So This Is Why They Call It a Dog Pile

While watching the Super Bowl at our friend Amanda's house tonight, I saw some dog piles out on the field.  But none of those were nearly as cute as this one I spotted this afternoon.  ;-)

We've been a little concerned that Willow hasn't been feeding the puppies as often as we would like, so we're taking some steps to make sure that all of them are getting to nurse more often.  To relieve our anxious minds today, Jeff, assisted by Josiah, weighed all of them; and indeed they are gaining weight.  In birth order, here are their weights:
1. Princess - perhaps in keeping with her name, she is our most petite one, weighing in at 2.8 pounds
2. Bolt - we've noticed for a while that he's bigger than some, so we weren't surprised by his 3.25 pounds
3. Oliver - not to be outdone, he came in at 3.25 pounds
4. Mystery - and so did she - 3.25 pounds for this girl
5. Redemptress - 3.0 pounds
6. Koda - 3.1 pounds
7. Sheva - our lightest male - 2.9 pounds
8. Sofia - 3.0 pounds
9. Jubilee - 3.1 pounds
10. Judea - she may be the last-born, but she's no runt - 3.0 pounds

I declare, if you see me during the next six weeks and notice that my hair is becoming more gray by the day, it may very well be because of these puppies!  If I thought it was nerve-wracking when Moriah, as an infant, wasn't gaining the weight I thought she should, this is even harder in a sense because I can't do a whole lot to help these puppies.  At least with Moriah I could nurse her more often!  But so far, begging Willow to "PLEASE get in that box and feed those puppies" hasn't worked.

Around here, Jeff is the expert when it comes to all things puppy, and he has a way of making things happen that should happen; but when he's away at work, the responsibility is on my shoulders.  So tomorrow, rather than reading to my kids about ancient Crete or helping Tobin with some pages in the math workbook he absolutely loves to do, I may be spending the day wrapped up in my latest obsession: making sure each little puppy consumes enough calories to grow like he or she should (a task which is complicated by my general cluelessness when it comes to puppies)!

But pushing worry aside, I try to tell myself to "trust the process" and assume that Willow's instincts are better suited to the raising of puppies than my anxious mind is.  Meanwhile, I'm enjoying watching these 10 little gems.  With eyes that open now and legs that are strong enough to support them as they swagger along for a bit before collapsing, with tails that stick up in the air now and quiver sometimes when they're nursing, they are as cute as can be.  Tonight for the first time, we saw a few of them begin to wrestle around and play-fight with each other--just for a little bit, but long enough to remind us of what is ahead.

Looks like the dog piles are going to get rowdier very soon!  ;-)