Today's entries are not long one at all and there are no photos as we have family visiting and it is Good Friday after all. I will make sure though that there are photos in tomorrow's entries.

Patriot now has his eyes fully open. Lethal Weapon has his eyes almost fully open and Braveheart's eyes are partially open so I would say that by Sunday at the latest, all of our Mel's will be able to see the world which is so very exciting. The babies are getting so much more used to being handled now and they are too bad when it comes to weighing, all except for Mad Max who has absolutely no intentions whatsoever of sitting still on the scales. He is such a little wriggler and is not happy at all about this whole weighing lark. Already he is proving that he may be a rather stubborn little man as he is growing up. At this point in time, Patriot is much calmer and he surveys his world in a very thoughtful manner. When I pick him up to look at him, he just stares straight back at me and I wonder what is going through his mind. Actually, upon reflection he is probably thinking "My goodness woman, couldn't you at least have done your hair before picking me up! Do you honestly think the first thing I want to see when I wake up is that bird's nest on your head".

You will notice that for the first time, I have managed to take photos of the right babies for each entry because I am a genuis :) Today, I put the mum's out of the room into our bedroom, I weighed all the babies, I then took the bedding out of the box, complete with babies on it. I put new bedding on the box and I put the Mel's back into the box with the new bedding. I then took photos of the Mel's, whilst making sure the Condiments didn't crawl off their bedding. I then put some more new bedding in the base of a litter tray (no it was not a used tray!), and then put the Condiments in there and took photos of them. It all went much more smoothly than I thought it would and it means that I now have a way of getting the correct babies in their own entries instead of joint photos.

Well my darling Mad Max now has both eyes fully open and the other babies are also starting to follow suit now as you can hopefully tell by the photos below. These little developments at this stage of their lives is really fantastic. Also, it gives me something to actually write about because as I've said time and time again, at this age, there really is not a lot to say about the babies as they don't do anything at all so whenever there is a new development it means that I don't have an entry full of boring news about sleeping babies :) All 4 of our Mel's made very good weight gains again last night so everything is looking really positive at the moment for our babies. Even now at 5 days of age, they have changed so very much. I am always astounded at how quickly our babies develop and change.

Well it appears that I was right about one thing at least. All along I have been saying that I was sure that Mad Max would end up being a Seal Point and how thrilled do you think I was when I looked at him yesterday afternoon to discover very prominent Seal markings appearing on his ears :) So now of course, when I am also right about Patriot's sex, Kim can start groveling ;) All of our Mel's are doing just so incredibly well and do you know, after what we went through with the labour, I said to Graham a few hours after the last baby was born that I would not be surprised at all if I had to top up and hand feed the Mel's. I was so very wrong as none of the babies have needed anything from me at all. They are just getting on with the first few days of their lives, drinking mum's milk, sleeping lots, and crawling around. It's just so wonderful and they are such very lucky babies to have 2 mums, Amarula and Tia Lusso who are doing the most fantastic job with them. Cords are already starting to fall off and I'm finding them lying around throughout the bed. I don't know why but the cords always fascinate me but at least I no longer pick them out of the bed and bring them downstairs to proudly show Graham and our daughter. For some reason they are not as enamoured of these little developments that I am :)

