Yesterday was a really lovely day for us as we had our very good friends, Dave and Jan come over for a visit which was great. Naturally I couldn't resist inviting them up to the kitten room to see our Pints. I think Amaretto was also pleased to see someone other than me because so far I am the only person to actually go in and out of the kitten room so Dave and Jan were our Pints' first ever visitors and I am sure that the babies enjoyed their cuddles from Uncle Dave and Aunty Jan :). Yet again, our babies made very good weight gains during the last 24 hours and they appear to be growing at a rather rapid rate. Our babies' eyes are not open yet and me being the typical worrier that I am quickly skimmed through some of my previous kitten diaries to see roughly what days eyes were opening from other litters and I'm pleased to see that I still have some days' grace yet so I'll see what happens over the next couple of days. I've been looking at our babies closely over the last couple of days trying to ascertain which of their parents they are taking after. It's still difficult to tell as they are so very young but at the moment I am leaning more towards them taking after their dad, rather than taking after Amaretto. I can say with certainty that at this stage they look very different from all of Amaretto's previous babies who were sired by Ice so it's going to be really interesting watching them develop during the next 13 weeks.

If our Pints keep going along in the same direction that they currently are they should have doubled their birth weight by Day 7 which will be really lovely. Even at this age they truly are little time wasters and it is so easy to just sit in the kitten room for hours watching them while they sleep, feed and crawl all over each other. I had to giggle at Caffreys this morning because the babies all decided it was time to have a little crawl about in the box but because their eyes are not open yet they obviously can not see where they are going. Guinness and XXXX both decided to head in the same direction and started crawling........................straight on top of Caffreys (who is no small baby at all). The problem was that they then decided to stop crawling about and just stopped right on top of poor Caffreys head. Caffreys started screaming at them in that noise that only newborns can make and after a minute of shoving and pushing she managed to get her little fat body out from under them both. At this stage Guinness looks as if he will be much longer than his 2 sisters whereas XXXX and Caffreys are little porkers as you can no doubt tell by the photos. It's entirely possible they will be taking after their father, who even at 11 months of age is a giant cat.

The only way I could keep Amaretto out of the box while I took photos this morning was to feed her so I managed to take some semi decent photos today. Even at this very early stage the babies are used to our morning routine which consists of me going into the kitten room, giving their mum a plate of food, taking them out of the box, change the bedding, weigh each baby and put them back in the box on the clean bedding. At the moment, none of the babies protest too much at being weighed although I have a feeling this will change once they are a little older. Guinness, XXXX, and Caffreys all had very good weight gains however Strongbow did not gain anything within the last 24 hours so I will be monitoring him closely and will probably start topping him up today. The raw rabbit mince went down a treat with Amaretto. She thoroughly enjoyed it and had 2 plates of it yesterday. For breakfast this morning she had some Sheba which she loves and her next meal which I'm about to take up to her shortly will be the mince again. By late yesterday afternoon all the cords had fallen off and there is some colouring starting to come through on either XXXX's or Caffreys' ears. I haven't looked at it closely though to determine what colour it actually is as I'm not really bothered about colours at this early stage. Our Pints are moving around the box quite a bit more now and I think they are becoming slightly more alert now. I'm really going to enjoy the next few weeks as I watch them develop and see their individual personalities start to appear.

I really should start by saying that we have now named and sexed the babies. I can not guarantee that the sexes are correct though and I do regret not having sexed them when they were first born because by the time we got round to it last night, all their little "bits" had swollen up as they normally do, making it very difficult to ascertain just what is what. So don't be surprised if, within a few weeks' time, boys are suddenly becoming girls and vice versa :) By 1400 yesterday afternoon, mum and babies were firmly ensconced in the kitten room which, I might add, took 2 hours of cleaning as Sheridans has been sleeping in there of an evening. Amaretto is much happier and content in the kitten room, in fact, all of our queens are which is why I like to get them settled in there as soon as possible. I weighed our babies this morning and am delighted to say that they have all gained weight so I am not topping any of them up at all. Our Havana gained 20 grams in 24 hours; our 2nd largest Siamese gained 18 grams in 24 hours; our largest Siamese gained 21 grams in 24 hours: and our smallest Siamese gained 12 grams in 24 hours. I am definitely very happy with these gains.All 4 babies are doing very well and they are just so beautiful, particularly my little Havana baby. I can safely say already I am in love with Amaretto's babies. She has really done us proud yet again and she is a superb mum who adores her children. I am relieved that so far Amaretto hasn't attempted to move any of the babies, not that she has that many options in the kitten room which is set up the way it is so that the mum's will be encouraged to stay in their box. I slept extremely well last night although still woke up feeling slightly tired but very happy with our babies progress. As for our babies' names.............well we now have:

Name	Baby	Sex
Guinness	Havana	Male
Castlemaine XXXX	Siamese	Female
Caffreys	Siamese	Female
Strongbow	Siamese	Male

Our babies will collectively be known as "The Pints" which I think is rather cute :) Also ironic as neither of us even drink beer/lager!

