Bring Back My Puppies!

They woke up earlier than anticipated this morning--maybe 3? or 4? It's all a blur. I stumbled out to the kitchen and started the normal routine.

These guys have gotten themselves into a regular routine the past week or so. It's really been quite nice. They wake up, with Higgins being the loudest, clamoring to eat. I fix him a bottle, which he downs in about 10 minutes -- 8 oz -- and then lies on my stomach until he gives a big puppy belch. While I'm feeding him. the other two are watching us. Eliza growls and bats at Freddie. Freddie either whines to eat or plays with Eliza.

Freddie is next to eat and has started eating more, downing either a full 8 oz, or at the least 4 oz.

While I feed Freddie, Eliza cuddles up with the freshly fed Higgins and goes back to sleep. When I put Freddie into the playpen, I give Eliza a skritch and her head pops up and she scrambles to get out from under Higgins. You can almost hear her thinking "My turn? Is it finally my turn??" She also takes nearly 8 oz of milk, fairly quickly.

They also established a potty area of the playpen. They sleep on one end and do their business on the other. This makes it much easier for me because I keep a towel on the potty end and change that usually after each feeding, which means I don't have to completely change the bedding more than once a day, because the rest of it stays pretty clean.

OK. That's the way it's been for about a week.

So when they woke up this morning I started feeding Higgins and he frantically sucked and chewed at the nipple and was finished after only 4 oz. Sometimes this happens if the nipple is blocked, but it was running clear. I decided that he'd been awakened by teething pain, not hunger and that the chewing was helping. I didn't really worry about it because he's such a horse anyway.

I put him back and picked up Eliza, who was crying the loudest and damned if she didn't do the same thing. Very little sucking, mostly chewing and she only took two ounces. Well...OK... I put her back in bed and took Freddie, who did eat, but less than usual. Among the three of them, they barely finished 8 oz--and they usually finish about 2-1/2 eight oz. bottles.

As I said, they had awakened early, so I didn't really worry about it. They woke up again 4 hours later and it was a repeat of the previous feeding. Only added with it this time, when I put Higgins back, he peed where he normally sleeps.

I've had trouble getting all three of them to take a bottle all day today. I finally put out some of the "Step 2" solid food (like puppy pablum) and they finished that all right, so I'm not really worried that they are not getting food...it's just that my sweet little predictable puppies are suddenly acting very strange and that bothers me.

the 3 puppies sleeping on what they
used to use as their bathroom.

My copy of Dan Brown's new book arrived yesterday and I decided to just give up doing anything optional today and have been engrossed in the book. I've finished about half of it and already predict an increase in tourism to Washington, D.C.!

I happened to have a brief chat with Steve, who is not only a big Dan Brown fan, but also a personal friend of Brown...and who is presently in Washington, DC while Jimmy performs Zero Hour. Surprisingly he doesn't have the book yet and I told him he needed to go out and buy it immediately, especially since they are staying near the Freemason Center!

I certainly am learning a lot about the Masons (how much I'm actually absorbing, however, is an entirely different subject!)

However, it's such an engrossing book that it was 2 p.m. before I thought about lunch and after 9 before I thought about dinner. Now that's engrossing!!!