Big Sister

Six babies is a lot Mama

I helps, ok?

Lucy was a STAR the other day. It was a bit hairy for a while, because Lucy was all business as usual but Indigo would go bonkers with distress if Lucy left the room. Or if she was in the room, making too much noise. At one point I had one hand rubbing Inds belly, another writing notes and dangling a cat toy with my foot to occupy Lucy. I expect it looked as ridiculous as it felt!

But once things had properly started, Lucy was interested. She tried her best to keep Indigo clean, and purred helpfully in the general direction of her belly. She took herself off to watch from a safe distance during the actual births, but soon got back in to help Indigo clean and arrange the kittens apparently to their mutual satisfaction.

She's barely left them since, even doing the icky stuff like toileting the babies, so I'm betting she'll be a hands on big sis. She seems quite dippy about them. Well, coparenting works for me, lucky babies is all I have to say! She's clearly inherited her mother's fabby mothering genes, so when it is her turn, I'm sure she will be great.

I had to laugh though. Yesterday Indigo got a bit confused and seemed to think Lucy was one of her kittens- the babies I mean. She followed poor Lucy around, finally following her onto the litter pan and trying to drag her back to the neck by the scruff! Lucy had a few choice things to say about that, and this morning Indie seems to have sorted out which are the babies and which are not. I guess the sleep deprivation got to us all yesterday *grin*

Surprise!

Well... I didn't post those pics, did I? I kind of got a bit sidetracked.


Yesterday morning this happened

*ow ow ow squeezy belly ow!*

Then throughout the day lots of this happened

*breathe through it, Mama!*

Eventually, between 5 and 7 this morning, THIS happened!

Six perfect little babies, happy Mama and one very sleep deprived Beth. Have a good day! I'm off for a kip xxx

Who's The Daddy 2014

It's Rius!


Rius is the son of Gr Ch Angisan Xanadoo Shadow, and is utterly adorable, as well as being extremely crafty on the old mating front! Really looking forward to seeing what the kittens are like.


Indigo, I suspect, just wants them OUT. She spends most of her time snoozing these last few days, always near me. She doesn't like me going out, and I certainly wouldn't want to do so for long. I went out for a meal on Sunday and I need to pop out today briefly to do a few essential errands but apart from that, we're hunkering down in here till the babies arrive. Tomorrow I move my bedding etc into the living room (kitten room!) and then we're all set.  I have an essay looming, and plan to spend the next few days working on that, get the bulk of it written before the little ones arrive.


Which brings me onto the next thing. When this litter are here, I'm going to have a lot to do. I'm finding my study rather hard going, the teenager has mock GCSE's, and kittens... well they take up a lot of time. I never managed to work out why blogger won't upload my pics direct, but it won't, so I'm still having to go through tinypic which is fine, but time consuming.


There's never enough hours in the day, is what I'm saying! You may have noticed that this pregnancy there's been posts more or less every OTHER day, instead of the daily posts I have done before. I just haven't had the time! I love doing this blog, but spending time with the kittens comes first, and I can see that this time around there may not be time for as much blogging as before. Of course there will still be the blog, and I promise I will try to update most days, and I know the blog is a big part of Indikon but some days it might be brief, or just be a picture or a movie.


Having said that, essay-avoidance is a powerful force and I might feel compelled to write reams at such times, kittens being sooooo much more interesting!


I have an alien-belly movie, I will try to upload it tomorrow! Ooooh and I need to take bump pics tomorrow. If I don't get to it though, just imagine a beigey-grey furry rugby ball with legs, and you'd be pretty much spot on. Poor Inds!

Camera

Psst, Lucy. Is she still taking photos of us?

Yeah

*sigh*

S'Ok Mama. I stop her. Stoppit, lady.

I means it. Put the camera down or Lucy will mess you up...

Yikes! Ok Lucy! But you can see why I'm having trouble getting a belly wiggling video, Lucy is always draped over it. The baleful look is because I may have just tried to move her a bit to get a video... but no. Neither cat were going to put up with that sort of shenanigans, thanks.


I will try again tomorrow.