Again, both diaries are starting off the same today. Whenever you see the text split in two, then you need to remember that the text at the top will be exactly the same in Tia Lusso and Amarula's diary (just trying to make sure you don't read the same thing twice and think I've lost the plot). As all the babies are in the same box it's extremely difficult to know which Siamese is which, without picking them up and looking. Tia Lusso's babies have all been marked with permanent marker underneath their front legs. Two babies are blue and the other is red :) What I do not understand is how come the permanent marker fades overnight and has to be re marked every single morning, yet I can't get the darn stuff off my own skin (I now have blue and red markers on my hands!). When the Siamese colours start to come through, then it will be a lot easier to tell which on is Mad Max. This will also make it much easier for the photos because at the moment, apart from the Orientals obviously, I have absolutely no idea which Siamese I'm actually taking a photo of which is why there images of all the babies together in both diaries, and probably will be for a week, although if I'm right and if Mad Max turns out to be a Seal then his colours will start coming through very soon and I'm still convinced that Tia Lusso's babies will be blue/blue tabby. Speaking of photos though, many apologies for the ones in both entries today. They are dreadful, made worse by the fact that I had changed the bedding this morning as I do every morning and the bedding is a very dark navy blue which means that you can't even see Lethal Weapon or Braveheart in the photos but let me assure you, they are definitely there, truly :) The other reason that the photos are so bad is because of the mothers. Up until Tia Lusso's babies were born, Amarula was more than happy for me to handle her children and to weigh them etc. whereas Tia Lusso goes absolutely nutty. She thinks I am taking her children away from her and it's impossible to explain to her that all I want to do is make sure they are gaining weight. But unfortunately, Amarula is now following in her footsteps. This morning, I went into the kitten room as soon as I woke up at around 0700 just to check that the babies were all still alive and okay which they were. I then came downstairs and started deboning the chicken, put the washing on, checked the emails, and fed the Pints and the Bush Rangers and then I went back upstairs with a plate of freshly cooked chicken which had been simmering away for half the night. I figured that if I went up there with food in my hand then both mum's would be more interested in the food and would forget about the children for 10 minutes or so which would have given me enough time to change the bedding and weigh them all. Both mum's rushed over to the chicken because they do love it and it is so very good for them, so I changed the bedding which only takes me about 10 - 15 seconds as I'm quite adept at that now. But as I started taking out the babies to weigh them one by one, Tia Lusso flew into the box like a lioness while Amarula jumped up onto the little table to try to take the baby out of the scales. Both mum's were quite distressed but I am hoping that as time goes by, they will become more comfortable with me handling them. I think though that I might put them in the bedroom during the weighing sessions because what concerns me is that as I'm trying to weigh them, Tia Lusso is taking them out of the box and carting them all around the room, in a rather rough manner I must admit, as she is looking for somewhere else to put them so she can hide them from me. Then of course, once that's all over, both mums just about sit on the children in the box to stop me taking any more, even though I've finished now, and all I want to do is take some photos but it's rather difficult with the mum's in the way.

Well, to the best of our ability, we have now sexed the babies, although as I have already warned our new owners, there's always going to be a very strong possibility that we are wrong, so do not take these sexes as gospel please. As the babies mature and grow, then by the time they are about 3 weeks old (hopefully), we will be able to confirm what they are for definite. Anyway, we now have:

Patriot	Havana	Male
Braveheart	Oriental Black	Female
Mad Max	Siamese	Male
Lethal Weapon	Oriental Black	Male

Now Kim and I both thought, only by instinct that Patriot would be female, so it appears that we are both wrong which doesn't often happen. Normally I would be wrong, but never Kim :) This news will be disappointing for Lynda and Peter I am sure as they, like myself, were hoping Patriot was female. But at least Braveheart is a girl. But remember, in 3 weeks' time, they could totally change sex altogether so there is always hope. All four of the Mel's have made wonderful weight gains during the last 24 hours. Every single one of them is doing really well which is just such a relief. Amarula is also looking quite good and the one thing I will be monitoring now is her own weight because I do not want her to get as thin as her mother does when she has babies so to try and ward this off at the pass, both mum's are being plied with chicken, home cooked mince dishes, scrambled eggs, and they do have two bowls of kitten biscuits left down all the time as well.

