I really do not feel like doing an entry for this diary, nor for any of the others because of how I'm feeling right now. I still can't believe that we lost our 2nd baby and at the moment everything seems as if it's just a nightmare but the fact is that it's real life and I have to deal with it. At the moment, the 3 remaining babies all appear okay and Sambuca is definitely feeding them. When their bedding is changed, or when I disturb them, they all cry and wriggle about doing the normal things that babies would do at this age. Our Siamese babies' eyes are fully open and our 2 Black babies eyes are starting to open, and cords have now come off. Everything is really up in the air at the moment with regards to the babies and I truly do not know what is going to happen. All we can do is monitor them very closely, pray very darn hard, and see what happens.

Today I am exhausted after a night of 2 hourly feeding of Sambuca's next smallest Black who is not gaining properly at all. Then when I did the last early morning feed at about 3am, gave the babies Nutri Drops, got up again at 7:30am and went straight into the kitten room only to find 2 of the Blacks missing. I searched high and low, feeling rather panic stricken and found the missing babies 5 minutes later...........in the hooded litter tray! To say I was unimpressed is an understatement. I have no idea why she put 2 of them in there but I put them straight back in the box. I then removed the top off the hooded tray so that it is now open on the off chance that she won't do it again. Graham and I both said last night that perhaps Sami will have just one more litter after this one, much later next year and we may then spay her. We just don't feel she is quite cut out for motherhood, but having said that, we also have no idea what effects the tablets she was on at the start of the pregnancy may have had on these babies, if any. At the moment it's all very tiring and I'm still quite upset about the loss of our Tiny Black. I will try and get some photos a bit later to add to the entries.

Despite the supplementing and the topping up, tiny Black lost the fight for life at approximately 11:30 last night which was so incredibly heartbreaking. My only small consolation is that he or she did not appear to be in any pain at all and went very peacefully. Sambuca was just as upset as I was and she was very distressed when I took our tiny baby out of the kitten box. I'll be burying him/her this morning. It's time like this that I loathe Mother Nature and think she is so incredibly cruel. I will never understand how such a beautiful, innocent being can be born into the world, only to be taken so cruelly just a few short days later.

Sami wasn't actually due until September 9 so this afternoon was a bit of a shock. Sambuca had been restless and making a lot of mewing sounds but she was still walking around and all seemed fine. As usual, she was curled up on the cat bed on Graham's desk, along with some of the other cats. Her water suddenly broke (all over the bed and Graham's desk), she went underneath the dining room table, Graham called out to me (I was in the back room with the downstairs babies) and he said he thinks she's in labour. To say I was speechless was an understatement. I opened the glass doors, flew out and not only was Sambuca in labour under the table, a head had started to appear! I flew upstairs to the bedroom grabbed her kittening box, brought it back down, picked her up and put her in it, then Graham and I carried the box upstairs to our bedroom. I then sat with her while Graham ran back downstairs to get me the bits that I normally use during the birth. Then when he came up, he sat with her while I ran into the kitten room for the other essential bits and pieces. I came back into the bedroom, Graham went back downstairs and at 1528 the first baby was born, an Oriental Black. The 2nd baby seemed to take absolutely ages and I was getting worried at the time, because some of the sac and baby was out but she appeared to be struggling to deliver the full baby. However, when the baby was born, the reason was very apparent as that baby was a breech birth, hence the difficulty. After this, Sambuca was tired (no surprise and she had a full plate of Sheba and settled down with her little ones. About an hour later, she was pushing again and the 3rd baby was born, and then within another half an hour the 4th baby who was also a breech birth just slipped out of her with incredible ease. Our fifth baby also seem to be born very easily, however, sadly, the baby was a stillborn. Over an hour later the 6th appeared and that seemed to be the end of it. During the birth itself, the bedding was changed 3 times, and then again when everything was all over. Sambuca was fabulous, she did all the sacs herself, she groomed all her babies and cuddled up with them which was really lovely to see. She didn't do cords but the problem is that for most the babies, once they were delivered and she had cleaned them up, she would then lie down with them and forget to deliver the placenta. With most of the babies, when it was obvious that she wasn't ready to deliver the placenta, I then tore the cords myself. Fortunately, she did deliver the placentas afterwards, sometimes, at the same time she was delivering other babies, sometimes about 20 minutes later. Sami and her newborns spent the night with us in the bedroom so I could keep a very close eye on her to make sure she was okay. This morning, they'll be moving into the kitten room (as soon as I get this birth entry online).

Baby	Weight	Birth Time
Oriental Black	89 grams	1528
Oriental Black (breech)	94 grams	1602
Siamese	112 grams	1701
Oriental Black (breech)	75 grams	1727
Siamese (stillborn)	-	1804
Oriental Black	95 grams	1932