8 week bump

Top

Side

I think I have mentioned before that, given Inds was only in with her beau a short period of time, I was hoping that would mean a smaller litter.  Well I don't think Indigo is having a small litter by any means, but I do feel she's having fewer than last time. Last time she was unable to clean her back end by this stage, this time she can still manage it. Her belly is very solid, but she has a fair degree of manoeuvrability that she simply didn't have last time.


Theo was sick quite a lot overnight, this always makes me worry given how poorly he was last winter. He's been enjoying his nightly tuna treat and I had thought he was tolerating it well (he didn't tolerate salmon) but will have a few kibble only days and then perhaps try again to see if it is the tuna or if it is just one of those things.


Then Indigo was sick this morning, but oddly enough, I don't think they were related. Although I'm feeding four or five times a day, the room she has available for food is getting smaller as the kittens grow, so I think she needs the little and often approach from now on. They'd just had breakfast and I suspect Inds ate too fast and too much so up it came. She seemed a bit sheepish afterwards, but doesn't seem unwell and has since had more to eat. I'm not putting kibble down today because Theo needs to rest his tummy but from tomorrow I will free feed again for the foreseeable.


The babies are very active now, until I train my camera on the belly when naturally all goes still. I will keep trying!


*****



Weights:


Lucy: 4.06kg
Indigo: 5.81kg


Realistically, there's little I can do now with regards to Lucy's weight, which as you can see has crept up again. Indigo needs to eat a lot, so there's a lot of food available, and Mama and daughter are so close that where one is you will find the other. I tried this week taking Indigo into the kitchen to slot extra food into her, but both cats were so upset at being separated it felt like a cruelty to carry on doing it. And a bit pointless, because soon there will be kitten food out, and not long after that, Miss Lucy will be having her own kittens. So I'll re-evaluate next summer, by which time she should be at her final adult size anyway (at ten months she still has a little growing to do I suspect) and see where we are with it all. I dare say Lucy will get a bit of a tummy again, but hopefully nursing her own kittens will help.

zzzz

Awh, she looks tired doesn't she? She is. She's fine, but the size of the belly does seem to suggest she's probably not having a little litter. I don't know why I insist on hoping for this, it's clearly not Indigo's way to have a nice litter of three is it? Tsk.


Anyway, the pregnancy hormones are in full swing and she is very cuddly and soppy at the moment. It's nice! I shall have to come up with some names before too long.. Not sure if we're going with some spooky/ horror related theme this year, given they are due on Halloween, we might do.


I'll have to put my thinking cap on :)

Shout It Out, Lucy

WHY IS MAMA GETTING SECRET SNACKS IN DA KITCHEN AND LUCY IS NOT? I IS HUNGRYYYYYYY!!!

Oopsie. Sorry Lulu. It's just that Mama needs the calories right now and you... well you still have a wibbly wobbly cute little belly flap thing going on. It's hard lines, I know.  Never mind babygirl.

7 week bump

From the top- a little compressed. I had to bribe her with extra kibble to stay still long enough to let me take a pic...

From the side

Side again.

Things are going very nicely. I can see little ripples of movement regularly now, and Indigo is big enough to mean lying on her belly isn't too comfortable, so she's often on her side now. Lucy approves as that belly makes a lovely warm pillow!

It will be interesting to see how Lucy reacts to the kittens. I have heard of cases when the big sister is instantly besotted, and others where there's been some jealousy, at least for a few days. Lucy has only had to share her Mama with her own littermates so her nose could be out of joint for a while. I don't know how she will react to the labour process, or even if Indigo will tolerate her in the room. It's new for all of us, I guess. It's hard to know how much she understands, but she definitely knows something is going on, and spends a lot of time these days grooming Indigo and snuggling up to her.

What I think will happen is that she doesn't want to be in the room, and will be a bit clingy for a few days. I think it's far more likely that Indigo will participate in Lucy's first birth than it is that Lucy will Indigo's last. It's all fine, whatever the cats want to do! I could be wrong, Indigo to date has been very happy with Theo as a companion in early labour, although he scarpers at the first sign of anything active. She may tolerate Lucy's presence better than I think, and Lucy is a nosey thing so she may stay.

I suppose I will find out in two and a bit weeks!

