gracie update no. 2

since i've been promising it for like a week, here's a small update on gracie.

no puppies.. yet. but we can SEE them moving. it's amazing. if you have never had a pregnant dog, it is really interesting and kind of fascinating. we take her for daily walks around the block, and she's panting awfully hard when we get back home. i think she's over the pregnancy awe, if dogs have that. she is getting pretty big.

we have started gating her into the kitchen at night so she won't be tempted to "start" on her bed by our bed. i don't think i could handle that! she seems to like her little spot though, and she goes in there to lay down whenever she gets bored or wants to be alone (she is a girl, after all). we've been taking her temperature (and by we i mean "i"... and it's a rectal thermometer) daily and it's consistently 99-100 (which is normal for dogs). one day it was a bit low, 97, but obviously, no puppies.

it's been a roller coaster!

these are the things we have noticed most prominently:

affection. she was already a cuddler, but it's out of control. she wants to lay with as much body contact as possible. whoever is on the computer, that's usually who she feels like cuddling with -- by getting between your hand and the keyboard. (she's demanding.) one of the websites said she may stare at her "human"... and i laughed because it sounded creepy. but she does.

sloth. haha, ok maybe that's not the right word. but in the last few days she has gotten too uncomfortable to move. she walks SLOWLY on the leash, like i'm dragging her. it takes forever to get around our small block. she won't even sit upright for long before she lays on her side, or like this:

she's so stinkin' cute.

even in the middle of our walk.

and when we're laying out...

restlessness. i'm not sure how this goes with sloth, but when she's not asleep, she's moving from couch to floor to kitchen (linoleum) back to couch to doghouse... it's a lot of movement for someone who doesn't want to play or walk.

so. there's the update. i'll keep you posted as things change, but for now, we wait!