Waiting for babies...

[emithebug]

For those who missed my other thread, I have a pregnant sow. Not sure how far along she is, but... darn, I'm getting impatient. Her name is Cookie.

She's soooo big for her size! She slowly, subtly changed from "politely" pregnant to "Oh God, get these buggers out of me" pregnant. I hadn't really noticed it until last night when I took her out of her the cage for some lap time and she gave me this look like, "yeah, I can feel them kicking too, darn them," and then took a nap. Poor girl.

So, I have a question for all the moms out there -

When babies kick in your tummy, how hard do they kick towards the end of the pregnancy? I mean, is it really light, or is it kind of like the baby guinea pigs, where there's sometimes a foot practically sticking out of mom's side? Does/did it wake you up at night when you're asleep?

Anywho... I have some pictures of her that I'll post later. The little buggers are kicking like mad! Haven't heard teeth grinding yet, but I THINK that I've felt it... And I think she's dilated just a little bit - about half of a finger when I checked late last night/early this morning.

ALso - I give all my pigs about 1-1/4 cup of veggies each per day - about 3/4 cup of romaine each, 1/4 cup of red pepper, one baby carrot, one snow pea, and one grape tomato sliced in two. THey all get their fair share of the veggies, although they do play tug-o-war a lot and SOMEONE (*glares at Little Bit*) tries to hog all the carrots, but should I be giving Cookie some extra vitamin C? I have some liquid vitamin C I can syringe-feed to her, but if I don't have to, then I'd rather not - I'm kind of afraid of handling her too much.

anywho... pictures of her later tonight!

 

[cavy-cool-crazy]

I would just increase her intake of red pepper, parsley and cilantro and give her a small slice of orange every other day. That should give her enough Vitamin C to see her through to the end of the pregnancy safely.
Also, are you feeding alfalfa hay and alfalfa based pellets? That will increase the intake of calcium which is important for mom and pups.

When you ask about the babies kicking, do you mean pig pregnancy or human pregnancy? It's kind of hard to tell which you mean!

 

[thecalders]

Some human babies kick so hard you can see actual foot imprints extending out of the tummy on mom... Not kidding, it is kind of like an impression left by that novelty that was sold with all the pins held in a grid, you push on oneside, and the shape of whatever you are pressing in shows up on the other side, like a face, or hand or well, anything... if you have scene it before, you know what I am talking about...

As for waking you up with kicking, my 3 did not do that, and thank goodness, becasue with waking up to go to the bathroom every 30 hour near the end, I don't think I could have taken waking up with a good hoofing too

I think it is different for all moms, some take it in stride, some complain a lot, human moms and guineas a like...

 

[emithebug]

XD Okay, I'm giving them timothy hay because when they were younger, they weren't given alfalfa, and when I tried, they munched a little bit and then gave me a look that said, "what do you think you're trying to push on us?" =P They wouldn't really eat much of their alfalfa, so I was really worried about their hay intake and switched back to timothy hay. But yes, they do have alfalfa-based pellets.

I guess I should clarify on my question for moms -

When you were pregnant with your kids, towards the end of your pregnancy when they kicked, was it really light, or really hard like GP babies kick? Because when I watch the babies kick inside Cookie, it's like they're practically sticking their foot out of her side. It just looks REALLY uncomfortable, and I wondered if human babies kicked the same way.

 

[NewGPMom]

My son used to kick the daylights out of me. I remember camping once and I was sitting in the recliner, he stuck his foot straight out and rolled. You could see his foot move the whole way across my belly. My uncle (who is more like a brother as he is the same age) was watching and it totally freaked him out.

 

[emithebug]

lol, that's hilarious! Did he kick and wake you up at night?

More GP questions!

1) How long does it take pigs to dilate fully? A day? A week? Does it vary?
2) Is there any kind of behavior I should look for, either in her, the other girls, or the babies? Because the babies are kicking like crazy and the other girls are all sniffing her bottom...

I think she's going to have two babies, but she looks so big! I can clearly feel two sets of feet, though... if there's a third, then it's really well hidden. She just doesn't look big enough to be having more than three.

One weird behavior I keep seeing - she keeps like... trying to crawl underneath the other pigs! You know how they "nose" things out of their way, when they jerk their head up? She's doing that, but to get underneath the other pigs! Pumpkin doesn't mind at all, but Flower gets all mad about it... what's she doing?

 

[twofinepigs]

I don't know if pigs are anything at all like humans, but if they are, here's what's happening:

Her feet ache. Her back hurts. The piggies keep stomping her bladder when she's in staff meeting. Sometimes they stretchhhh so they can push on her lungs and her bladder simultaneously. She hasn't slept well in ages but she knows that this is more sleep than she'll get AFTER the piggies are born. She's starving but after about three bites she's full because there's no more room for food in there. She gets a stitch in her side if she walks too far or too fast. She just wants to lie down but there's no comfortable way to lie. She is ready to be DONE with pregnancy and move on to the next phase.

The BEST part is when she sees a clear footprint on her belly, or watches/feels a limb pass all the way from one side to the other, or when an (elbow? foot? what?) pokes out and she pokes it back and it sucks in and then pokes her again. I suppose listening to teeth chatter inside you is much the same thing. It's the happy time that reminds you what you're really doing. It makes up for the incredible distortion of most of your anatomy.

 

[emithebug]

I take back what I said - maybe she's having three? I think I found another set of feet, but who knows anymore?

How long will it take her to dilate all the way?

