This has been a really big week for Lizzie & for us.  She still looks and acts the same as always, but inside…

Any embryos that successfully implanted into the uterus last week have grown from 1 cm to 3 cm.  They now resemble little tadpoles, but instead of my talking about it, go watch this video:

Animals in the Womb:  Day 20 through Day 30

Last Saturday, Lizzie was at Day 25 and the embryos looked something like this:

Pretty incredible, no?

Lizzie went for her first ultrasound Thursday, June 17th – Day 30.  The vets were able to feel a couple of puppies doing palpation, but we wanted to “see” them for ourselves.  So,  Lizzie was coaxed onto her back and the vet began the ultrasound. We excepted to see something like this:

Instead we saw this:

Do you see it?  I promise there’s a puppy in there.  Look closer (if you click on the picture, it’ll pop-up bigger).

The vet was able to identify five different puppies.  Three in one horn and two in another.  However, there might be more in there.    The ultrasound confirms the pregnancy but does not provide an accurate count.  It is possible to count a puppy more than once since you’re only seeing snippets of the uterus instead of the uterus as a whole.  We’re pretty sure about the five though because we saw two right next to each other.  The vet said that she saw fluttering – indicating a heartbeat – but I didn’t see anything, but then again this was my first ultrasound.

So, did you find the puppy?  No.  Does this help?

We’ve been in touch with our reproductive vet, and she thinks that if Lizzie’s uterus is healthy enough for that many to implant that there’s a good chance that they’ll survive.  We’re completely thrilled and excited and nervous – time to get in gear and fix up the study to become a nursery.

Our next Ultrasound is scheduled for June 30th, when Lizzie will be at Day 43.   We’ll have another update before then – you don’t want to miss the excitement of Week 5.