Amarula and Tia Lusso's diaries both start off the same way as yesterday afternoon, Lusso and her 3 children were moved into the kitten room. When I moved Lusso and her babies in, Lusso was not a happy girl and she had a great deal of interest in Amarula's box and the babies that were in there. I must admit that I was really concerned that she was going to steal them and claim them as her own. Amarula was really happy to greet Lusso which is good because if just one mum is in the kitten room on their own with babies it gets very lonely for the first 3 weeks. After the greeting and sniffing however, Lusso went a bit nutty, she went back to her box, stuck her head in, and grabbed one of her babies and carried him/her to Amarula's box where she almost literally threw the baby in there. A mere three seconds later, she'd grabbed the same baby, took him back to her box and threw him/her in there. I must admit that I was concerned about the way she was carrying this baby. I had 2 choices, either move her and the kids back into our room, or leave the room altogether and hope that if I'm not in there, she will settled back down in her box with the babies. I am very relieved that prior to moving the babies in there, I had remembered to make them with permanent marker because I was worried that if both mum's decided to share a box, which is normally what happens, then Amarula's baby would get mixed up with Tia Lusso's and I wouldn't be able to tell them apart. Anyway, I made the decision to leave the room and when I went back in 20 minutes later, expecting to see babies all over the room, I was really pleased to see that Lusso was in her box, and her 3 children were trying to feed, so I left rather quickly and didn't go back in for another hour or so. Late afternoon came round and I went back in to check on everyone only to discover that Tia Lusso was out of the box having a snack, her babies woke up and cried and Amarula went rushing out of her box to the other side of the room and went into Tia Lusso's box to feed and comfort her children. Tia Lusso then went into her box, grabbed a baby and took him/her out and put the baby in Amarula's box again. I then put the baby back and Tia Lusso climbed into her box and settled down beside Amarula. This now meant that Amarula's children were now orphans as they had no mother in there box. At this point in time, I totally gave up and just picked up all 4 of Amarula's babies and put them in the same box as Lusso's babies and wouldn't you know it, within seconds of doing that, both mums and all babies were perfectly content with the world...................and I needed a strong drink!

Well I'm pleased to say that all four of Amarula's babies made excellent weight gains in the last 24 hours. I had been concerned yesterday afternoon about our Havana baby and one of the Blacks, as they both lost in the first 24 hours but they have now both gained quite a lot so at this point in time, thanks to all the prayers that have been said, our babies are thriving. Amarula is just the perfect mum, exactly like her own mum is which reminds me, it didn't actually occur to me until yesterday that our darling Amaretto is now a Grandma, and the Bush Rangers and now Uncles to Amaretto's babies. It's always lovely having 3 generations in the home at the same time. Amaretto only leaves her box to eat/drink and use the litter tray but apart from that, she will not leave her babies' side for a moment longer than is absolutely necessary. She is such a devoted mum. Last night at the dinner table we discussed what we were going to call the the babies and we have come up with the following:

Patriot	Havana
Braveheart	Oriental Black
Mad Max	Siamese
Lethal Weapon	Oriental Black

Our babies are going to be collectlively known as "The Mel's". Already, the Mel's have 2 very strong personalities in there because as I was watching the babies' feed, Lethal Weapon who is our biggest Oriental Black, and Mad Max had the most horrendous nipple battles and I was amazed at the strength of these tiny beings. They both wanted the same nipple and Lethal Weapon kept putting up his/her front left paw and quite literally shoving Mad Max off the nipple. This then totally upset Mad Max who went in underneath Lethal Weapon and shoved him/her off the same nipple. In the end, I actually moved Mad Max and put him/her onto one of Tia Lusso's nipples.

Well Amarula's 4 babies are now 1 day old and are not doing too badly although I'm not happy about weights as 2 babies remained the same weight in the last 24 hours and the other 2 lost a little bit. So chances are that tonight I will be topping them up and possibly giving them Nutri Drops as well. They all seem to be fairly lively though and are all feeding from their mum so I'm hoping that by tomorrow morning we would have had some gains. Amarula is looking better now and she is being a wonderful mum. She wouldn't get out of the box at all last night to leave them so I had to keep feeding her in the box. She really loves her children so very much and to see her in the box feeding them, with her front legs cuddling them really makes me smile. This isn't really a long entry today as Tia Lusso has now given birth so I now had to go and write the first entry for her kitten diary, inbetween checking on babies, feeding downstairs babies and trying to get the washing under control. Thank you to all those very kind people who have emailed me about Amarula and her babies and thank you for those people who are praying for them all at the moment. I am very grateful and really appreciate your prayers.

