I do just feel like a total zombie at the moment (yes I know some of you are thinking "nothing new there"), but honestly, what a night! If you read our other kitten diaries, you will be aware that on Saturday, due to the weather situation, our vets was flooded out. This of course concerned us with respect to the fact that if Toussaint needed another c-section, we didn't know what on earth we would do so we were desperately hoping and praying that our vets would be able to re-open the surgery. By Sunday afternoon, Toussaint still hadn't given birth, and we had a phone call from our vets, canceling the appointment that we had previously booked for this morning, and when Graham spoke with them, they didn't know when they would be open again for business. As you can imagine, we were starting to panic a little, and we didn't even know if any of the other vets in our area would be open either because Abingdon was hit extremely hard by the floods. We were actually extremely lucky to have not had any problems here at all. Sunday night, at around 11:30pm, Toussaint was starting to become extremely restless and both Graham and I said "She's gonna go tonight". So I did my level best to stay awake with her and it wasn't too much of a hardship because Toussaint wanted to be as close to me as humanly possible, so as I lay in bed, she lay snuggled up in my arms. At 3am, she was in the same position, but was purring away like mad in a rhythmic fashion which is very different from a normal cats' purr (always a sign that labour is imminent) so I got up and went to the bathroom, when I came back in, Toussaint was off the bed and was in the "posh box". I sat on the floor with her until about 4am, by which time, she had gone back to sleep, and I was just totally and utterly exhausted. At about 4:30am, I got back into bed, and the minute I did, Toussaint was out of the box and into my wardrobe, and she wasn't coming out! The problem with this is that my boots/shoes reside at the bottom of my wardrobe, but there was also a huge bag in there full of net curtains that we had dragged out of the loft some months back and just never got round to putting it anywhere, so it ended up in my wardrobe. I got out of bed and started pulling everything out of the wardrobe and quite literally started piling it all up on top of the kitten box, on top of the stool, anywhere I could find a space. I then went into the main kitten room, scaring the heck out of the babies who aren't used to mum being in there at that time of morning. I grabbed loads more bedding from the ottoman, put it on the floor in my wardrobe, and then Toussaint was happy. I closed the door partially over, but I could still see, and she then started to drift off again. I got back into bed, then at 6am, I felt a pain in my left arm, and here was Toussaint, biting my arm, quite firmly, in fact, she locked her jaws together and would not let go. She was doing her level best to drag me out of bed. The reason for this is that Toussaint wanted me to get out of the bed and sit in front of the wardrobe with her. I dutifully got out of bed, sat in front of the wardrobe, squashed between a litter tray and a chest of drawers! Within 10 minutes Toussaint had fallen asleep! I sighed, got back into bed, lay there, and I guess it was no surprise that I fell asleep, woke up at 7am to discover Toussaint had successfully given birth to 2 beautiful, beautiful, but small, babies. In my zombie like state, I checked both were okay, did the cords, (she had removed the sacs and cleaned the babies, but left the cords attached to the placentas), I put both babies on the scales and made a note of their weights, gave them back to Toussaint who counted them and made sure I had returned both her new children. Both babies were still soaking wet so couldn't have been in the world for very long at all. Graham asked me what we had and I told him we had to Oriental Blacks. To be honest, we were just so relieved that Toussaint had delivered them naturally and there was no need for another c-section, that we didn't care what colour they were. We are so proud of our girl, she did a superb job, and she is an amazing mummy. I removed the messy bedding, settled Toussaint back down (still in a zombie like state), we went downstairs, made coffee, I fed the older babies, syringe fed the young babies, went straight back upstairs to check on Toussaint and to see whether or not she had delivered any more. I also took her up a plate of food which she ate quite happily, and while she was eating, I closely examined both new children. So, just to give you an indication of just how asleep I was when I weighed them, as it turns out, neither baby is a black! We are delighted to announce that we have one Tortie, and one Tabby. I must need glasses................either that or more sleep! Obviously the Tortie is a girl, and what beautiful rich mingling she is showing already for a newborn, I am pleased with her. I also sexed our Tabby baby and he is a boy as far as I'm concerned. Now, I managed to get it right with our last litter, The Detectives, so let's see whether or not I have got it right this time around as well. As for names, well, we did have a theme already chosen for this litter, however, as our 2 children have been born in the middle of the most horrific floods that this area has ever seen, they are both named after the 2 major rivers that have caused the damage to our area, we would would like to officially introduce you to................................The Water Babies

The Ock river is the one that flows through Abingdon and it is this river whose banks will burst later on this evening. We will not be moving Toussaint and the Water Babies into the 2nd kitten room for the time being, mainly because we want to closely monitor her, but also because as you tell by the weights above, Thames is extremely small. We are usually spoilt with birth weights of at least 100 grams on average, so to have a baby who is 75 grams is a slight concern. Being that there are only the 2 babies, there should hopefully be no need for topping up because Toussaint is a wonderfully large girl, in excellent condition, and once the milk is flowing, both babies should be making substantial gains after the first 48 hours or so. Time will tell. Right now, I have washing to do, babies to feed, a web site to update, and 2 brand new, absolutely beautiful, children to admire. We also managed to make a very rushed trip into Didcot to the supermarket to stock up as the severe flooding is expected to hit us between 8pm and 2am and at the moment we can not do our daily trips to our local Tesco (yes I AM having withdrawal symptoms!). Our thoughts and prayers do go out to all the flood victims who have been so badly affected, and to those for whom the worst is still not yet over. We do feel incredibly lucky, and blessed, to have got through this birth so very easily and I am grateful to those who were praying for a natural birth for Toussaint, and to God for listening to their prayers and mine. Photos are not particularly great, but hey..............you try taking decent photos when you're half in a wardrobe and the rest of you is squashed between a litter tray and furniture :)