told us to come in.

We were hopeful that the vet could assist Brady in delivering # 6, so we all went in together. Tyler and I had both been up since 5:00 a.m. the previous morning, and I had only had 5 hours sleep before Ty woke me up. We went together so that we could keep each other awake. Deklan & Reid slept in their carseats, and Ty took Brady into the clinic to be assessed.

When Ty came walking out, I knew what he was going to say. I could tell by the look on his face. "They have to give her a c-section."

To Be Continued in Part Three.