I have to be honest and say that for the first time ever, I have absolutely no motivation at all to get this diary entry online. Normally, as most of you know, as soon as labour is over, the diary goes online almost straight away. I am just so very shattered, as is our darling Amarula as it's been the "labour from hell" and there were times when we were considering taking her to the emergency vets for a C-Section. This has actually been the worst delivery of my life, although Kim assured me on the phone this morning that it really was quite normal, just very different to the sort of births we have ever had. So I guess I should start at the beginning which was Friday lunchtime (ish). Amarula was acting oddly with the Pints & the Bush Rangers. Up until this point, she wanted nothing to do with them and if they approached her, she would growl and send them on their way. On Friday, I was stunned to find her curled up on the chair with them, cuddling them and letting them feed from her. Then when the babies started running around and playing, Amarula went after them, patting them on the heads, calling to them, grabbing them by the scruff of their necks and trying to herd them back into the room. This made me think that we might have been fairly close to labour so I put Amarula into our bedroom straight away where her kittening box was. Despite checking on her all afternoon, and spending hours just sitting with her, nothing was happening at all. We had dinner, went back upstairs after all the usual cat chores had been done to discover that she still had not gone into labour but she would not come out of her kitten box either and normally she comes out of there once we are in the bedroom so she can share the bed with us. We started watching a DVD and at 2132 I thought I heard an odd noise so I turned the lamp on, looked into the box to find Amarula had indeed started labour but I had not ever seen this before. The sac, looking like a huge bubble had appeared, however there was no kitten in it, just an empty sac with fluids. As we'd never experienced this before, it gave us cause for concern, but more alarming was the fact that Amarula was having contractions and pushing over and over but absolutely nothing at all was happening. This went on for a couple of hours and by 2330 we were incredibly worried. In herself she wasn't too bad, she was moving about okay, not in any obvious distress or pain, however her coat was separated and she looked absolutely exhausted. This was not good because so far she had been exerting all this effort for over 2 hours yet nothing at all was happening. We then had the discussion about whether to take her to the emergency vets or not, where no doubt, they would probably perform a C-Section which again, is something that we have not ever experienced. We weighed up the pros and cons, of which there were quite a few, I re-read certain aspects on breeding in some cat books that I have in the bedroom, and we did make the decision not to take her just then and to hold out a bit longer as obviously it is far better for a queen to give birth naturally if it is within their capabilities. By 1230 though, despite more contractions and yet more pushing there was no evidence of anything and by now, the sac had burst, leaking fluid everywhere. At this point, I really was at a bit of a loss, so I grabbed a small vial that I keep by the bed and in this vial is a small cotton wool which is (and this is a hard one to explain actually), it contains a Holy Oil which was collected from a weeping statue of Our Lady, back in Australia and I've had this for years however I had never used it before. I guess it comes down to faith really and so I stroked Amarula from head to tail with this small piece of cotton wool, I replaced it back in the vial and then said a prayer or two. I knew at the time that this would make a big difference to the way this labour was going and thankfully, God listened to my prayers and then at 0150 a beautiful, rather long, Havana baby was born. There was however, no placenta at all. Amarula was so absolutely exhausted that she did not remove the remaining part of the sac that covered the babies' face, nor did she even sniff him or her. So I quickly removed the sac, broke the cord, put my fingers into the baby's mouth and cleared the mucous as best I could. A brief, vigorous rub and baby was doing just fine. I popped him/her on the scales and then gave the baby back to Amarula because it is important to get mother and baby to bond as soon as possible, and also to get baby latched on and suckling. We then had yet another long wait as the 2nd sac did not appear until 0324, but this time, fully in tact and with another Oriental baby contained inside. It wasn't until 0430 though before Amarula had the strength to push this baby out. The 2nd baby was even longer than the Havana and yet again, Amarula was just shattered and whilst she wanted to get to know her baby, she just didn't not have the strength. Again I did the sac and the cord, and again there was no placenta at all. So now that was 2 placentas which still had not been delivered. There was a problem with our Black baby though as he/she was not breathing properly and was making choking noises. So I put my fingers into his/her mouth, removed all the mucous and fluids, and started rubbing like mad. This made a bit of a difference but nowhere near enough so I had to revert to the "swinging" method which I don't really like, but sometimes