Needing a little information and guesses when my Bella will be giving birth

Well, she is hanging lower within last two days, I'm not sure when she got pregnant, or how far along she is, so I don't know when to be expecting her to go into labor, but since hanging lower, I put her into her own room, with the food, water, and litter in here. I've made a couple of beds for her, IF she chooses to use them, she's very affectionate, which is odd for her, and she's actually even purring when we pet her, another she usually does. Anyway, I read somewhere to keep a thermometer into the cat for 3 minutes, is that for ANY thermometer even the ones that go off within 10 or so seconds? I have a baby therometer and it beeps after not that long and it said 99.3. Do i have to keep it inside for the 3minutes?? Or was that good enough as long as it beeped? Also, what does 99.3 mean? Please give any information. Do you think she's still got awhile to go, or in the near future? She's had babies before, and kept two, but I was gone for one, and there for the last one last summer, she wanted me there and would start pushing, so I'd leave her alone thinking that's what she would want, but then shed sit back down til I came back... That's the only thing I remember, so I don't know what cats usually do before close birth... Please just give me advice and your opinions... And if you have kitty birth stories, feel free to share

Thermometers. 3 minutes must be for a 3-minutes termometer. Prob the old mercury termometer. It is shorter with modern termometers. The beep for example.  They close off after the beep. Dont overdo it, it is not pleasant for them, esp now. So you dont need check again for now.

Im no conneiseur of Fahrenheit, but the normal cat temp is about 102 if I remember correctly. Thus, 99 means it has dropped.  One of signs of nearing delivery, although no very exact sign.

Good you are prepared.  

You can be with her if she accepts.  Here she seems to want you to be present, so do it so if possible. 

Are you a breeder?  Are you really determined to have more litters?

If not, please plan on spaying her when the kittens are weaned.

Welcome to our Forums,

Good luck!   *vibes*

I'm amazed she lets you take her temperature and personally wouldn't bother.  I can damage the cat, more likely the cat can damage me, and unless it's accurate the information isn't worth having.

Since you don't know when she first mated it's a case of she will give birth when she does.  The kittens dropping is a sign she's closer to delivery, some cats get milk in before they deliver, some start frantically nesting, some go off their food...  But there is no rock-sure sign that all cats have.

She has a quiet place which is good, she should be allowed to eat as much good-quality cat food as she wants all the way until her kittens are weaned - at least 8 weeks after delivery.

I don't know what you have made the beds with, but they will get pretty yucky when she delivers so it needs to be easy to change and wash, and tiny claws can get caught in towelling.  Newspaper or (if you have them) puppy pads under the bedding is helpful as it's absorbant.

Make sure you have your vet's details to hand.  The vast majority of cats deliver with no problems at all, but you don't want to be trying to find them in the middle of the night when you have a cat you are panicing about.  Also check where to go - it might be a different place to normal.  I reckon having all these details is a good protection against needing them, like taking an umbrella to stop it raining.

The other thing is to weigh the kittens once a day at about the same time.  Failure to gain weight is the earliest sign you can get of something going wrong - they should gain 10-20g a day (1/3 - 2/3 oz) and you need to use scales that are accurate.  In the UK cheap electronic digital kitchen scales are great for the job.  Record the weights, of course this means you have to be able to tell the kittens apart which is often easy, even if it's that one is quite a lot heavier than the other.  If you can't, a tiny bit of nail polish on their claws works well.

If one kitten is not growing it's probably a problem with that kitten, but if none of them are then it's a problem with mum.  Don't hesitate to ring the vet for advice.

She is most definitely getting spayed after they are weaned. Still no babies...