*****

Lucy 3.98kg

Indigo 5.80kg

I had a busy weekend, so ended up having to leave down kibble as I didn't want Inds going too long between meals. They ate a huge amount of the stuff and it shows, Lucy nearly tipping the 4kg mark which I really don't want her to do. However looking at pics of her, she does look slimmer than she did. At this stage I don't really mind what Indigo gains, the kittens will grow very fast now for the next two weeks. I think it's apparent we aren't going to stay under 6kg though!

The rain

The wet stuffs...

You make it stops, Mama, ok?

I no like it.

Awww Lucy. I no like it either. Never mind baby!

Oh, I saw belly wriggling today. There must be babies on the way, either that or a fairly spectacular case of worms!

You OK, Ava?

Indigo decided she needed a little loving from the quietest member of our family. You can see what Ava thought of this idea *grin*


 I've had not one but TWO kitten enquiries over the past few days which is kind of exciting, other than that it's all quiet here. Indigo eats and grows, and eats and grows some more but it's OK, she's cooking babies so she is allowed to!


Lucy had another mini-heat, as she has been doing from six months old, and I caught myself thinking the other day what if this is it, and this is how Lucy does heat? But then I remembered I did that with Indie as well, and then one day BAM, into full howl. These Tonks are deceptive! It suits me though, because I'd like her to be at least a year before going to stud.


***


We're using Lily's Kitchen cat food at the moment and wow, brilliant... very very like Grau in look, consistency, etc, very high meat content, no grain and so on. The cats approve. Another pricey option sadly, but definitely a front runner at the moment.

6 week bump

Yup.

Definitely some babies in there!

Indigo didn't approve of my idea about 'getting better photos', still, you get the general idea. There's been definite belly-growing going on in the past week.


The six week mark is usually a good time for Indigo. She's past the morning sickness stage but not into the discomforts of later pregnancy. She's cuddly and comfortable. In a week or so we should see movements, and I'll set up the kittening pen for her to explore (read: pee in, just so we know it's hers)
She seems to be putting on at a reasonable rate, not too much. Mama cats typically put on between 1 and 1.5 kg depending on litter size, Inds would probably be at the upper end of this scale as she has big litters but I'm aiming for the lower end given she had extra to begin with. Ideally I'd like her to not exceed 6kg, which would be a total weight gain of just over a kg, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. This is a time of rapid growth, so I guess I'll re-evaluate that one next week when I see how much she's gained- she won't go hungry or without what she needs, anyway.


Lucy is calling again. She's not as focused about it as her Mama though, bit of meowing, bit of a spray up against the kitchen cabinet (sigh, yes, Lucy is a sprayer, apparently. I do pick 'em don't I??) then off to do something else for a bit. It's early days yet and there's every chance she'll get more intense about it as time goes on though.


Her weight seems to have levelled off again. I suppose it's because she's an adult cat now (sigh) and sexually mature cats (sigh) do tend to fluctuate a bit, eating less when on call and more in-between. (sigh again... I'm sure she was only a kitten yesterday. Wasn't she?)


***


Lucy 3.91kg
Indigo 5.52kg
We've been using Yarrah Organic, which I really wanted to like because, you know, organic!! but it's just a bit meh. The chunks seem very large, more like dog food than cat food, and it looks insipid. The cats clean their bowls, but one day the dry food had accidentally been left in the hall, and when I let the Tonks out for breakfast they wouldn't look at the Yarrah, they wanted the kibble. I bought quite a few cans of this, so we'll use it up, but I don't think we'll be buying any more.


We also had a few days revisiting the Grau. This is far and away the most expensive option on the list so naturally the cats love it... grr to the spattery meat juice lids!!!

5 week bump- belated

On Wednesday evening it occurred to me that Indigo was- gasp- 5 weeks already. 5 weeks! And as you know, 5 weeks is when we start the bump pictures. So I duly took a side and a top pic, but the light was so poor the photos were rubbish. 'I'll take some more tomorrow, in the day' I decided, and of course promptly forgot.


So here are Indigo's 5 week bump pics, and I apologise for the poor quality. Will do better this week, I promise! I did want to post these though, as I can see a big change already and... well you will see next week, no doubt.

Side plus bingo wings *grin*

From the top

I love baby bellies!!!