this is a necessity. Fortunately, after a few swings, and yet another clearing of the mouth, our Black baby was raring to go so he/she was put back in the box with Amarula. Thankfully, the 3rd baby was not far behind the Black, and even though Amarula was still so tired, she managed to find some reserve energy and push until the baby was born. She also paid a little more attention to this one in the respect that she did sniff him/her but that was as far as it went. Again I did sacs and cords but I was relieved that the placenta had come out straight after the Siamese baby. This one worried me because he/she seemed much weaker than the others, and didn't come out with the same fighting spirit, but was breathing normally without any problems. So all I had to do with this one was rub vigorously to encourage baby to be strong. At the time I felt this baby was smaller than our Havana but it turns out she/he was quite a few grams heavier which I was pleased about because the baby still wasn't as lively as I like to see them. However after putting the baby back in the box, he/she was more than willing to go searching for mum and for a milk bar. Not that Amarula was particularly keen on having any of the babies suckle at this point in time as she was not finished delivering yet. About 1/2 after the 3rd baby was born, Amarula delivered one of the two missing placentas. This was a big relief and meant that only one more was unaccounted for, however, Amarula really was just so tired. Throughout all of this, she did not eat or drink anything at all. At 0535 I syringed some water into her to make sure she didn't become dehydrated and I also gave her a couple of drops of Rescue Remedy. Amarula then started pushing again at 0605, and again there was a sac but was no evidence of any baby delivered at all. I had been hoping this one might have been a bit easier as the Siamese baby had been a bit easier for her. Eventually an Oriental baby appeared, but it was a further 2 hours before she was able to push the baby out fully and she chose to do this on the floor at the other end of the bed. I had followed her around there and just sat down patiently waiting and eventually, the baby slid out and fortunately I caught the baby before he/she hit the ground. Then naturally, Amarula wanted to walk back around the room, still with a hanging baby attached by the cord. So as Amarula was moving, I had to try and keep her still long enough for me to break the cord which fortunately I was able to do, but this meant that again, the placenta was not delivered. While I was drying our Black baby (2 blacks so far), Amarula went and sat in front of the water bowl and delivered the placenta thank goodness. After that, I really was not sure that there was still anything inside her. By now it was already 0900 and my mate Kim phoned me and Kim was kind enough to stay on the phone with me throughout most of the next delivery. We discussed what had gone on, the babies' weights, and so much more and Kim was as reassuring as ever. During our phone call at 0934, we then had what I had been dreading, a tail and one back leg had emerged, but nothing else. I really did not know if Amarula has the strength left to push this baby out and it was a further hour and 10 minutes before she was able to deliver the baby and a few minutes beforehand, I hung up the phone to Kim as I had a feeling this would be a "2 hand job". So basically, I had to tug gently while Amarula was having contractions because she was having difficulty getting the head out. When the baby was finally born, I was devastated to see the most perfectly formed, Havana baby who was stillborn. I tried desperately to bring some life to him/her but when I tried to open the mouth to clear any mucous from inside, the bottom jaw remained in the position I had moved it it to when I put my finger in and was quite rigid. The baby was not breathing at all and there was no heart beat. I did call Graham to come up to double check what I knew to be the situation which he very sadly confirmed, after trying himself to revive the baby. I found this so incredibly sad, but I can take comfort in Kim's words when I phoned her back to tell her what had happened and she reminded me that far better for it to be this way for baby who had only ever known the warmth and purrs of his/her mother, than to have spent a few days on earth, and then gone downhill, possibly in a painful manner which would have just broken my heart to say nothing of what he/she might have gone through. So yes, Kim was right, but she knew as well as I did, that it doesn't really make it hurt any less, it just makes you realise the sense or reasoning behind it I guess. Anyway, that was it, there were definitely no more babies at all and 3/4 of an hour later, Amarula delivered the missing placenta. The rest of my day really has just been such a blur as I'm so very tired, and there was so much to be done. Kittening bedding needed to be washed, and washed, and washed. This normally is fine, however our dryer packed it in 3 days ago which means I am desperately trying to get bedding dry on the line outside, as well as in the home by the radiators. There was also the floor in the kitten room to be swept and bleached because I knew Amarula had to go in there this afternoon where it is much quieter, she is only "next door" to us, and she would be on her own with her babies to bond with them, without any interference from me. Although, I have been going in there