Phoenix's puppies have arrived!!

Phoenix is now the proud mama of SIX puppies!!They were born yesterday, March 17.
We were monitoring her temperature since Friday evening. A drop in temperature to below 100 F on Sunday morning that persisted until Sunday evening indicated that we could expect the puppies to arrive within the next 24 hours. I waited up with her until 11pm, then went to bed to get a bit of sleep. Phoenix was rather unsettled all night, going into and out of the crate in my bedroom, jumping up on the bed and asking for snuggles or licking any appendage of mine she could get at. Around 3:00 she became even more restless and agitated, so at 3:15 I got out of bed and took her into the whelping box in our kitchen puppy corner.

At 4:00 I woke the kids, who had insisted on being woken in time to be of assistance (they are mid-woofs in training!) and not just once the puppies were actually popping out! We all waited, bunled up in blankets and slippers in the cold kitchen, drinking hot chocolate and giving Phoenix all the attention she sought as her labour continued. The kids were starting to worry that the pups might not arrive before they had to leave for school. But a temperature rise to above 100 F around 5am indicated the pups should start coming very soon, within the hour. And indeed, shortly before 6am the first one arrived, birthed by my son. My daughter assisted with the second birth some 40 minutes later, and then they alternated until they had to catch the school bus at 7:35, leaving me to handle the final birth on my own.

We have
Puppy #1 - born at 5:49 - M - caramel/apricot - 230g
Puppy #2 - born at 6:30 - M - chocolate phantom - 203g
Puppy #3 - born at 6:41 - F - caramel/apricot - 200g
Puppy #4 - born at 6:50 - M - caramel/apricot - 225g
Puppy #5 - born at 7:18 - F - black phantom - 197g
Puppy #6 - born at 7:45 - F - chocolate phantom - 230g
**note: the difference between caramel and apricot is essentially that the caramel have brown noses and the apricot have black noses. As this pigment isn't always evident immediately, we will wait until we are sure which is which before declaring "caramel" or "apricot" for those pups.

The winner of our Guess How Many Puppies contest (the Phoenix edition) is Suzanne W (mama to Matilda, one the pups from Galena's first litter), who guessed 6 puppies with the first arriving March 16 at 10:20!! (My son actually guessed a time 2 hours closer, but I have a policy that if a family member wins, the next closest non-family member also receives a prize.)

Mama and babies are all doing well. Phoenix is an attentive and caring mama.
Stay tuned for updates about once a week!

P.S. Forgive the bad quality of these photos - taken on my iPhone in a rush before I left for work.