It has been a manic day and we still have an awful lot to get through so there are not any photos for today's entry. We have so far spent most of the day sorting out the floor downstairs, (don't ask!) and that is just the start of things that need to be done today. We have to do some packing and we are having kitten family visitors at the weekend and right now I'm wondering just where I can find some more hours in the day for the next few days! I've also still got a honeymoon happening with Sheridans and one of our ladies, and I should know within a couple of days whether or not we will be expecting April babies so as you can see, everything seems to be happening all at once again. When I took breakfast up to the babies this morning, Kingston Town was the first baby to fly/fall straight out of bed and coming running over to the plate I am taking as a very good sign. Having said that, I am still continuing with the Nutri Drops and B12. What I'm thinking of doing between now and when I bring the babies downstairs, is to open up the door to their room and let them explore the hallway, bathroom, and go up and down the stairs if they wish to. It won't do them any harm at all and Lucy will also probably enjoy the freedom.

Today's entry is not the longest as I have to go out shortly and it seemed to take me forever to sort out the photos today as I kept making loads of mistakes. KT is holding her own and while she hasn't lost any weight, she hasn't actually gained any and has remained stable. She still plays but I don't think her appetite is as good at the moment as it could be so I am going to continue with the Vitamin B12 and the Nutri Drops. I do expect her to pick up though and while I am constantly monitoring her, I'm not overly worried at this point in time. I am waiting though until I feel she is 100% fit before bringing the babies downstairs because babies at this age are so incredibly vulnerable to everything as their immune system that they got from mum's colostrum in the first 3 days is starting to wear off now so they are very, very, susceptible and will remain so until they have their first set of vaccinations. Now is that the longest sentence in diary history or what! The rest of our Racers are all doing fine though, and Shergar has now overtaken Phar Lap again in the weight department. They seem to have an ongoing competition to see who can weigh the most each day.

Last night, KT had me worried, so much so, that I made the decision to give her a helping hand. She had lost a little weight, so I gave her some Vitamin B12, as well as some Nutri Drops in the hopes that would pick her back up. I still think she is just having an "off" day or so and I watched her vomit up a tiny bit of milk, she hasn't vomited any solid foods, just Lucy's milk. We have had this happen before, usually when the mum's are calling or about to come back into call as it can turn the milk sour. But if that is the case, I can expect to see more of the same with some of our other Racers, all of whom are doing very well. This morning, when I took breakfast in for the babies, for the first time, every single Racer gathered around the plate and started eating, including Kingston Town so as you can imagine, I was quite relieved. I'll continue to monitor KT and the rest of the babies and will see what today brings. I will also give her more Nutri Drops tonight because even if she is doing fine, I would rather be safe than sorry. I didn't get time to get an entry online at all today as it's been a hectic day and I didn't even get time to take any photos.

Today I am monitoring Kingston Town (or KT as I call her). She is fine, but I think she is having an "off" day. Nothing I can actually put my finger on but something isn't altogether right. Her coat is also slightly separated, but apart from that she is playing/eating as per normal. I don't think this is anything serious but you know how sometimes you just know something isn't right? I'll see how she goes during the next 24 hours. I do also have one other problem and that is Shergar and Sea Biscuit. The older they get, the more identical they are looking and sometimes it is extremely difficult to tell them apart. If I lift their tails and look at their bums, the difference is quite obvious, but once I've taken photos of the babies it can be very hard to tell which is which. The Racers did not want to get out of bed at all for breakfast this morning. I took breakfast (which was Hi Life and Nature's Menu kitten pouches) into the room, the babies woke up when I turned the light on and opened up the curtains, they looked up at me as I spoke with them, and then less than a minute later, all 6 Racers put their heads back down and started to drift off to sleep again. I honestly can't blame them as it's quite cold today and if I were a kitten, I too would not be getting out of bed, not even for food. One thing I want to share with you today is something about weights. Yesterday I transferred the weights on my paper columns, onto the computer as I always do, and I noticed that between weeks 3-4 the weekly weight gain was not a large amount at all, whereas Weeks 4-5, the weekly gain was much, much, bigger. This is something that I often find and I do blame this on weaning and activity levels. Between 3-4 weeks of age, the babies are starting to climb on everything and run around and explore, however, they aren't eating solids at that point and are still relying on mum's milk, so as a result, the weekly weight gain is substantially lower. Between 4-5 weeks of age, the babies are even more active, however, they are eating much more of the solid foods, as well as mum's milk, so they have much more in their bodies to sustain their energy levels. Anyway, here is an indication of the weekly gains to show you what I mean:

Name	Week 3-4 gain	Week 4-5 gain	Today's weight
Red Rum	45g	116g	520g
Kingston Town	49g	86g	452g
Shergar	58g	83g	551g
Sea Biscuit	49g	98g	514g
Desert Orchid	57g	105g	466g
Phar Lap	59g	127g	561g

As you can see, there is quite a difference. Just for curiosity's sake, I also had a quick look at some previous litter weights and whilst there were some who were the opposite, on the whole, the majority of the ones I looked at all followed the same pattern which I find interesting. I'm wondering if when the babies reach 3 weeks of age, I should maybe look at putting "mum" on Hills a/d for that week to see if it would make a difference to the week 3-4 weights. Overall though, I am still delighted with our Racers' progress and as each day passes, they become bolder, and more playful. They are just absolute little sweethearts.

Our babies have brand new bunk beds, courtesy of our very good, and extremely patient, mate, Tony :) The reason poor Tony is so patient is because I have a "magic tape measure" that doesn't seem to measure anything correctly! I was having a big problem with the bed that was on the floor in the respect that Tia Lusso was wee'ing on it! Not the Racers, but Lucy. She has always had a couple of bad habits and that is one of them. So I installed the bunk beds that Tone very kindly brought over to us on Saturday, and I had to put 2 pillows on either side so that the babies can climb into them (any chance of a small ramp please Tone leading up to the bottom bunk?), and the babies love it and Lucy doesn't wee in it. As you can see, there is also a top bunk as well, however, it will be a long time before the babies will be able to use that, but at least when they are ready, the bunk will be waiting. The Racers were supposed to come downstairs today but there was no way Graham or I could have supervised them as we have spent the majority of the day, up until 1300, out in the back yard as we had some jobs to do out there that we have been putting off for a month or so now and we were at the point where the jobs had to be done and were a priority. As well as this, I'm currently doing a "honeymoon" with one of our other girls as well so I have had to monitor that all day long too. The afternoon, once this entry is uploaded, will be spent going to the tip and to Tesco, after which, it will be time for the ironing :) Thank goodness our Racers are still quite young and holding them back another day or two from coming downstairs is not going to do them any harm whatsoever.

Our Racers are 5 weeks of age now and the past few weeks' have just flown by. It seems as if our Racers have gone from helpless, fragile little babies, into proper kittens overnight. These babies are truly a pleasure to raise, they are such beautiful, happy, playful children with no fear of anything at all. This, however, may well change tomorrow when they make their first foray into the downstairs part of the home and start to get used to noises such as the doorbell, the television, the dogs barking, the phone ringing constantly, to say nothing of the noise of the rest of our feline family. It is going to be a very interesting learning curve for the babies and I am hoping that after spending a week or two in Graham's room, they would have fully acclimatized themselves to what goes on in the household and they can then be moved into my room where I spend most of the day. I have a lovely spot cleared out under my work surface where I can put a bed for them so hopefully, all will be okay. All 6 of our Racers drink from the water bowl now with no problems at all, although I've not seen any of them eating the dry biscuits yet, but it is still very early days. Desert Orchid seems by far, to be the most advanced and the bravest baby and if she wants to go somewhere or do something, then she does it, without thinking and without looking back. She made me smile last night because I was in the kitten room changing the large hooded tray, and she walked over to the small tray, climbed in there, screwed up her face with all the concentration she could muster, she then proceeded to do a wee in the litter tray, and spent the next 5 minutes making sure her little "mess" was well and truly covered. I'm incredibly proud of her :) This then encouraged Sea Biscuit to follow suit, and she also then popped into the small tray, she smelt the mess that Desert Orchid had done, and decided that yes, this was definitely the right place to go to the toilet. As I am about to put this entry online, it's already after 1600 so as a result I have quite simply named all the photos "The Racers" because I don't have the time to study each photo and decipher which baby is which. It's much easier to tell them apart in the living fur than it is via photographs.