every half hour to make sure that she and her 4 beautiful babies are doing fine. I will say rather ironically, that a few days prior to Amarula giving birth, I told Graham that she definitely had 5 babies, (which she did) and I told Kim via email that the first baby born would be either a Black or Havana (which it was). Rather weird really. The floor in our bedroom had to be thoroughly cleaned as well because Tia Lusso's due date is actually today, although I don't believe she will go into labour until Sunday night at the earliest, but we have to be prepared for any eventuality. I am just praying that her labour will be a lot easier for her than poor Amarula's was. Well, I guess this concludes the "birth" entry for this kitten diary. It's just been so worrying, so difficult, and so tiring for Amarula and now I shall just be hoping and praying that all 4 babies will latch on and will suckle and that they will gain weight each day. Although I have prepared myself for the fact that due to how difficult this was for Amarula that I may be hand feeding 2 hourly for a while but hopefully, I am just being pessimistic. I would appreciate any prayers for our 4 babies that they will thrive and go from strength to strength, and also that our Amarula will be fine and will be the doting mother that I know she is capable of being. Both Graham and Kim told me to make sure I get some sleep, but to be honest, I just have way too much to do and sleep does not come into the equation at the moment. Graham told me to go and have a hot bath and relax, but again, I just couldn't do it. I did however, have a lovely hot shower and I must have stood under it for an hour and I realised that I was really tired because either I was swaying, or the washing hamper had started moving. And just to amuse some of you, at approximately 0438 in between births, I went to go back downstairs to the kitchen, only to stand barefoot, straight into a full bowl of Liquivite! I couldn't believe I had done that, particularly as I'd only placed it on the floor next to the box about 10 minutes previously. Whilst I was speaking with Kim, (yes the entry is staring to get a bit disjointed but I'm now struggling to remember everything that went on, so as I think of something, I'm just typing it) I said to her that I was considering having Amarula spayed after this litter because to me, this entire delivery had been a hellish experience and Graham and I had said to each other at about 0200 that perhaps we should spay her as this seemed to be such an intense, long labour. However, Kim said to me that this was in actual fact quite normal, yet in our previous 14 litters, we had never had a labour that has lasted this long, nor have we ever (it's now 1439 and Graham has just come out again and told me I should like down but I really want to get this entry typed while I can still think straight) had empty sacs appear. All of our previous labour's (from memory but would have to check our diaries) have all been over and done with in 3-5 hours so you can imagine what a shock this one must have been to us. We will still consider the situation with Amarula and just see what happens I guess, although I would be tempted next year, if I were to mate her again, to look at using an outside boy because Sheridans is just producing babies that are too long, and too large, or so it seems and like her mum, Amarula is a small girl, yet Amaretto always has wonderful, easy deliveries and births. Which brings me to something else. I had been expecting quite a few breech births in this litter because Amaretto is renowned for having more breech than normal births, so I was very surprised to see that only 1 out of 5 babies was breech. And please do not ask me about the sexes of these babies because I did not look after they were born, as it was the last thing on my mind, which means that by the time I do look, their little bits will be swollen up and will look very similar anyway so it will be too difficult to tell them apart, although I may give it a go. I know for some of you who want specific sexes only that this is no doubt very frustrating, but I am sure you can appreciate that right at this point in time, it is more important to me to just have 4 healthy babies, regardless of their gender. Anyway, I am going to end this entry now but before I go, I must say a big thank you to Graham for his support, love, and help (let me assure you that husbands have to put up with an awful lot of stuff when they are married to cat breeders), to our daughter who sorted out the stud houses for me this morning, and for rushing to bring me in more bedding and other stuff during the 4th birth, and to my mate Kim not only for her common sense and advice, but more importantly, just for being there. And I am so incredibly thankful to God for listening to me in the wee hours of the morning and for giving Amarula and myself the strength to get through the last 24 hours and for the precious gift of life and my 4 beautiful new babies. It's now 1507, I'm about to put this entry online, and I've been back up into the kitten room and Amarula is in the box, cuddling her babies, most of whom are feeding, or trying to feed. The one thing that is bothering me is that Amarula isn't totally relaxed as she is half sitting up, as opposed to lying down stretched out fully. I am just praying this is not indicative of anything untoward and I really would appreciate any prayers from any of you who happen to be reading this.