Six of them! I have no idea where she put them all, but six there are. One little dark guy, who I am presuming is a solid coat, and five pale beige babies, who I am assuming will be 'little t' tonkinese coats. Of course that's just for fun... really I have no idea. I THINK we have four boys and two girls... haha... I'm fully expecting that to change in the next few weeks though.
This will be a long blog entry... so much to say.
So the birth. Well, I first need to admit that I slept through the birth of the first two! In my defence I've had a stinker of a cold all week... complete absence of anything resembling a voice, (still got no voice, although I can do a penguin honk quite well by now...) high temp/ chills, rattly chest and all, the full works basically, and I was feeling very unwell. I'd been sleeping on the sofa anyway to be close to Indie, so the pillows and duvet were there and it was late and I just... zzzzz.
I'm a bit disappointed in myself actually, I did feel like I'd let her down a bit especially considering her mother had a stillborn kitten in Indigo's litter, but am trying to be pragmatic about it. It's sheer bad luck that I was feeling so poorly, and some queens deliver their whole litter at night without their people being aware of it. (I guess. I still feel bad :( )
I noted in my blog that Indigo had been acting differently on the Wednesday. Well later on that evening, she got into her kittening box, dug around for a bit, purred and generally made herself at home- she stayed in there for two hours. Excellent, thought I, as she had only gotten into the box previously to wee in it, and she'd been making concerted efforts to get under the sofa earlier that week, a virtual impossibility with her bump, which led to me stuffing the cavity with soft toys, towels and bedding lol.
So, she got out, ate a whole sachet of whiskas kitten food- I'd read that queens stop eating in the 24 hours before birth... not mine!- had a leisurely wander around, and at that point she snuggled up next to me on the sofa and appeared to go to sleep. Which is when I dropped off too, darn it.
Fast forward to several hours later. I awoke to a VERY LOUD SQUEAKING- kitten one, (the little dark one) protesting. There in the box was mama, kitten one, kitten two and mama was straining and quickly produced kitten three. Now, my opinion is that the birth of the first three kittens happened very quickly indeed. Kitten one was still very damp, Indigo had chewed his placenta off but not eaten it, and number two looked as though he had only just been born, still in his sac, placenta attached and all, looking exactly like the third, he couldn't have been more than a minute or two old himself. Poor Indigo was thoroughly overwhelmed and just wanted to clean up the first baby! I guess he was squeaking because he had had a nice mama fussing over him and suddenly abandoned him... he did sound very put out!!
Between us we got the three sorted out, the third kitten's placenta didn't deliver so he had to be clamped and cut, thank goodness I'd bought in a good quantity of kittening supplies 'just in case'. Number 4 was born after a reasonable interval, Indigo dealt with him on her own and then settled down to feed her offspring. I'd honestly thought she was done at this point, she had a long-ish rest while I took some more medication, made copious but messy notes, changed the bedding, weighed the babies, gave them a good check over and waited the delivery of placenta 3.
To my surprise, I noticed her straining again, and kitten 5 plus placenta was delivered, shortly followed by kitten six, which Indigo detatched with the placenta still inside her. Within half an hour, one of the retained placentas had been delivered, and 10 mins or so later the other one appeared, to my relief. At which point I changed Indigo's bedding again, weighed and checked the last two, updated my notes, took more paracetamol and collapsed into a pathetic heap on the sofa! More zzzz!
Up again at 8 to weigh and check them, and then I spent most of the day in a medicated haze, sleeping, and checking on Indigo and the babies and updating this blog and TRYING to do a bit of work between naps. Ugh to this horrid cold!
Needless to say, Indigo is being a fantastic mother, very attentive and happy with her brood, the kittens are adorable and visibly bigger each day, I'll post some weights etc tomorrow. I'm waiting a little while to make sure I'm sure (ish) as to the gender before telling you their names- babies 4 and 5 I'm very unsure of, in particular, and I've changed my mind several times- for the last 24 hours though it's been the same so fingers crossed.
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