We Have Kittens!!!

Bella finally had her kittens this morning! We now have five new adorable baby kittens in our house! Yesterday I had the feeling that she was at the beginning stages of labor due to the fact she would not remain still for a long time. She was in and out of the bathroom, in the hallway quite a bit, and in our bedroom full of meows and "talking" to us. All in all, she was just restless. Her stomach was rock hard and it seemed as though she had "dropped". As some of you may know, she has taken over our bathtub as her spot to lay the past few weeks.

I woke up this morning around 6:30 and was unable to go back to sleep or even remain in bed. I ended up getting up and watching the news in the living room, a few minutes later to be joined by Kevin. We were watching TV when we heard a high pitch "meow". We just looked at one another, wondering what was going on when it hit me, "Bella had a kitten". Kevin and I walked into the hallway to see where it was coming from to find a little newborn kitten in our hallway with Bella. Okay, so not even the best place for her to choose to have it! Kevin tried to move her to the bathtub then was going to place the kitten in there with her. Everytime he put her in, she jumped out to get back to the baby. We had to end up each grabbing one and move them both at the same time for her to stay in place. She did great with the first kitten, cleaning and removing everything. With the second one, she seemed distracted with the ongoing labor and we had to end up cutting the umbilical cord and cleaning the mess off. She did clean her kittens just did not mess with the cord. In the end, I think she got lazy and figured since we took care of the second one we could do the next three to come! The third one was born with the sac still surrounding it and started to suffocate in it. Scary! Kev grabbed the scissors and cut it off. The kitten, now known as Lucky, took a breath and that was it. It was not moving or breathing, it looked to be dead. I got upset and walked out of the bathroom to get the kids something to eat. They were up at this point but not allowed in that bathroom. Kev walked out a few moments later to tell me the kitten was now breathing and moving around. Thank God! I was so relieved, as was he. Now Lucky is one of the more active ones. Pretty amazing!

At first Bella looked lost and did not really act the motherly part, which had us worried. I was not looking forward to feeding kittens every two hours! However, shortly after the last one, she started to gain the motherly instinct and has been wonderful since! She is very protective, really only letting Kevin and I near the kittens. When we pick one up and move away from the bathtub she jumps out and follows. They are all feeding off of her and moving around a lot. When she moves away in order to eat or use the litter box, they all curl up in a heap of kittens! They will fall asleep for a brief minute together then one on the bottom decides it wants to move to the top. They are all so cute! Hope you enjoy the pics below... they are somewhat out of order but there are captions under each!

Within the first couple of hours

This is Lucky shortly after birth and Kev saving him.

Bella with her babies very soon after the last one was born.

She is such a good mom already!

Lucky this evening.

Mama with the little ones a few hours after birth.

Bella was eating and the kittens were wondering around before forming their "kitty pile".

Bella during after having a kitten, before the arrival of the next.

Bella with a kitten, before arrival of the next.