At long last! For the last 4 - 5 days Amaretto has shown signs of being extremely close and we've had quite a few sleepless nights now so we're quite pleased that it's all over and all of us, particularly Amaretto can get a bit of rest now. This first litter in 2006 is very exciting for us because this is the first litter sired by Sheridans. Not only that, but it's also our first litter with a Havana which for me is incredibly thrilling, even though I am not keeping any at all! Now onto the most important bit, the actual birth itself...........................

It's fair to say that this was the most difficult birth we've encountered in the respect that we have 4 babies who were all breech births and I had to assist with all 4 deliveries as the baby got stuck every single time. I am just pleased that it's all over now and I have no doubts at all that Amaretto is thinking the exact same thing! At 2254 last night, Retto had been calmly sitting on the bed with us and she suddenly flew off the bed straight into the kitten box and started scratching around. Graham and I both said the same thing "She's gonna have them tonight". So I went into the kitten room and grabbed the heat pad, vaseline, Rescue Remedy, scales and loads of bedding whilst Graham went downstairs for a rubbish bag, notepad/pen, and camera. After that, Amaretto was all over the room, on the bed, off the bed, trying to get up on top of the wardrobe. She then settled back down on the bed, purring and meowing constantly. At 2343 part of a sac appeared and we could see the tip of the tail and part of a paw which did not bode well as it meant a breech birth. Despite contractions and pushing, it seemed like we were getting nowhere so at 0040 I put vaseline on both hands and lay down with her and as she pushed, I gently tugged with one hand and at 0048 our first Havana baby was born. What a little terror he/she is going to be as well because right from the word go the baby was not impressed with being weighed, nor with being dried off, and as soon as I placed him/her in with Amaretto, straight away the baby started clambering all over Amaretto to find a nipple. Once the nipple was found, the baby latched on and started suckling. Unfortunately the baby's meal was not to last very long because at 0055 Amaretto started pushing again so I took the baby out, and put him/her on the heat pad. Graham was "babysitting" the Havana and really had his hands full as this little one was not going to just lie still and have a nap, so every couple of minutes, Graham had to put the baby back in the middle of the heat pad where he/she promptly started to crawl back to the edge. Our next baby was a Siamese and just like the Havana, another breech birth and this one was also a struggle and when the baby was halfway out, I had to assist again with the Vaseline but fortunately this one wasn't quite as difficult as the Havana and at 0048 the Siamese was born. After this, Amaretto was quite tired and I'm not surprised at all because she put a lot of effort into delivering her 2 children and now it was time for a rest. I replaced the bedding in the box as it was quite damp and rather messy (this was actually the messiest birth we've ever encountered also) and after the bedding had been changed, Amaretto and her 2 suckling children settled down in the box for cuddles and bonding. By 0110 both babies were firmly latched on and sucking away without any assistance whatsoever which I was really pleased about. At 0148 Amaretto started having contractions again and a sac appeared showing back legs and a tail, our 3rd breech birth, so the other 2 babies were removed from the box, given to Graham who settled them back onto the heat pad so that Amaretto and I could concentrate on the delivery. When the baby was halfway out, Amaretto decided to try and deliver the other half in the litter tray. I got her out of the tray and again had to use the vaseline and repeated the same procedure as before, only this time I had insert my other fingers inside very gently to try and get the head out. Then at 0223 after about 5-10 minutes of her pushing and me doing my part, baby number 3 was eventually born. I have to say that those 5-10 minutes seemed like an eternity. I scooped Amaretto and the attached baby up, put them in the box so Amaretto could deal with the cord, however when my back was turned she climbed out of the box and went under the bed, dragging poor baby along behind her. I managed to get under the bed with her and rather than break the cord, I wanted to try and get the placenta out at the same time so I held the cord very firmly with one hand and used my other hand to give a gentle tug on the other end of the cord and this caused Amaretto to have another contraction and the placenta delivered very smoothly and quickly. I put Amaretto back in the box and dealt with the cord, dried off baby number 3, popped him/her on the scales and gave the baby to Graham for the heat pad. At 0256 Amaretto started having contractions and yet again a tail and back legs appeared, our 4th breech birth. Amaretto did find this one easier than the previous one and whilst I still had to assist, she managed to deliver this baby quite smoothly and at 0307 baby number 4 was born. After the weighing/drying off, all the bedding was changed as Amaretto looked and felt as if she were totally finished and the 4 babies were put back in the box with their mum and by 0330, all 4 were latched on and feeding. I then stayed awake for another hour just to make sure that was it and managed to get a few hours sleep before waking this morning to check on our new arrivals and then make a start on the mountains of washing. I went back upstairs and checked on the babies again just before this diary went online and 2 Siamese were feeding and the other Siamese and Havana were sound asleep and Amaretto was gazing at her little ones. It was the perfect picture of family contentment.