Day 32

Ico spent the day supervising my yard work skills or lack of in this case. She is still bouncy and hyper but maybe a notch or two below her usual self. She loves to stand up on her hind legs to give me a hug and I am starting to notice a little hesitation. If looks could be translated she seems to be saying my belly is starting to get in the way. She is taking lots of naps and sticking to the shade.

Day 31

Ico spent the majority of the day with Vikki and the poodle clan. She came home, had dinner and crashed. She is also refusing to sit for a picture at the moment, you know those divas! So, here is Ico and Murphy probably about two plus years ago in our back yard. I will work on trying to get the diva ready for her closeup tomorrow.

Day 30 (Monday)

Ico, Pico and I just came back from a jog around the neighborhood. Ico was the one setting the pace the entire run while Pico and I were slacking behind. At the end Ico was not even breathing hard while Pico was panting and I just wanted a beer. Jogging is not one of my favorite activities but if I can get all three of us in tip top shape (Ok, just me and Pico need to get in shape) I will let Ico set the pace and when she stops taking interest or is not having fun we will stop. That is one of many great thing about Ico. She will bend over backwards to please but she is also very expressive and if something is up or not right she is able to let you know.

Ico is four as you know and Pico is two. Here are Ico and Pico on Vikki's back deck shortly after Pico's arrival to Seattle.

Day 29 (Sunday)

Happy July 4th! The girls are dealing with the neighborhood fireworks. Kinsey is napping through it all, Ico is a little concerned but no big deal however, Pico is not a happy camper. Fortunately it is raining which, I think is helping to cut down on the firework festivities. Here is a picture of Ico at Poodle Palooza two years ago after an awesome game of ball. She is like the energizer bunny when she has her tennis ball!

Day 28 (Saturday)

At Ico's check in this past Thursday she had lost a pound which was a little frustrating since I had already started increasing her food. I am now trying to find a happy medium of getting some weight on her but I don't want to bulk her up too much because I don't want to put her on weight watchers after the pregnancy. I have a real suspicion when the puppies come they are going to be big butter balls. Here is Ico a couple of days after her second birthday.

Day 27 (Friday)

Here are Raquel and Ico at the Vet's office just after the Ultrasound... you can see that Ico is jumping for joy! Ok, she's always doing some type of jumping.....

ICO'S BUDDHA BELLY

Click on chart to see details:

I thought it would be fun to compare the illustrated 25 day old puppy with the ultrasound. I rotated the ultrasound picture to help with the visulization. Can you see it? I don't know why I think it's so cool (it IS science after all!) but the text-book size for a 26 day old puppy is 14-15 mm. One of our puppies was measured on the ultrasound as being 1.45 cm... which translates to 14.5mm. That also translates to about .57 inches.

Woooooooweeeeeeee What day is it?!?!?!?!??!

OH!~ It's ultrasound day!!! Guess what we found?! 5 poodle puppies ;) Here are the ultrasounds of the babies... making Ico a Mama (and me... alas.... a GreatGrandMa!). Dr. Wilcock (yes, that's honestly her name....) was able to confirm 5 pups with the ultrasound. There's always the possibility that we didn't discover them all, so we know that there are at least 5 babies deveopling. Dr. Wilcock also said that they all looked healthy. She looks at the thickness of the placenta, the attachment of the puppies within the placenta and the fact that we saw at least 2 heart beats. It was hard to see the beats....but what a thrill! Life! and not just any life.... POODLE life