The Pups are Here!

Well, the pups were born late Thursday night into Friday morning. Wow!! It was quite an experience. It has worn us out! Freckles had 9 puppies but as of now, only 5 have survied (second picture). About half of the litter must have been conceived later than the other half because they were premie. It's SO hard on me to loose a pup. I've felt so helpless. I hate that feeling. I understood going into all of this that usually one pup will not make it, but having four die has been so very hard. To top things off, Freckles isn't making enough milk for them and we are having to bottle feed them every 2 hours. Since we've got 5 pups we feed each for about 10-15 minutes..do the math...we only have an hour break between feedings. Last night Dustin and I swapped off so we could get a few hours of sleep and it worked, but I'm pretty sure this is going to catch up with us soon. If you think about us anytime during these next two weeks, please say a little prayer. This time of year is already stressful with traveling, Dustin's sister's wedding and then we have an added stress of keeping these puppies fed and healthy. Especially think of our littlest one, "Little One", (picture below) she needs to catch up to the rest of the litter. I'll keep pictures coming so you can see their growth. I sure love these little babies. They are so very sweet!