Sammi's Diary - Part 2

02/02/2020 (day 15) What a date! -Panic stations here this morning, Sammi has started bleeding. I contacted Katrina who said I should get some antibiotics from the vets .. she tried to reassure me with "sometimes they can bleed during pregnancy." I rang the vet and after checking Sammi's temp was normal I was allowed to go and pick up the antibiotics for her. Obviously I'm stressed and worried and as usual I see worsted case scenario. I'm trying to comfort myself that Krizzie bled from 4.5 weeks to 7 weeks on her second litter and had a normal health litter .. but to be honest it's not working!
03/02 - Nothing has changed, Sammi is still bleeding but her temperature is normal and she's eating. She's fine, I'm not. I'm so worried that something is going wrong with the pregnancy .. so worried that she is loosing the pups. I know that normal when pups are "miscarried" at this stage that they are reabsorbed into the body and you generally never know they were there, but again today that gives little comfort. Implantation bleeding has been mentioned, this was not familiar to me, but google says ... "Implantation bleeding is thought to happen when the fertilized egg attaches to the lining of the uterus." But according to Book Of The Bitch that happens at 20 - 21 days not 16 days, and that's a huge difference in a 9 week pregnancy. I now have at least 3 weeks to worry about this, 3 weeks before we can know one way or another for sure. God why does this always happen to me, why can I not enjoy a pregnancy with my bitches like I did with Ziva and others before her?
05/02 - Day 18 -The blood has now stopped and throughout Sammi has been fine. Yesterday and today we have done short walks ... vet agrees to get to normal now.
07/02 - Day 20 -Sadly the blood started again. Following advice I took Sammi for a progesterone test today. It was 42.1 .. relief, so theoretically she should be able to hold puppies if she is pregnant. This is the same test as was used to determine the ovulation day .. this now poses the questions, in which case, does a high result two to three weeks after mating point to a successful pregnancy? Would you expect the result to be low if she had missed, or not been mated at all? If so could we use the progesterone test as a pregnancy test? Very interesting, someone must know ... Sometimes I really miss Jill Hubbard!

08/02 - Day 21 - There has been no blood today and we did a short group walk down a single track lane. I do hope I didn't do the wrong thing. I'm writing this here as I don't have to show it or justify it to anyone, but my gut tells me Sammi is pregnant. She is so clingy with me and her totally out of character reaction to Luther last week can only have been hormonal. " In the first trimester, the bitch may show mood changes and variable picky appetite. " No picky appetite but definitely mood changes! Now the second trimester begins (day 21-42).
09/02 - Day 22 - Sammi has been sick and left her breakfast this morning. A promising sign. This afternoon a third person with experience of bleeding in a pregnant bitches has told me her bitch went on to have a large litter .. We'll see.
12/02 - day 25 - Left her breakfast again today, but took my hand off for a carrot. We went to Cwm Dulyn but just did the walk along the wall. So plenty of time out but no space to run like an idiot!
14/02 - Day 27 - Sammi ate breakfast today. Until today she left it 4 days out of 5. She's still clingy

and loving but I don't trust her if the cats come near me. She's so jealous of them being close to me, but has no issues with the other dogs, odd yeah. Because she is showing signs of early pregnancy I go from being so excited and hopeful to cautious and worried because of the bleeding between day 15 and 22. (Going from the first mating) Sammi's nipples have doubled in size over the last week or so, if she is not pregnant then she truly believes she is ... I'll organise a scan after day 30 ...
17/2 - Day 30 - Sammi is eating her meals normally now. A scan is only available after day 30 from the second mating and these dates are from the first mating, so the scan would show up what I need to know after tomorrow. Normally I would leave it till nearer 35 days but with bleeding between 2 and 3 weeks then knowing everything is OK is so important. As much as I want to know I'm also so so scared of facing a disappointment. I explained this to Steve this morning expecting that he wouldn't get it, but he totally did. So maybe I'm not so daft after all? Haha

19/2 - Day 32 - Scan day. I'm excited and I'm terrified. My head tells me she is pregnant, she is showing all the classic signs, but my heart refuses to believe it and we all know that hormones can fool the best of us. I've tried to keep myself guarded from disappointment, but it didn't work, I'm too invested in the situation. I keep telling myself I'll know later, but then I take myself back to Sammi's previous first scan and the unnecessary heartache that followed .. I must also prepare for similar results just in case Sammi is again hiding a secret, but if I am to go with my gut feeling today then Sammi is pregnant and carrying more than three pups .. there I've said it, hope I haven't hexed it.
Great news at the vets then - Happy Bunny ...