She's such a sweet, sweet little girl... *crosses fingers* I hope everything goes okay. Out of six pigs, I've only got three who will just sit in my lap and snuggle for as long as I want, and she's one of them... ;_;

 

[cavy-cool-crazy]

I think about a week before the birth she starts to dilate, and usually when she is dilated 2 finger widths you can expect pups within a couple of days.

 

[emithebug]

gwargh!!! *dies from impatience*

She's only dilated about one finger width now. Darn she's cute, though. She's curled up in my lap right now, with her belly on my leg and her back legs kinda frogged out to the side. I can feel the babies kicking against my leg! *squeals*

My boyfriend (who LOVES the piggies), was petting her while I was holding her the other day ('cause he's afraid he'll handle her all wrong). He doesn't know all the reasons for piggies not to have babies, what can go wrong, etc. He was feeling the babies kick, and he goes, "Hey, after Cookie has her litter, why don't we let one of the other girls have babies?" (Cujo hasn't been neutered yet, and he's all alone in his cage right next to the girls) And I said, "Because if we let all the girls get pregnant, one of them would probably die. At best." So then he gave me this horrified look, ran and got Pumpkin, and snuggled her to death for the rest of the night.

I thought it was a cute, nice story that might cheer some people up. ^.^

Does anyone else have piggies that like having their ears and forehead rubbed/scratched?

 

[cavy-cool-crazy]

Aww, how sweet!
My Charlie boy likes his head scratched, as do Tuppy and Jazzie. Lottie is extra-sensitive though so she really isn't keen on being touched, but she does love you tickling her chin and neck!

 

[emithebug]

Whenever I ruffle and scratch pumpkin's nose and forehead, she always starts closing her eyes like she's going, "Ahhh... *relax*" It's so cute! Cookie does it when I rub the tips of her ears, and Flower does it when I scratch RIGHT in between her ears on the top of her head. ^.^

 

[emithebug]

Yaaarggghh!! I WANT HER TO HAVE BABIES ALREADY. *dies from lack of patience* She's two finger-widths dilated. She's been acting funny all day. Fidgety 'n stuff. AND I HAVE TO GO TO WORK. *cries* If she has the babies while I'm at work... I'll be sad! I mean, I won't, because I'll be happy about the babies, but... yeah. =P She's HUGE.

*rambles on forever about her piggies*

 

[arogerson]

We took our sweet Ginger to vet when we thought she may be pregnant (we unknowingly bought a pregnant pig.) The vet said she could have them tomorrow or in two weeks. Well...she had them two weeks later. We thought she would NEVER have them and she had FIVE healthy pups, 1 male and 4 females. We woke up one morning and there they were. She got HUGE. The babies were clearly kicking for those last two weeks. The only clue I can give you is your pig's activity level will go down and she may be a bit more grumpy. Ginger growled at us alot so as to say, "just leave me alone."

 

[Pookie]

Emithebug, congrats on your Cookie having babies! I've never seen Guinea pig babies, what a wonderful thing!

When you are in the last part of a pregnancy, there really isn't too much room for a baby to move because they have gotten so big. I couldn't even imagine what 2 or 3 babies would feel like, especially with all those feet! Wheh! All I know is that my baby didn't move a whole lot in the last week of pregnancy, he would hiccup often, and situate himself, but not too much kicking. He never woke me up at least. There were times where he would have his hind end moved to one side and that was a little uncomfortable. I'm sure that Cookie is soooo ready to have those babies!!!!

 

[emithebug]

Poor baby looks so tired. Heh. I have a story; I got a kick out of this.

Recently, there was a shift in power in my cage from Flower to Pumpkin. Pumpkin is the largest, strongest, fattest piggy I have, so my boyfriend and I were naturally kind of surprised that she wasn't the dominant one. I went to sleep early one night, and he told me the next morning that Pumpkin and flower had been fighting the night before (no bloodshed). Later that day, I saw Pumpkin mounting Flower any chance she could get, so it proved that Pumpkin won ^.^

Anyways, Flower and Little Bit pick on Cookie EVERY chance they get - if she's eating, they'll push her out of the way, they'll chase her around the cage, all that stuff. Anyways, they were both picking on her, and she was crying. I got up to go shoo them away from her, but Pumpkin came DARTING out of the pigloo and chased both Flower and Little Bit away from her. It was the cutest thing in the world. My boyfriend got a kick out of it; he went, "Flower got PWNED." XD

So anyways, now Pumpkin's ALWAYS around Cookie, and she always chases off Flower and Little Bit when they're mean to her. It's like Cookie's got her own personal bodyguard/escort in Pumpkin, despite that she's at the bottom of the pecking order. =)

Anywho. Cookie's still huge and hasn't popped yet. I expect the babies any day now, but then... I've been saying that for almost a week. ^.^; The babies are kicking like CRAZY. I've heard them grinding their teeth a couple times now. It's WEIRD.

 

[Squirle]

Im in the same boat as you! I have a pregnant sow from the darn pet store! I can't feel the babys kicking yet but i can feel some in her tummy.

 

[Ly&Pigs]

She will have them fairly soon if she's that dilated.

 

[emithebug]

It feels like 1-3/4 to 2 fingers for me, but I have really, really small hands and fingers. =P So I dunno. Honestly, it doesn't seem like a baby could fit through there.

Will she get less active or anything? She's still running around like crazy. XD She's got the cutest ears ever.

 

[emithebug]

I just had kind of a weird thought.

We have bellybuttons where our umbilical cord was attached. So whly don't piggies have bellybuttons? Is the umbilical cord attached in the same spot? And if not, where?

(it's too early for me to be awake; I'm weird in the morning.)