Once I found out Glory was indeed pregnant I began to prepare for the arrival of the puppies and their aftercare. Each day I would do something to get ready, I felt like I was the one having a baby and was nesting.

The first thing I did to prepare was I bought a Lovett’s whelping nest. It’s the black circle in the above photo. It is a puppy heater, it has a lip on it, the puppies will gravitate to the warmth and all lay in the nest to lay warm keeping Glory cool as she lays by it and not on it. Keeping the puppies in one spot will hopefully keep Glory from laying on them. The nest is receded into the whelping box so I had to have John modify the whelping box by building a sturdy stand to set it on so the nest could lay flat in it. Once modified I set it up in the bedroom to get Glory used to it being there as that is where she will start out raising her litter.

The whelping box is all set. The whelping nest is heating up to the proper temperature so I put a mat in the box for Glory and a whelping pad over the mat and nest so the puppies weren’t laying right on the hard plastic. The nest has a red light that lights up when working so you know that it’s heating.

I dug all my whelping supplies out of the closet and went through them to see what I had and what I needed to get.

I sat down and made some new paracord puppy id collars.

Of course I’ve had to stop at goodwill and check out there puppy socializing toys and picked up some new hats that were on clearance. Have to have photo props for the pups as they grow and move around.

I went through my blankets and fixed any that needed to be fixed.

I sorted through all my toys and washed them up and threw out the ones that weren’t safe.

I bought a new scale to weigh the puppies on, each day and even sometimes twice a day I weigh the puppies and make sure they are growing and not loosing weight.

Of course there will be lots of peeing when they learn how to walk so bought a big supple of pee pads.

Glory doing yoga to keep herself limber, actually she thinks all these preparations are boring.

The first measurement was done on 1/24/18 which was 33 inches, one week later on 1/31/18 she was up to 36 inches, she gained 3 inches in one week, she is really getting big.

A week after the surgical insemination Glory got an infection next to her surgical incision. The above photo is the before and after pictures of her boobs. She has healed up so nicely from the surgery. You can’t even tell anything happened.

I got the rest of the toys out of cold storage, these toys will be used to enrich them as they are growing. They will be used to socialize them and will be used to get them used to different noises as some of them play songs and talk. I replaced all the batteries in them and cleaned them with waterless shampoo.

I got the romper room set up, this is where the puppies will go at 4-5 weeks of age until they go to their new homes. I set up the activity center for them to play with as well. These items they can play with, it  may startle them but they will learn how to recover from new situations and will become confident puppies when out in the real world.

I got a temperature station so I can monitor the temp and humidity in the bedroom. The pups have to be warm the first couple weeks of life as their temperatures are not at the normal temp when born, their temps raise and are up to 100 in two weeks.

Glory is full of puppies and I think she is ready to have them. She doesn’t want to eat her meals like she should because there is really no excess room in her belly. I am happy with my preparations and had fun doing them. I’m sure there will be more preparations to come after the delivery and as the puppies are growing but for now I am set. Glory’s planned c-section is scheduled for tomorrow. I pray that all goes well and that she has a great recovery and that the puppies are all healthy.