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Things started changing pretty quick when we got home from France, like… super quick. The day after mating, Akiko’s behaviour immediately began to change. She began extremely cuddly, craving company a lot more than she normally did. She also started to eat A LOT. Akiko has always been a very poor eater, she’s picky and self regulates, meaning sometimes she will go a couple of days without touching food. After mating, she completely abandoned this mindset and started eating extremely well and consistently. ONE WEEK AFTER MATING We didn’t see too many changes after just a week, Akiko continued eating well and began gaining weight. We continued to treat her as if everything was normal so as not to stress her out. We took a trip to the beach which she loved, and towards the end of the week she started to show signs of some early morning sickness, becoming a bit less foody and bringing up bile occasionally.
THREE WEEKS AFTER MATING We didn’t have too much change around this week until we hit Day 24, where Akiko’s nipples seemed to very suddenly enlarge and drop down. She had big changes to her temperament too, becoming very social with strangers where she is normally more reserved. On the last day of week 3, we took her to the vet for her ultrasound, and after an anxious few minutes of seeing nothing, suddenly we saw multiple little beans on the screen. Our vet estimated 3-4 puppies on this ultrasound.
FIVE WEEKS AFTER MATING Akiko continued to progress, losing more fur and seeing more changes to her nipples, and she also started to physically show more that she was pregnant. She started to wobble a little as she walked and did not care for going outside on walks. If we did walk her, she would tire quickly. She began getting unusual cravings which affected her behaviour. Akiko has never been a scavenger or a food thief, but during her pregnancy she started to dig through our bin. Her particular favourite delicacy was the cardboard tubes from inside toilet rolls. We had a second ultrasound this week after my anxiety for the better of me, and thankfully all looked good. Our vet thought he might’ve seen as many as six puppies on this scan, so we anxiously and excitedly began to prepare for a bigger litter.
SIX WEEKS AFTER MATING Akiko seemed to shift in how she was carrying her pups this week, and started carrying them high up in her torso and wide, looking quite big from the top. She had a brief renewed interest in walks before growing tired of them again. We had all our whelping supplies delivered this week and started preparing! Akiko started getting uncomfortable, relying on pillows to position herself so she could sleep. She also started producing milk, which surprised us enough for a quick vet trip to make sure everything was okay, no signs of mastitis, and that the puppies were alright. Everyone was fine on the ultrasound and the vet thought they might come early! We built the whelping box towards the end of this week and had started getting everything ready.
SEVEN WEEKS AFTER MATING With the whelping box made, Akiko started spending time there by her own choice. Akiko seemed to look huge, and then suddenly she seemed to look… less huge. We took her for her X-ray towards the end of this week and found just two little babies. It was hard, because we had expected up to six on the ultrasound, and since I had felt like I’d seen her shrink in size a little, I struggled a little to cope with the idea of her reabsorbing. I felt a lot of guilt and fear that I had done something wrong to cause her to lose some of the puppies, and I felt awful knowing that I would have to let my waitlist down. Most of all, I felt sad that those cluster of Kai cells weren’t meant to be, but I was glad to have two healthy, formed babies.
EIGHT WEEKS AFTER MATING
(Spoiler, we don’t get to Week 9…!) I started being happy with the two puppies we had, knowing that a smaller litter would be easier on Akiko for her first time, as well as easier on us to socialise. We finished the whelping room with everything set up, and Akiko was very content. We had Lorren come to visit too, and she took some wonderful maternity photos for us for her 8 week mark! On October 18th, the babies started being very active in Akiko’s belly, we could see them moving and kicking when she lay down. She was definitely getting more uncomfortable. We also noticed her temperature was beginning to drop, as we began taking that two weeks before her due date. I went to work on the morning of October 19th and finished at lunch time, and when I came home I was greeted with Akiko starting to show some very early signs that something was happening. Nesting, panting. Still, she would settle and sleep. On October 20th at 4am, Akiko woke us up and began going into active labour.
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