could this be it?

Kitty has been waking me nearly every hour and going to sit in her kittening box, she has also started to paw at the bedding in there. She is very restless and cant seem to sit comfy. She hasnt touched her brekkie either and occasionally meows at me. So could this be it? If so how long will it take before kittens arrive?

Maybe, maybe not.  Even if one knows the date of first mating it's still impossible to know exactly when a cat will have her kittens, but at least one knows if they are premature or overdue.  Hope all goes well.  Does your vet have an out of hours service?  It's worth knowing what their arrangements are, as *if* there's a problem (unlikely but...) you don't want to be trying to find somewhere you've never been to before when you are panicy and it's possibly dark. 

I say possibly as where I live it's now still quite light at 11pm and 3am!

Yeah we have a really good vet nearby which doesnt cost the earth for out of hours either

As for Kitty, after all morning doing what i said in my last post she has for the last hour being laying on my bed staring at me lol.

Ok its like an hour later and were back to mewing and trying to get as close to me as she can. She hasnt touched any food at all today either, and keeps popping in to her kittening bed. I sure hope this is it, she gets this look on her face like shes worried/in pain or something its kinda heartbreaking >_<

Kittys waters just broke on my bed >_<

she is having contractions now but they arent very regular atm
 

Yay!! Keep us posted.

Kitten 1 arrived 10 mins ago, i cant really see it as she decided to have it under my bed way back by the wall >_< I did i think see her chow down on a placenta. She seems to be licking it and its mewing now and again. Ill keep you posted

second kitten born!

Ok from what i can see it looks like she has had 4 kittens now!

Eponaboo said:

Kitten 1 arrived 10 mins ago, i cant really see it as she decided to have it under my bed way back by the wall >_< I did i think see her chow down on a placenta. She seems to be licking it and its mewing now and again. Ill keep you posted

second kitten born!

Ok from what i can see it looks like she has had 4 kittens now!

Click to expand...

Wow, 4 already! Congrats! Can't wait to see pics!

All four kittens seem healthy, i think they kinda all came within like an hour. Mum is doing fine and nursing them and purring happily. They are under my bed though is this ok to leave them there? Any advice would be great!

We have two white kittens with black spots, one ginger and one complete black one.






 

Congrats!  I hope you can sneak some towels under them, they will continue to be messy. 

yeah i think i saw poop on the floor under there earlier, good job its in a place not seen and good job the carpet is old >_<

Asked on another website and they said its safe to move the kittens, so i just had to drag out the bed and carefully put the kittens in the kittening box, mum kinda growled a little then got in with them. They all seem fine though, just hope she keeps them in there and doesn't go bk under the bed where its drafty >_<

Have you got a room she can have to herself?  If you do, put a covered box in there and move them in.  Baby kittens get cold easily when mum is away if they are just on the floor.

Yeah I moved them to the kittening box last night so everythings good
 

Congrats!!!!

Oh yes, have you weighed them yet?

No i havent weighed them yet. Is it normal for newborn kittens to sneeze? I noticed lunchtime today when i went in that they sneezed a couple of times. Maybe im just being over protective lol.

You should start weighing them, normal newborn weight is 90-110g. They should gain 10+ every day... And try to weigh them at the same time every day. I just had a new litter this morning, I haven't weighed mine either, I think it's more important that they feed and have quality time before stressing out mama, but I will weigh mine this afternoon so I can keep track. I wouldn't worry too much about the sneezing, unless it's happening all of the time, excessive.

I was going o put a video id made of the white one as it was making jerking kinda movements, its kinda tough not knowing whats normal. Ive never had experience with kittens before so kinda going with info i can get here and library books ive got. We just had a power cut so my pc is being all slow and meh, but ill try get the vid up soon so u can see what its doing.

Also is it normal for some kittens to struggle to locate a nipple? One of the white once seems to try everywhere even her neck and bottom >_< but seems clueless as to where to find the right place lol! I did watch them feeding earlier to make sure it eventually found the right spot but it took like 10 minutes of scrabbling around.

How much time should mum spend away from the kittens at this point? Because when i went up to feed her the kittens were asleep in the box and she was chilling out under my bed by herself. I kind of assumed she would only leave them to eat and poop.

I dont have any scales atm but i might see if i can go out and buy some a bit later. Tbh i was a bit worried about handling them incase mum didnt like it and rejected them or something.

Anyway ill try link a vid in here in a bit

Hmmm jerking movements... Is it possibly chilly? They can get cold easily. But I'll take a look at the video and maybe that'll help me recognize it, and if I've ever experienced it with a kitten I've had. Sometimes the kits can have a hard time finding a nipple, but it usually doesn't take long for it to find an available one... Mine have also always tried the neck and mamas back business... If she will let you, have her smell your hand then rub her head while talking sweetly to her and say her name and make her eyes follow your hand so she can see you're going to touch the kitten, then try to move and help it find a nipple if it has a hard time again later. And once you're done moving it, I've always showed mama my hands to show im not leaving with it. She may want to smell your hands once again. That's the way I always approached to weigh mine, and always weigh them where mama can see what you're doing. About mama spending time alone, I would think she would spend at least the first couple of days with them in their bedding, but as long as she's close to them still and tends to their cries, I wouldn't worry. I had a mama once that after the baby was a couple of days old, she would come out and visit and would go running to her baby as soon as he cried. Just make sure the babies are warm. And for the scale, I don't know where you are located, but I am in the U.S. And you can get some for fairly good prices. Just look in the kitchen isles. Good luck!

Ok so here is the the vid...



Yeah it amazes me that the kittens get much at all at the *milk bar* the little black one ive noticed seems to be greedy and want the nipple the others have lol, it wouldnt suprise me if when i weigh it that it weighs more than the others. It deffo has no trouble getting dinner anyways, but it will scoot along under the others and pull them all off the nipples >_<. The ginger one doesnt do to bad and eventually finds the nipple but the two black ones seem to take longer, the one with more black on its head (patch we called it) is fine aslong as he/she doesnt get pulled off. But the one with a white head (pirate we called it because he has a black patch over one eye lol) well he seems totally clueless when it comes to milk, he is like all over the place. He climbs all over mum and can spend forever looking even when its almost right under his nose >_<. Even when he does find it he doesnt get long on there because one of the others will root around and push him off :/ its kinda frustrating to watch. Mums good she does try to roll over a little more when they cry so theres more nipples to find.

I havent noticed so much the jerky movements this evening and have only noticed one sneeze so kinda hope im worrying over nothing. I'll feel happier when i can weigh them, ive seen some cheap scales online but didnt get a chance to get out to buy today so im going in the morning.

Really not confident about handling them, i still worry mum wont like it but figure its better to know what im dealing with weight wise i guess. But they are so wriggly and piled up together all the time and they looks so weak and small and delicate that im worried ill hurt them trying to pick them up >_<

You won't hurt them picking them up.  Just scope the kitten up, weigh it in front of mum and pop it right back.  Seeing they are all gaining weight will help you stop worrying about the scrabbling at the milk bar.  At least you have no problem telling them all apart.

Once their eyes are open and ears have 'unfolded' they are starting to see & hear, and I started stroking them gently for a few seconds each time I weighed them.

WRT the 'cheap scales online' - digital scales that weigh in grams are the business.  They are accurate for tiny quantities which is what you need, and grams avoids dealing with decimal points.  You need to record the weights as well - I always transfer them to Excel (easy to do a formula to show weight gain), but I kept paper & pencil in the kitten room.

You can see the sort of scales I have here:

http://shunracats.wordpress.com/jasmine/